CULTURES AND SOCIETY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE
- Academic year
- 2018/2019 Syllabus of previous years
- Official course title
- SOCIETA' E CULTURE DI LINGUA INGLESE
- Course code
- LT2030 (AF:232983 AR:117946)
- Modality
- On campus classes
- ECTS credits
- 6
- Subdivision
- Class 2
- Degree level
- Bachelor's Degree Programme
- Educational sector code
- L-LIN/10
- Period
- 1st Semester
- Course year
- 3
- Where
- VENEZIA
- Moodle
- Go to Moodle page
Contents
Title. Tales of the Supernatural
Starting from an analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the aim to this course is to provide an introduction to the Gothic novel and to the ghost story. Varied aspects related to the supernatural – the haunting, the psychoanalytical, and the traumatic – will be also explored in order to show how both the Gothic and the ghost story challenged the ideals of logic, restraint, accuracy, and decorum which dominated English literature. Designed to provoke dread an by bringing about a crisis in which fictional characters are confronted by the spirits of the returning dead, the ghost story increasingly featured familiar and domestic settings, while terror came to be located in the mind, becoming part of a state of consciousness.
Starting from an analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the aim to this course is to provide an introduction to the Gothic novel and to the ghost story. Varied aspects related to the supernatural – the haunting, the psychoanalytical, and the traumatic – will be also explored in order to show how both the Gothic and the ghost story challenged the ideals of logic, restraint, accuracy, and decorum which dominated English literature. Designed to provoke dread an by bringing about a crisis in which fictional characters are confronted by the spirits of the returning dead, the ghost story increasingly featured familiar and domestic settings, while terror came to be located in the mind, becoming part of a state of consciousness.
Referral texts
Primary Sources
Mary Shelley, FRANKENSTEIN OR THE MODERN PROMETHEUS (1831)
Edizione consigliata: M. Shelley, Frankenstein, with an introduction and Notes by Maurice Hindle, London, Penguin, 2003
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, GREEN TEA (1872)
Edizione consigliata: J.S. Le Fanu, Tè verde, a cura di Michela Vanon Alliata, Venezia, Marsilio, 2017
Edgar Allan Poe, THE TELL-TALE HEART (1843), THE BLACK CAT (1843)
Edizione consigliata: Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Stories, Vintage Classics, 2010.
R.L. Stevenson, MARKHEIM (1884) any edition
Oscar Wilde, THE CANTERVILLE GHOST (1887)
Edizione consigliata: Oscar Wilde, Complete Short Fiction, ed. Ian Small, London, Penguin, 2003
Bibliografia secondaria
J. Briggs, Night Visitors: The Rise and Fall of the English Ghost Story, London: Faber, 1977.
A. K. Mellor, “Making a ‘monster’: an introduction to Frankenstein”, in The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 9- 25.
C. Baldick, “The Politics of Monstrosity”, in Frankenstein, ed. F. Botting, Houndmills, Macmillan, 1995, pp. 48-67.
M. Vanon Alliata, ed. J.S. Le Fanu, Tè verde, Venezia: Marsilio, 2017, pp. 9-41.
M. Vanon Alliata, Haunted Minds: Studies in the Gothic and Fantastic Imagination, Verona: Ombre corte, 2017, pp. 11-29; 96-113.
R. Mighall, Oscar Wilde, Small, Oscar Wilde: Complete Short Fiction, Penguin, 1994, pp. pp. vii-xxx.
Bibliografia integrativa per gli studenti non frequentanti
Italo Calvino, “Introduzione”, Racconti fantastici dell’ottocento, Milano, Mondadori, 1983, pp. 5-14.
J. Sullivan, Elegant Nightmares: the English Ghost Story from Le Fanu to Blackwood, Athens: Ohio , Ohio University Press, 1980, pp. 11-31.
C. Benfey, Poe and the Unreadable: The Black Cat and The Tell- Tale Heart”, in New Essays on Poe’s Major Tales, ed. K. Silverman, Cambridge: CUP, 1993, pp. 27-43.
Mary Shelley, FRANKENSTEIN OR THE MODERN PROMETHEUS (1831)
Edizione consigliata: M. Shelley, Frankenstein, with an introduction and Notes by Maurice Hindle, London, Penguin, 2003
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, GREEN TEA (1872)
Edizione consigliata: J.S. Le Fanu, Tè verde, a cura di Michela Vanon Alliata, Venezia, Marsilio, 2017
Edgar Allan Poe, THE TELL-TALE HEART (1843), THE BLACK CAT (1843)
Edizione consigliata: Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Stories, Vintage Classics, 2010.
R.L. Stevenson, MARKHEIM (1884) any edition
Oscar Wilde, THE CANTERVILLE GHOST (1887)
Edizione consigliata: Oscar Wilde, Complete Short Fiction, ed. Ian Small, London, Penguin, 2003
Bibliografia secondaria
J. Briggs, Night Visitors: The Rise and Fall of the English Ghost Story, London: Faber, 1977.
A. K. Mellor, “Making a ‘monster’: an introduction to Frankenstein”, in The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 9- 25.
C. Baldick, “The Politics of Monstrosity”, in Frankenstein, ed. F. Botting, Houndmills, Macmillan, 1995, pp. 48-67.
M. Vanon Alliata, ed. J.S. Le Fanu, Tè verde, Venezia: Marsilio, 2017, pp. 9-41.
M. Vanon Alliata, Haunted Minds: Studies in the Gothic and Fantastic Imagination, Verona: Ombre corte, 2017, pp. 11-29; 96-113.
R. Mighall, Oscar Wilde, Small, Oscar Wilde: Complete Short Fiction, Penguin, 1994, pp. pp. vii-xxx.
Bibliografia integrativa per gli studenti non frequentanti
Italo Calvino, “Introduzione”, Racconti fantastici dell’ottocento, Milano, Mondadori, 1983, pp. 5-14.
J. Sullivan, Elegant Nightmares: the English Ghost Story from Le Fanu to Blackwood, Athens: Ohio , Ohio University Press, 1980, pp. 11-31.
C. Benfey, Poe and the Unreadable: The Black Cat and The Tell- Tale Heart”, in New Essays on Poe’s Major Tales, ed. K. Silverman, Cambridge: CUP, 1993, pp. 27-43.
Assessment methods
Exam
Students will be assessed by a final written exam consisting of 2 open questions, 3 critical analysis of a given passage, and finally of a short translation from English into Italian. Non-native English speakers are requested to write a critical analysis of the given passage.
Students will be assessed by a final written exam consisting of 2 open questions, 3 critical analysis of a given passage, and finally of a short translation from English into Italian. Non-native English speakers are requested to write a critical analysis of the given passage.
Teaching language
English
Type of exam
written
This programme is provisional and there could still be changes in its contents.
Last update of the programme: 25/05/2018