- Docente: Franco Minganti
- Credits: 9
- SSD: L-LIN/11
- Language: Italian
- Moduli: Elena Lamberti (Modulo 1) Franco Minganti (Modulo 2)
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures (Modulo 1) Traditional lectures (Modulo 2)
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Foreign Languages and Literature (cod. 0979)
Learning outcomes
Al termine del corso lo studente conosce
le linee generali della storia della letteratura, è in grado di
leggere, comprendere e tradurre testi in lingua ed è avviato
all'uso dei metodi e degli strumenti di base di tipo analitico, per
interpretare le opere dei principali autori, contestualizzandoli
nella cultura e nel periodo storico di riferimento.
Course contents
Franco Minganti Letterature Anglo-Americane 1 a.a. 2010/2011
The literary identity of North-America from the Colonial Era to the XIX century: United States & Canada.
The course (63 hours, 9 cfu) is aimed at 1st year students of "Laurea triennale" who have chosen "Letterature Anglo-Americane" as the literature to be associated with one "lingua triennale" (namely, English).
The course – to be taught in the second semester – is structured into two sections:
- the first one (33 hrs.), taught by prof. Franco Minganti, focuses on the United States;
- the second one (30 hrs.), taught by dr. Elena Lamberti, focuses on anglophone Canada.
Il corso costituisce un'introduzione alla letteratura nordamericana in lingua inglese e si incentra sulle questioni dell'identità e della percezione di letterature nazionali.
The final exam will take into account an oral discussion on the course syllabus for prof. Minganti's part on the United Staes and a written paper on the Canada section taught by dr. Lamberti, while following all the instructions in the following program. The evaluation (mark) of the paper about Canada will complete the evaluation of the oral exam about the US into one final mark.
1. Franco Minganti. Stati Uniti
A. Manuale: Si richiede la conoscenza della storia letteraria dalle origini al 1915.
Testo di riferimento: Guido Fink, Mario Maffi, Franco Minganti, Bianca Tarozzi, Storia della letteratura americana(nuova edizione), Firenze: Sansoni (1991) 2001 (capitoli I-II-III)
B. Syllabus ( tutte le letture indicate sono obbligatorie):
- Toby Lester, “A New Geography” (1507. The name “America” appears on a map) [*]
- Tzvetan Todorov, Perché diciamo America. Quinto centenario della scoperta. Vespucci contro Colombo: le ragioni di un nome
- Sacvan Bercovitch, How the Puritans Discovered America
- Emory Elliott, “The American Jeremiad” (1670. Samuel Danforth invokes the Puritan “errand into the wilderness”) [*]
- Susan Castillo, “The Salem Trials” (1692. Four young girls accuse three women of witchcraft) [*]
- Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown”
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/512/512-h/512-h.htm#goodman
- J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, “What Is an American” (from Letters from an American Farmer)
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/4666/pg4666.html
- Leo Damrosch, “Letters from an American Farmer” (1765, December 23. Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur is naturalized as a citizen of the colony of New York) [*]
- Marc Amfreville, “American Gothic” (1798. Charles Brockden Brown publishes Wieland; or, The Transformation) [*]
- Charles Brockden Brown, Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist [A fragment]
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/842/842-h/842-h.htm
- Mary Rowlandson, Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration [...] (Intro, 1st, 2nd, 3rd Removes)
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/851/851-h/851-h.htm#2H_4_0001
- Nancy Armstrong, “Mary Rowlandson and the Alien and Sedition Acts” (1798. Congress passes its version of the Indian captivity narrative)
- Washington Irving, Rip Van Winkle
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2048/pg2048.txt
- Judith Richardson, “Cupola of the World” (1809. Diedrich Knickerbocker constructs the Empire City) [*]
- Herman Melville, Benito Cereno
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15859/15859-h/15859-h.htm#toc_4
· W.T. Lhamon, Jr., “Rogue Blackness” (1830. Jim Crow jumps the American stage) [*]
- Testi: due letture a scelta tra
- Walt Whitman, Song of Myself [Book III of Leaves of Grass]
