18095 - English Literature

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student knows the outline of the history of English literature, is able to read, understand and translate texts in English, and is introduced to the methods and tools of critical analysis, so as to be able to understand the works of the main authors, contextualizing them in the historical periods in question.

Course contents

Shakespeare: The myth of Hamlet, the myth of Venice

This course is based on three Shakespearian plays – two tragedies and a comedy – that stage two modern myths, one ‘northern' and one ‘southern': first, the mythical figure of Hamlet, and then the mythical state par excellence, Venice. Attention will be paid to the modes of Shakespeare's dramatization of the two myths by way of his sources and in the context of early modern English culture, and to post-Shakespearian appropriations of the respective myths. The course, finally, will take into consideration Shakespeare himself as a founding myth of the British nation, as well as of modern culture in general.

Module I. The myth of Hamlet

Hamlet is one of the great modern myths, which long precedes the celebrated version by William Shakespeare and which has continued to be renewed or reinvented up to our own time. The myth first appeared at the beginning the thirteenth century in the historical-legendary context  of  the Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus. It was then transmitted – like all myths worthy of the name – through a long series of  translations, adaptations and literary and oral re-tellings, before its arrival on the Elizabethan stage.  Even within early modern drama,  moreover, there was an earlier, pre-shakespearian version of the tragedy that has not survived. Thus Shakespeare receives  Hamlet and his story as a genuine mythos, part of a shared cultural patrimony, after a long process of transformation. What is more,  Hamlet has continued to generate mythoi – stories, plays, films, parodies, critical and philosophical discourse, even publicity – long after his Shakespearian apotheosis. This module aims to trace the cultural history of Hamlet from the Middle Ages to our own day, and will examine, in addition to Shakespeare's great tragedy and its sources, contemporary works such as Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Carmelo Bene's Hommelette for Hamlet.

Module II. The myth of Venice

For Shakespeare's contemporaries, the Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia was a mythical place: indeed doubly mythical. On the one hand, it represented an inimitable model of national cohesion, of good political and judicial government, and of military and naval power. As such, it was a positive mirror for the Elizabethans in their aspirations to power, wealth and territorial conquest. Venice was also fascinating to the English as a ‘window' onto the East, the meeting point for oriental and African ethnic groups. On the other hand, Venice was a synonym for corruption and moral decadence, not least because of the conspicuous presence of the legendary Venetian courtesans. In this sense, Venice represented a negative or deforming mirror for late sixteenth-century English society, with its social tensions and moral contradictions. This module will examine two great ‘Venetian' plays by Shakespeare, the comedy (or tragicomedy) The Merchant of Venice and the tragedy Othello, both seen in the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean perceptions of Italy.

Readings/Bibliography

William Shakespeare, Amleto, a cura di Keir Elam. Milano: Rizzoli (BUR).

William Shakespeare, Il mercante di Venezia, a cura di A. Serpieri. Milano:  Garzanti.

William Shakespeare, Otello, a cura di S. Perosa. Milano: Garzanti.

Lilla Maria Crisafulli e Keir Elam, a cura di, Manuale di Letteratura e cultura inglese. Bologna: Bononia University Press

Stefano Manferlotti, Shakespeare, Roma: Salerno Editrice.

Other material will be available in the course pack.

Teaching methods

The course will include - in addition to lectures - readings of texts and the projection and discussion of videos.

Assessment methods

Written exam

Office hours

See the website of Keir Douglas Elam