54705 - English Literature 3 (A-L)

Course contents

London Calling

The aim of the course is to analyze and explore the modalities through which the city of London has been represented and discussed in texts belonging to three different periods (the beginning of XX century, the Fifties and the turn of the century), both as a background for the narrated events and as a real character of the stories.

Readings/Bibliography

PRIMARY TEXTS

1. London Calling: XX century psychogeographies

H.G. Wells, The War of the World (1898) <http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/36>

G.K. Chesterton, The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904) <http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/20058>

Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent (1907) >http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/974>

T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922)

Virginia Woolf,  Mrs Dalloway (1925) e “Street Haunting: A London Adventure” (1930)

 
2. London Calling: contemporary psychogeographies

Samuel Selvon, The Lonely Londoners (1956)

C. MacInnes, Absolute Beginners (1959)

Iain Sinclair, “Nicholas Hawksmoor. His Churches”, in Lud Heat (1975)

Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor (1985)

Michael Moorcock, Mother London (1988)

Martin Amis, London Fields (1989)

Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia (1990)

Angela Carter, Wise Children (1991)

Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere (1996)

J.G. Ballard, Millennium People (2003)

J.G. Ballard, Kingdom come (2006)

 

3. Essays

Peter Ackroyd, “London Luminaries and Cockney Visionaries”, in Lectures, Miscellaneous, Writings, Short Stories, ed. by T. Wright, London, Chatto & Windus, 2001

Will Self, “Big Dome”, in Granta, 65, 1999, pp. 117-25

 

CRITICAL TEXTS

a) On psychogeography:

Phil Baker, “Secret City: Psychogeography and the End of London” in Joe Kerr and Andrew Gibson, ed. by, London. From Punk to Blair, London, Reaktion Books, 2003, pp. 323-333

Merlin Coverley, Psychogeography, Harpenden, Pocket Essentials, 2006, pp. 9-56 e 111-128

 

b) On London and/or city in literature:

Malcolm Bradbury, “London 1890-1920”, in Bradbury and McFarlane, ed. by, Modernism. A guide to European Literature 1890-1930, London, Penguin, 1991, pp. 172-190

Merlin Coverley, “Introduction”, in London Writing, Harpenden, Pocket Essentials, 2005, pp. 9-27

Steve Johnson, “Complessità urbana e intreccio romanzesco”, in Franco Moretti, a cura di, La cultura del romanzo, Torino, Einaudi, 2001, pp. 727-745

Mario Maffi, “Confini” e “Geografie”, in Londra, Milano, Rizzoli, 2000, pp. 9-31 e 75-104

C. Bruna Mancini, “Writing and Reading the Urban (Hyper) Text of London”, in Prospero, X, 2003, pp. 167-177

Burton Pike, selection from The Image of the City in Modern Literature, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1981, pp. 3-26, 33-37

Nicoletta Vallorani, “Londra: Letterature e Culture”, in Geografie londinesi, Milano, CUEM, 2003, pp. 13-48

 

You are NOT required to read the following texts, but they can be useful for further investigations on the topics of the course:

Peter Ackroyd, London. The Biography, London, Chatto & Windus, 2000

Valentina Agostinis, Londra chiama, Milano, Il Saggiatore, 2010

Silvia Albertazzi, In questo mondo, Roma, Meltemi, 2006

Marc Augé, Nonluoghi, Milano, Elèuthera, 1993

Roberto Bertinetti, Londra, Einaudi, Torino, Einaudi, 2007

C. Bruna Mancini, Sguardi su Londra, Napoli, Liguori, 2005

Franco Moretti, Atlante del romanzo europeo. 1800-1900, Torino, Einaudi, 1998, chapter II, and “Homo Palpitans, in Segni e Stili del Moderno, Torino, Einaudi, 1987

Iain Sinclair, London Orbital, a cura di N. Vallorani, Milano, Il Saggiatore, 2008

In the website of the magazine Literary London Journal there are interesting essays on single authors or themes related to London in literature, such as:

Nathanael O'Reilly, “Embracing Suburbia: Breaking Tradition and Accepting the Self in Hanif Kureishi's The Buddha of Suburbia”

<< http://www.literarylondon.org/london-journal/September2009/oreilly.html>

Brian Baker, “Maps of the London Underground: Iain Sinclair and Michael Moorcock's Psychogeography of the city”

< http://www.literarylondon.org/london-journal/march2003/baker.html

“Psychogeography: Will Self and Iain Sinclair in conversation with Kevin Jackson”

http://www.literarylondon.org/london-journal/march2008/sinclair-self.html

Students are required to read:

- three works from the list 1 (London Calling: XX century psychogeographies)

- three works from the list 2 (London Calling: contemporary psychogeographies)

-     the essays of Peter Ackroyd and Will Self

-     the critical texts on psychogeography (a) and on London and the city in literature (b)

Assessment methods

Oral exam
or (for exchange students) two short essays or a long essay on one or more topics approved by the teacher

Office hours

See the website of Gino Scatasta