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1322/1322-h/1322-h.htm#2H_4_0027
- Emily Dickinson, dieci poesie a scelta
- R.W. Emerson, The American Scholar (1837)
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16643/16643-h/16643-h.htm#THE_AMERICAN_SCHOLAR
- H.D. Thoreau, Civil Disobedience (1849)
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/71/71-h/71-h.htm
- Frederick Douglass, “My Escape from Slavery” (1881)
- Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1843)
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8642/pg8642.html
Letture critiche relative ai testi (tutte obbligatorie):
- Angus Fletcher, “The Book of a Lifetime” (1855. Walt Whitman uses a letter from Emerson to advertise the first edition of Leaves of Grass) [*]
- Susan Stewart, “Children, Women, Queens” (1861. Emily Dickinson writes to her cousins: ‘When did the war really begin?') [*]
- James Conant, “The American Scholar” (1837, August 15. Ralph Waldo Emerson warns, ‘The American eagle is very well... but beware of the American peacock') [*]
- Jonathan Arac, “'Civil Disobedience' and Walden” (1846, late July. While living at Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau is arrested for refusing to pay his poll tax) [*]
- Liam Kennedy, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” (1852, July 5. Frederick Douglass addresses the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Sewing Society) [*]
- Lawrence Buell, “The End of American Transcendentalism” (1850, July 19. Margaret Fuller dies in the wreck of the Elizabeth off the shore of Fire Island) [*]
- Romanzi: due romanzi a scelta tra
- James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850)
- Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)
- Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)
- Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
Letture critiche relative ai romanzi (tutte obbligatorie):
- Richard Hutson, “Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales” (1826. Natty Bumppo returns in The Last of the Mohicans) [*]
- Bharati Mukherjee, “The Scarlet Letter” (1850. Nathaniel Hawthorne confesses his desire to ‘kill the public') [*]
- Greil Marcus, “Moby-Dick; or, The Whale” (1851. ‘Give it up, sub-subs!') [*]
- Beverly Lowry, “Uncle Tom's Cabin” (1851-1852. Readers eagerly await weekly installments of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, serialized in the National Era) [*]
- Ishmael Reed, “Mark Twain's Hairball” (1884. A man and a boy go down the Mississippi) [*]
Film (se ne consiglia vivamente la visione):
- The Scarlet Letter (Victor Sjöström, 1926)
- Rip Van Winkle (Francis Ford Coppola, 1982)
- Moby-Dick (John Huston, 1956)
· Ethnic Notions (Marlon Riggs, 1987)
· Bamboozled (Spike Lee, 2000)
[*] : I testi contrassegnati dall'asterisco sono tratti dal volume A New Literary History of America, a cura di Greil Marcus e Werner Sollors (Cambridge, MA/London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009)
2. Elena Lamberti. Canada
This part of the course will offer an introduction to the literature and culture of English speaking Canada, from the birth of the Confederation to the 20thcentury. The interdisciplinary approach to the Canadian reality will reveal the complexity of the Canadian identity, its various cultural and artistic geographies; a reality which Europeans still tend to assimilate to the United Statestout court. In particular, a comparison between wildernessand inner landscapewill show the many ‘faces of Canada', a nation which remains a cross-road of Europeand The States and a cultural border between old and new imaginaries of Western tradition.
Thematic Syllabus :
Week 1 : The Making of the Canadian Imagination: Archetypes and Clichés.
Week 2 : Travel-logs and Journals: Discovering/Inventing Canada.
Week 3 : From the Confederation to the Group of Seven: Birth of a Nation.
Week 4 : The Canadian Renaissance: Postmodernism, Multiculturalism, Regionalism.
Week 5 : The Global Village: from Pioneers to the Cyber Cowboys.
Final Exam
For this part of the course (Module 2 – Canada), students are required to write a short essay based on the themes here above mentioned, as well as on a mandatory set of readings (see the related Bibliography). Language: either Italian or English. Length: min 2500 – max 3000 words.
Deadline: at least 10 days prior the oral exam (Module 1 – United States); the essay mark will contribute to the students' final evaluation.
