12805 - History of English Culture

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

The Revolutions of Photography

The aim of the course is to analyse how British photography has told and still tells the most important changes in British society and how photography is dealt with in English and postcolonial fiction and in the other visual arts (including cinema).

Readings/Bibliography

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, Letteratura e fotografia, Roma, Carocci, 2017.

Compulsory readings for the students of Storia della cultura inglese:

R. L Stevenson, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Anita Brookner, Family and Friends

William Boyd, Sweet Caress

Geoff Dyer, White Sands oppure Julian Barnes, Nothing To Be Frightened Of

John Berger, A Seventh Man

Compulsory readings for the students of Letteratura dei paesi di lingua inglese:

R. L Stevenson, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde

M. Ondaatje, Running in the Family

Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath her Feet;

Christopher Koch, The Year of Living Dangerously oppure Amitav Ghosh, The Glass Palace

John Berger, A Seventh Man

All the students must know the following films (that will be screened during the course):

M. Antonioni, Blow Up

J. Moorhouse, Proof

M. Romanek, One-Hour Photo

P. Weir, The Year of Living Dangerously

Documentary films on the major British photographers will be screened during the course: videos and photographs (to be found on YouTube) of the following photographs will be screened during the course: David Bailey, Shirley Baker, Cecil Beaton, Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll, Terence Donovan, Brian Duffy, David Hockney, David Hurn, Don McCullin, Sarah Moon, Edward Muybridge, Martin Parr. The students who are not attending are requested to look for them and their images online. A list of the videos screened during the lessons will be published on this page at the end of the course.

For further reading and for the students who do not attend regularly:

S. Albertazzi, Il nulla, quasi. Foto di famiglia e istantanee amatoriali nella letteratura contemporanea, Firenze, Le Lettere, 2010.

S. Albertazzi, “Un mucchio di distruzioni. Divagazioni su David Hockney” in S. Albertazzi, F. Amigoni (a cura di), Guardare oltre. Letteratura, fotografia e altri territori, Roma, Meltemi, 2008, pp. 142-161.

R. Ceserani, L'occhio della Medusa, Milano, Bollati Borighieri 2011, pp. 224-234.

C. Concilio “Worthy of the World”: The Narrator/Photographer in Salman Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet” in E. Linguanti, V. Tchernichova (eds.), The Great Workof Making Real. Salman Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Pisa, ETS, pp. 117-128.

A. Vescovi, Amitav Ghosh, Firenze, Le Lettere, 2011, pp. 110-132.

J. Berger, Ways of Seeing, Penguin, 2008

S. Sontag, On Photography, Penguin, 2008

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

Xerox copies of the texts of difficult availability will be found at the LILEC library and at the Centro omoeglotto (study room 34).

BIBLIOGRAPHY IN PROGRESS

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 an approach on seminar base, encouraging students to participate in class discussion. Reading and analysis of document 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