12805 - History of English Culture

Academic Year 2018/2019

  • Docente: Silvia Albertazzi
  • Credits: 9
  • SSD: L-LIN/10
  • Language: Italian

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the students will have a wide overview of the main  historical, geographical and social aspects and contexts of British Culture from the end of world war two to the end of the second millennium. The students will also be able to contextualize and analyze various texts and documents, placing them in relationship with the most relevant and significant changes of the cultural and linguistic area of reference

Course contents

This is Tomorrow. Anglophone culture in a global perspective 1956-1975.

The aim of the course is to examine the major cultural phenomena of Great Britain and the former settler colonies (Canada, Australia) between 1956 and 1976 (The angry young men, the free cinema and the new English cinema of the 60s, the Beatles, the swinging London; Leonard Cohen’s songs; the Australian Renaissance of the ‘70s).

Readings/Bibliography

ERASMUS AND OVERSEAS STUDENTS ARE KINDLY REQUESTED TO CONTACT THE TEACHER BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF THE COURSE DURING OFFICE HOURS. PLEASE DO NOT ASK INFO ON THE SYLLABUS/EXAMS ETC. THROUGH EMAIL.

Compulsory readings for all the students:

M. Cometa, Studi Culturali, Napoli, Guida, 2011 (prefazione, seconda parte - paragrafi 1, 2,3,4 - e quarta parte).

S. Albertazzi, Leonard Cohen. Manuale per vivere nella sconfitta, Milano, Paginauno, 2018, pp. 121-167.

J. Osborne, Look Back in Anger

H. Pinter, The Birthday Party

A. Sillitoe, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner

J. Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock

A list of the songs discussed during the lessons will be deposited at the Centro Studi sulle letterature omeoglotte dei paesi extraeuropei (study room n. 34). All the lyrics are to be found online. 

All the students mus see the following films:

G. Dunning, Yellow Submarine

T. Richardson, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner

P. Weir, Picnic at Hanging Rock

For further reading:

S. Albertazzi, Belli e perdenti. Antieroi e post-eroi nella narrativa contemporanea di lingua inglese, Roma, Armando editore, 2012, pp. 19-30.

P. Colaiacomo, V. Caratozzolo, La Londra dei Beatles, Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1996

A. Marzola, Englishness. Percorsi nella cultura Britannica del Novecento, Roma, Carocci, 1999

P. Martino, Down in Albino. Studi sulla cultura pop inglese, Roma, Aracne, 2007.

R. Perdetti, I. Vivan, Dalla Lambretta allo skateboard. Teoria e storia delle sottoculture giovanili britanniche, Milano, Unicopli, 2009.

A. Polito, Cool Britannia, Roma, Donzelli, 1998.

L. Spaziante, Dai Beat alla generazione dell'Ipod. Le culture musicali giovanili, Roma, Carocci, 2010.

R. Bertinetti, Dai Beatles a Blair. La cultura inglese contemporanea, Roma, Carocci, 2001, pp. 7-60.

N. Vallorani (a cura di), Introduzione ai Cultural Studies, Carocci, Roma, 2016, capp. 1 e 2.

"Picnic ad Hanging Rock", http://www.ondacinema.it/film/recensione/picnic-ad-hanging-rock.html

ERASMUS AND OVERSEAS STUDENTS AND ALL THE STUDENTS WHO DO NOT ATTEND REGULARLY ARE KINDLY ASKED TO SEE THE TEACHER DURING OFFICE HOURS AND ARRANGE WITH HER A DIFFERENT PROGRAMME.

Teaching methods

Traditional lectures will be alternated with a seminar approach, encouraging students to participate in the discussion of books, films, songs and other documents and texts. Erasmus and Overseas students must have a good knowledge of the Italian Language in order to attend this course.

Assessment methods

The oral test consists in an oral talk which has the aim of evaluating the critical and methodological ability of the students in relating British history, critical approach to texts, authors and movements analysed during the course. The student must demonstrate an appropriate knowledge of the bibliography used during the course and added to the course program.

Those students who are able to demonstrate a wide and systematic understanding of the issues covered during the course, and are able to use these critically and who master the field-specific culture and history of the discipline will be given a mark of excellence.

Those students who demonstrate a mnemonic knowledge of the subject with a more superficial analytical ability and ability to synthesize, a correct command of the language but not always appropriate, will be given a ‘fair' mark.

A superficial knowledge and understanding of the material, a scarce analytical and expressive ability that is not always appropriate will be rewarded with a pass mark or just above a pass mark.

Students who demonstrate gaps in their knowledge of the subject matter, inappropriate language use, lack of familiarity with the literature in the programme bibliography will not be given a pass mark.

ERASMUS AND OVERSEAS STUDENTS ARE KINDLY INVITED TO CONTACT THE TEACHER BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF THE COURSE DURING OFFICE HOURS. PLEASE DO NOT ASK INFO ON THE SYLLABUS/EXAMS ETC. THROUGH EMAIL.

Teaching tools

Traditional lectures will be alternated with an approach on seminar base, encouraging students to participate in class discussion. Reading and analysis of document and texts. Video and Audio supports will be used. Experts, PhD students and young reasearchers will take active part in the course.


Office hours

See the website of Silvia Albertazzi