Course Bibliography
Mandatory reading for all students: Gebbia Alessandro, “La letteratura Anglocanadese”, in Lombardo A. (a cura di) Le Orme di Prospero. Le Nuove letterature di lingua inglese: Africa, Carabi, Canada, Roma, La Nuova Italia Scientifica, 1995.
In addition, students must select additional mandatory readings from the following lists, as per the stated requirements:
A) Two volumes among:
Atwood Margaret, The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970); Surfacing (1972)
Callaghan Morley, The Complete Short Stories (any volume in the series).
Callaghan Barry, When Things Get Worst, (1993)
Carr Emily, Klee Wyck (1941); The Book of Small (1942); The House of All Sorts (1944), Growing Pains (1946)
Cohen Leonard, Beautiful Losers (1966)
Douglas Coupland, Microserfs (1995)
Findley Timothy, Famous Last Words (1981)
Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)
Jameson Anna, Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada, (1838)
Kogawa, Obasan (1983)
Kroetsch Robert, But We Are Exile (1965); Gone Indian (1973); What the Crow Said (1978)
Laurence Margaret, The Stone Angel, (1964)
MacEwen, Gwendolyn, Terra di Nessuno. Verso l'uomo primordiale, trad. e curato da C. Fabricci, Presentazione di C. Comellini, (Noman's Land, Toronto, The Coach House Press, 1985, http://www.chbooks.com/online/nomans_land ), Ravenna, Longo, 2003
MacEwen, Gwendolyn, The Poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen. Volume One: The Early Years, ed. by M. Atwood and B. Callaghan, Introduction by M. Atwood, Toronto, Exile Editions, 1993
MacEwen, Gwendolyn,Volume Two: The Later Years, ed. by M. Atwood and Barry Callaghan, Introduction by R. Sullivan, Toronto, Exile Editions, 1994
MacLennan, Hugh , Barometer Rising (1941); Two Solitudes (1945)
Michaels Anne, Fugitive Pieces, (1996)
Mistry Rohinton, Tales from Firozsha Baag (1987); Such a Long Journey (1991); Family Matters (2002)
Moodie Susanna, Roughing it in the Bush, (1852)
Munro Alice, Dance of the Happy Shade (1968); Who Do You Think You Are? (1978)
Powe Bruce, Outage. A Journey into Electric City (1995)
Richler Mordecai, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959); Son of a Smaller Hero (1955); Barney's Version: A Novel (1998)
Sinclair Ross, As For Me and My House (1941)
Traill, C.P., The Backwoods of Canada, (1836)
B) At least one volume and two essays among:
Volumes
Atwood Margaret, Survival. A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature, Toronto, Anansi, 1972
Bruti Liberati L. & Codignola L., Storia del Canada, Milano, Bompiani, 1997
Capone Giovanna, Canada. Il Villaggio della terra, Bologna, Patron, 1978
Clerici Naila (ed), Victorian Brand, Indian Brand. The White Shadow on Native Image, Torino, Il segnalibro, 1993
Frye Northrope, Mythologizing Canada. Essay on the Canadian Literary Imagination, edited by Branko Gorjup, Toronto, Legas, 1997
Frye Northrope, The Bush Garden: Essays on the Canadian Imagination, Toronto, Anansi, 1971
Gebbia Alessandro, Cartografie del nuovissimo mondo, Roma, Bulzoni, 2002
Hutcheon Linda, The Canadian Postmodern: A Study of Contemporary English-Canadian Fiction, Oxford, Oxford U P, (1988)
John Moss Patterns of Isolation, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1974
Jones D.G., Butterfly on Rock: a Study of Themes and Images in Canadian Literature, Toronto, U of T Press, 1970
Lamberti Elena, Marshall McLuhan. Tra letteratura, arte e media, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2000
Lanzillo, Maria Laura, Il multiculturalismo, Bari, Laterza, 2005
Marchand Philip, Ripostes. Reflections on Canadian Literature , Erin, The porcupine's Quill, 1998
Monticelli Rita , Lo stupore della differenza : Anna Jameson e la tradizione del racconto di viaggio, Bologna, Patron, 2000
Powe Bruce, The Solitary Outlaw. Trudeau, Lewis, Gould, Canetti & McLuhan, Toronto, Somerville House Books, 1996
Ricciardi, Caterina, (a cura di), Poesia canadese del Novecento, Napoli, Liguori, 1986.
