ENGLISH LANGUAGE I

Professor

Degree Programmes and curricula

Equivalent courses for other degree programmes

Other parts of the course

Contents

Educational Goals

The course on Shakespeare's Sonnets is a course in LANGUAGE and TEXT ANALYSIS.
The Sonnets, a masterpiece of world literature, will be considered within the historical and cultural background of the Renaissance in England and will be commented on and analysed in full detail through textual analysis, resorting to various critical methodologies and considering structural, rhetorical, metrical, musical aspects, besides the traditional thematic ones. The aim is to provide the students with an instrument of knowledge enabling them to better understand the text through language analysis.
The critical methodology will be as varied as possible, and will employ all modern critical trends, from linguistics to structuralism, semiotics, New Historicism and, primarily, deconstruction, so as to unveil the constant strategy of lies pervading the language of texts.
The problems of autobiography, authorship, gender and homosexuality, and the erotic character in the literature of the Renaissance in England will be central to the course.
The cultural and literary background will also be focussed on as a pretext for the study of English language, through selected materials that are provided online.
The course avails itself of online resources, thus meaning to encourage the student's intelligent use of the internet.
The language course aims at offering intermediate comprehension and conversation skills on the specific language of literature and society.

Requirements

To sit for the exam, students must first pass the Prova di Idoneità at CLA - Centro Linguistico di Ateneo; information about it can be obtained at the webpage:
http://www.unive.it/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=79378

For any information, please contact dott. E. Glenton (glenton@unive.it) WELL IN ADVANCE.

Contents

LITERATURE
The Renaissance: history, culture and lit. in Shak.'s England. The sonnet. Sonnet
sequences. Shak.'s Sonnets: introd. and problems. Textual analysis of sonnets
(Prof. Calimani, 30 hours).

LANGUAGE
- Linguistic analysis, reading and translation of texts relating to culture and thought
in the Elizabethan Age (Prof. Bonicelli, 15 hours) (Students with FT0130 code
for 6 credits are exempt).
- Reading comprehension and conversation (dott. Glenton, 20 hours).

Recommended Reading List

COMPULSORY BIBLIOGRAPHY
LITERATURE
1. COURSE:
- 1a. Dario CALIMANI, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. I SONETTI DELLA MENZOGNA, Carocci, Roma 2009
- 1b. Background materials "Sonetti di Shakespeare", in Prof. Calimani's 'Materiale
didattico' folder http://www.unive.it/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=86662&pid=5591628

2. SURVEY COURSE:
- STORIA DELLA LETTERATURA INGLESE, ed. by P. BERTINETTI, Einaudi, 2000, Vol. I,
pp. 61-206 (chap.: R. CAMERLINGO, "Il Rinascimento e Shakespeare" - general knowledge of the whole chapter, and detailed knowledge of what is marked in capitals herebelow):

"Il Rinascimento e Shakespeare" (di R. Camerlingo):
I. Tra umanesimo e Riforma: la fucina della grandezza 1. Isole reali, isole ideali:
MORE e Tyndale - 1.1. Guerra dei libri - 1.2. Ragioni di Stato - 2. Poeti alla corte
di Enrico: Skelton, WYATT E SURREY - 3. Gli umanisti: educazione e traduzioni. Elyot
e Ascham - 3.1. La stampa - 4. I figli di Enrico: Edoardo, Maria Elisabetta -
4.1. La corte. CASTIGLIONE e PUTTENHAM
II. La poesia elisabettiana 1. SIDNEY - 1.1.LE ARCADIE E IL ROMANZO PASTORALE -
2. Scrittori e mecenati - 3. SPENSER - 3.1. Tra epica e romanzo - 3.2. La poesia -
3.3. ALLEGORIA E MAGIA - 3.4. GLI AMORETTI ED EPITHALAMION - 4. LA LIRICA DEGLI
ANNI NOVANTA: DANIEL, DRAYTON, Campion, Davies, Mary Contessa di Pembroke -
4.1. Musica sacra e poesia
III. La prosa – 1. Il romanzo: Gascoigne, Deloney, NASHE, LILY, GREENE, Mary Wroth –
2. Geografia: Hakluyt, Ralegh
IV. Il teatro 1. A CORTE - 2. IN CITTÀ - 3. KYD - 4. MARLOWE - 5. SHAKESPEARE –
5.1. I DRAMMI STORICI, O HISTORY PLAYS – 5.2. LE COMMEDIE – 5.3. LE TRAGEDIE E
IL REGICIDIO – 5.4. TRAGEDIE E PATHOS – 5.5. PADRI E FIGLIE: I ROMANCES –
5.6. LA POESIA – 6. Giacomo I: streghe e masques – 7. Jonson - 8. Beaumont e
Fletcher: la tragicommedia – 9. Middleton, Massinger e Dekker -10. LA TRAGEDIA –
11. WEBSTER – 12. FORD.

3. Prof. Bonicelli’s online handout at:
http://venus.unive.it/matdid.php?utente=rosanna.bonicelli&base=Corsi+2011-2012%2FLingua+Inglese+II+C%2FDispense&cmd=dir


4. Online handout on ENGLISH LANGUAGE and background: "Shakespeare & Elizabethan England"
in dott. Glenton’s ‘Materiale didattico’ folder
http://www.unive.it/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=69278&pid=5590072

FURTHER READING
- on Elizabeth I: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I
- on Shakespeare's life: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare
- on the Globe Theatre: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globe_theatre

MOREOVER, from a dictionary of stylistics (like: K. Wales, DIZIONARIO DI STILISTICA,
Sansoni 1991; or: DIZIONARIO DI LINGUISTICA E DI FILOLOGIA, METRICA E RETORICA,
Einaudi 2004) the entries:
Author, communication, connotation, deconstruction, denotation, differance, form,
formalism, function, hermeneutics, intention, interpretation, intertextuality,
logocentrism, message, metalanguage, metaphor, metonymy, New Criticism, parody,
post-structuralism, reader, receiver, reception, semiotics, sender, sign,
signified, signifier, structuralism, open text.

EXEMPTIONS FOR STUDENTS ATTENDING CLASSES: SEE "ALTRE INFORMAZIONI" HERE BELOW.

Assessment

oral

Teaching Methods

In-depth analysis of the poetical text and its language.

Teaching Language

Literature: Italian on texts in the original English language.
Language: English.

Other information

1. Attending classes is not formally obligatory, but due to the kind of course (textual
analysis) attendance is highly recommended. It is, in any case, obligatory for the
students to know in detail all that has been done in class. No alternative programme
is available for this exam.
(STUDENTS REGULARLY ATTENDING CLASSES WILL BE EXEMPTED FROM PREPARING FOR THE EXAM
20 OF THE SONNETS THAT WILL BE ANALYSED IN CLASS).
2. Students with a 5 CFU programme are exempt from prof. Bonicelli’s classes and
from preparing sonnets 36, 53, 87, 89, 121, 128.
Students with a 4 CFU programme are exempt from prof. Bonicelli’s classes and
from preparing sonnets 34, 36, 53, 66, 86, 87, 89, 121, 128, 140, 141, 144.
3. For any problem related to the programme and teaching, students are invited to
contact the staff WELL IN ADVANCE of the exam dates.
4. For NOTICES, TIMETABLES, EXAM DATES, TEACHING MATERIALS, UPDATES of the SYLLABUS,
please always keep an eye on the Faculty webpages, on Prof. Calimani's webpage
http://www.unive.it/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=86662&pid=5591628 and on the Bacheca Appelli
d'Esame.
5. Exams take place at Malcanton, 3rd floor, in prof. Calimani's study (C16BIS).