18095 - English Literature

Course contents

        "English Literature and the Cinema: From G. Greene to M.Ondaatje”.

   The course aims to deal with Graham Greene's and Michael Ondaatje's Narrative, paying attention both to the themes and motifs and to the stylistic and cinematographic devices. The various strategies of writing  novels, short-stories and  screenplays in English will be examined in connection with the related films. The students have to read four novels (or three novels and The Third Man both screenplay and film, or the screenplay, The Tenth Man and the Tv version), and one short-story "The Basement Room" (and the related film The Fallen Idol), plus two essays among those listed in b) and one of methodology listed in c).

Readings/Bibliography

                               -G.Greene:

Novels and Films: The Ministry of Fear,  A Gun for Sale, The End of the Affair, The Quiet American, The Comedians, The Honorary Consul (Penguin)

- screenplays The Tenth Man (Napoli, Loffredo, 2003) and the  related television adaptation (or The Third Man and the related film).

-  short-story, "The Basement Room", and the related screenplay and the film The Fallen Idol (Penguin).

M. Ondaatje:

- M. Ondaatje, The English Patient, Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1992 (and the homonymous film by Minghella)

                            b) Criticism (two):

- C.Comellini, Invito alla lettura di Greene, Milano, Mursia, 1996 .

- C.Comellini, Graham Greene: le forme del narrare, Abano Terme, Piovan, 1990.

-C.Comellini, "Introduction" to The Tenth Man, Na, Loffredo, 2003.  

-C.Comellini, "Voicing the Alternative in M.Ondaatjes's Fiction", in Voicing the Alternative: Essays in Language and Literature Studies, 2012, pp,165-174

- C.Comellini, “L'Italia in The English Patient di M.Ondaatje”, Prospettive di Letteratura Canadese, a cura di G. Dotoli, (Br), Schena, 1999, pp.71-81.

                         c) Methodology (one):

- C.Comellini, Strategie di scrittura nell'inglese: il linguaggio in codice, della narrativa e del cinema, i sottesi e il concetto di traduzione (Strategies of Writing in English), Aracne  2014.

- P. Reynolds, Novel Images, London, Routledge, 1993.

- P.Bertinetti e G.Volpi (a cura di), Effetto Greene, Roma, Bulzoni, 1990.

- C.Comellini, “Colonialismo e post-colonialismo in The English Patient di M.Ondaatje”, in Transiti letterari e culturali, Vol.I, a cura di G.Sertoli e G.Miglietta, Trieste, EUT, 1999, pp.433-442.

- C.Comellini, “La mappa come metafora del testo letterario: l'eredità di R.L.Stevenson, J.Conrad, R.Kipling in G. Greene e M. Ondaatje”, Il lettore di provincia, XXXII, 110/111, 2001, pp.53-63.

Office hours

See the website of Carla Comellini