Rizzardi Alfredo, Canada : l'immaginazione letteraria, Abano Terme, Piovan, 1981
Rizzardi Alfredo, Canada : testi e contesti, Abano Terme, Piovan, 1983
Rizzardi Alfredo, Canada : The Verbal Creation, Abano Terme, Piovan, 1985
Rizzardi, Biancamaria, (a cura di), Poeti canadesi di lingua inglese nel Novecento, numero monografico di In forma di parole, Milano, n. 1, gennaio/febbraio/marzo 1994
Thomas Clara, Love and Work Enough. The Life of Anna Jameson, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1967
Tippet Maria, Emily Carr: a Biography, Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1979
Essays
Conway, Rosalind, “Gwendolyn MacEwen”, in Profiles in Canadian Literature, vol. 6, ed. by J. H. Heath, Toronto, Dundurn, 1986, pp. 57-64
Cusmano Domenic, “Whose Culture is it anyway? Towards a redefinition of Canadian Culture”, in Il Canada e le Culture della Globalizzazione, cit., pp.551-556
Farné Roberto, “Cinema di animazione” in, Iconologia didattica. Le immagini per l'educazione dall'Orbis Pictus a Sesame Street, Bologna Zanichelli, 2002
Fortunati Vita, “Word and Image in the Works of Emily Carr”, New Englishes, pp. 3-20
Gardellini Giuliana, “The ‘Wonders' of the ‘New Country': Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey and the challenge of globalization”, in Il Canada e le Culture della Globalizzazione, cit. pp. 250-264
Gardellini, Giuliana, "I colori della multietnicità: Family Matters di Rohinton Mistry", in I colori del Canada, Atti del seminario di studi dell'Associazione Italiana di Studi Canadesi (Università degli Studi di Chieti-Pescara, Pescara, 28-29 novembre 2003), a cura di Giovanni Dotoli, Fasano, Schena, 2004, pp. 319-325
Gorjup Branko, “Continuity and Discontinuity in the Representation of Space in Canadian Writing”, in Il Canada e le Culture della Globalizzazione, cit. pp. 765-784
Heble, Ajay, “'A Foreign Presence in the Stall.' Towards a Poetics of Cultural Hybridity in Rohinton Mistry's Migration Stories”, in Canadian Literature, Vancouver, Summer 1993, n. 137, pp. 51-61.
Lamberti Elena, "Douglas Coupland's Microserfs: corporate dreams of unconscious e-believers", in Il Canada e le Culture della Globalizzazione, Congresso internazionale del 20° anniversario, Atti – Bologna 8-11 settembre 1999, a cura di Alfredo Rizzardi e Giovanni Dotoli, Bari, Edizioni Schena, 2001
Mariani Andrea, “Emily Carr: The International Context”, Merope, anno VII, n. 16, Settembre 1995, pp. 43-73
Monticelli Rita , “Haunting Otherness: Intertextuality in 19th Century Travel Literature on Canada”, in Il Canada e le Culture della Globalizzazione, cit., pp. 317-330
Proietti Salvatore, “Bodies, Ghosts, and Global Virtualities: on Gibson and English-Canadian Cyberculture”, in Il Canada e le Culture della Globalizzazione, cit., pp. 479-494
Sullivan, Rosemary, “Biography: an Elegiac Art”, Meanjin, Parkville (Australia), vol. 54, n. 2, 1995, pp. 329-337
IMPORTANT : more bibliographical sources will be proposed and introduced in class. Students who cannot come to class are kindly invited to contact the course director prior submitting their essays.
Readings/Bibliography
See "Program"
Teaching methods
Frontal, lecture lessons with audiovisual aids
Assessment methods
See "Program"
Office hours
See the website of Franco Minganti
See the website of Elena Lamberti