22172 - English Literature B - First Module (A-D)

Learning outcomes

The course on English Romantic Literature: Women's Fiction from Radcliffe to Oliphant, 1789-1887 aims to give students a general knowledge of the main features of Romantic aesthetics and ideology. Both prose and poetry will be taken into consideration, with specific attention to narrative fiction by women. Some of the most representative authors of the period (1770-1890) will be read and analyzed in relation to the main issues of the social and historical background.

Course contents

 An outline of English literary history from the Restoration to the Edwardian period (1660-1920). The aesthetic categories of the Beautiful, the Sublime and the Picturesque. Basic features of romantic poetry. Definition of romance and novel. The gothic. The Mysteries of Udolpho as a romance. Ann Radcliffe's word-painting technique and the development of the novel. Jane Austen's Six Novels. Re-writing the contrast novel in Sense and Sensibility. Pride and Prejudice as an anti-sentimental novel. The language of parody and irony in Mansfield Park. The female-Quixote novel in Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Margaret Oliphant's dystopia in Land of Darkness. L.E.L.'s metrical romances.

 

Readings/Bibliography

A] Texts:

Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho, (voll. I, II); Song of a Spirit, Titania to her Love, Night, To a Lily [The Poems of Ann Radcliffe, in internet]; To a Sea-Mew e St Alban's Abbey [PMRAR].

Jane Austen, NA (extracts), SS (extracts), PP (extracts), MP (tutto), E (extracts), P (extracts) nella serie «Oxford English Novels». (The  extracts are quoted in the 2nd edn of ZIJA).

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (APRI pp. 917-27);  The Improvvisatrice (estratti); "Sappho's Song" (APRI,  pp. 936-47).

Felicia Hemans, "The Last Song of Sappho" (APRI pp. 868-871)

Walter Scott, "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" (extracts - materiale didattico)

Lord Byron, "Childe Harold" (extracts - materiale didattico)

Margaret  Oliphant, "Land of Darkness", in A Beleaguered City and Other Stories, [OUP,1981].

B]  Criticism:

B. Battaglia, Paesaggi e Misteri. Riscoprire Ann Radcliffe, Napoli, Liguori, 2008 [PMRAR] (chs. I-VI)

B. Battaglia, La zitella illetterata. Parodia e ironia nei romanzi di Jane Austen, II ed., Napoli,  Liguori,  2009.[ZIJA] ( Appendici included)

B. Battaglia, La critica alla cultura occidentale nella letteratura distopica inglese, Ravenna, Longo, 2006 (ch. 2)

S. Baiesi, Letitia Elizabeth Landon and Metrical Romance. The Adventure of a 'Literary Genius', Peter Lang 2009 (Chapter One; Chapter Two)

S. Baiesi, “Letitia Elizabeth Landon's The Improvisatrice : crossway between genre and gender” in Romantic Women Poets. Genre and Gender , eds. L.M. Crisafulli and C. Pietropoli, Amsterdam , Rodopi,  2007 (pp. 169-183)

S. Baiesi, “Italian Improvvisatrici and their influence on English Romantic literature by women writers: Letitia Elizabeth Landon' response”, in British Romanticism in Italian Literature: Translating, Reviewing, Rewriting, eds. L. Bandiera and D. Saglia, Amsterdam, Rodopi, 2005 (pp. 181-191)

Handbooks:

L.M. Crisafulli (a cura di), Antologia delle poetesse romantiche inglesi, Roma, Carocci, 2003 [APRI]

K.Elam e L.M.Crisafulli (a cura di), Manuale di letteratura e cultura inglese, Bologna, BUP, 2009

The Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol.  II. (reference)

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons. Seminars.

Assessment methods

Written tests & oral questions .

Office hours

See the website of Maria Beatrice Battaglia