ENGLISH LITERATURE 1

The course is part of the triennial teaching of English. Besides furnishing tools to improve the language competence of English (starting from a B2 level), it will introduce students to the main literary and cultural movements in England of the last three centuries. Students will enhance their skills in cultural and literary analysis as well as reading and translation skills.
In particular, the module described below will focus on the culture, literature, society and history of the Twentieth century and the new Millennium.
Students will
- be able to relate texts to their historical and cultural contexts and communicate their comments and critical reflections on them with appropriate language;
- acquire the relevant methodological competence with regard to the proposed texts;
- comment on the texts with critical precision and an increasingly appropriate language, as well as on the historical-cultural background.

The module will improve the students' critical abilities, their reading skills, their capacity to understand and interpret complex texts that are historically and culturally determined, including the texts' rhetorical and stylistics features. The students' abilities will comprise:
- the ability to contextualise a cultural object in its context;
- the ability to apply critical methods to understand the society and culture producing the given objects;
- the ability to read and translate (into Italian) a literary work and comment it through an adequate language and methodology;
- the ability to understand the historical sources within a relevant contextualisation and through a critical analysis, having in mind the historical development of cultures.

Acquired knowledge ef English, at B2 level in the European framework. A knowledge of English history and literature at school level will be helpful to better understand the front lectures.

The module will deal with the culture of England from the end of WW2 to nowadays, and the development of the post-modern novel and the so-called "historiographic metafiction" (according to Linda Hutcheon's definition).
In particular, we shall consider:
- the notion of "culture" in its modern connotations, with regard to the concept of "Britishness";
- the development of English culture, in particular through the rise of Welfare society, mass-culture, the Thatcherite Neo-liberalism, Blair's "third way", and the issues of the new Millennium;
- the development of English novel from post-war realism to postmodern fiction;
- the relationship between history and novelistic stories.

1. Primary texts:
1a. John Osborne's play, "Look back in Anger" (Faber&Faber)
1b. 9 selected poems by Philip Larkin, Thom Gunn, and Ted Hughes
by Philip Larkin
- "High Windows" ( https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48417/high-windows )
- "The Whitsun Weddings" ( https://allpoetry.com/The-Whitsun-Weddings )
- "Cut Grass" ( https://allpoetry.com/Cut-Grass )
- "Annus Mirabilis" ( https://allpoetry.com/Annus-Mirabilis )
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/philip-larkin
by Thom Gunn
- "Human Condition" ( https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=26688 )
- "From the Wave" ( https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52628/from-the-wave ; for its analysis see https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69315/thom-gunn-from-the-wave )
by Ted Hughes:
- "Crow Blacker than Ever" ( http://www.thebeckoning.com/poetry/hughes/hughes1.html ; see also https://thetedhughessociety.org/crow )
- "Hawk Roostin" ( https://allpoetry.com/Hawk-Roosting ; see also https://poemanalysis.com/hawk-roosting-by-ted-hughes-poem-analysis/ )
https://thetedhughessociety.org/life
1c. one of the following novels:
- John Fowles, "The French Lieutenant's Woman" (Vintage Books)
- Graham Swift, "Waterland" (Picador)
- Ian McEwan, "Atonement" (Vintage Books);

2. Cricitism. Students are asked to read:
- R. Bertinetti, "Dai Beatles a Blair : la cultura inglese contemporanea" (Carocci) - Biblioteca BALI INGLESE (ECS BER/Dai)
either of the following: of
- B. Nichols, "The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction" (Cambridge UP), (I capitoli: Introduction: Postmodern and postmodernity; 1. Postmodern fiction; 2. Early postmodern fiction; 4. The Postmodern historical novel) - Biblioteca BALI INGLESE (EF NIC/Cam), or:
- A. Gasiorek, "Post-war British fiction" (E. Arnold Press) (chapters: 1. Realism in the Post-War Period; 5. Dilemmas of Contemporary Liberal; 7. Postmodernism and the problem of history) - Biblioteca BALI INGLESE (E X8 GAS/Post)

3. Shakespeare: "Macbeth"(recommended reading)

4. Non attending students will have to read, in addition to the above-mentioned, essays that will be signalled in the announcements during the first semester.

Writeen test, in 4 parts:
A) Questions with open answers (5-10 lines long) on the literary history of the twentieth century and the contemporary novel (based on the texts described in part 2. Cricitism). The students will be asked to choose 4 out of 8 questions (10/30 marks)
B) A short essay on one of the texts that must be read (Part 1. Primary texts); the essay will have to be about one page long (10/30 marks). In case the question was on the "novels" (1c), the student will be allowed to refer to the novel s/he chose among the three listed in the programme.

C) Translation into Italian of a short passage (about 200-250 words) from one of the texts in the programme (part 1. Primary texts), and a commentary (15-20 lines long) which will contextualise the passage (10/30 marks). In case the question was on the "novels" (1c), the student will be allowed to refer to the novel s/he chose among the three listed in the programme.

D) 1 question on "The Merchant of Venice", with short answers ( about 3 lines) (non compulsory questions (up to additional 2 marks to the total result of A+B+C)

Time allowed: 2 hours and 30 mins

Italian students will give their answers in Italian (A, C, D) and either in Italian or English ( B).
Non-native speakers of Italian and Erasmus students can answers all questions in English, in which case they will be exempted from translating the passage (C) into Italian, and will be asked to provide a one-sheet commentary on the passage (C).

Answers in languages other than Italian and English will not be accepted.

Students will be allowed to use a monolingual Dictionary of English and English synonyms.
No other dictionaries are allowed during the examination.
The use of Smartphones, mobile phones, ipads, and other devices is highly forbidden during the examination.

Front lectures concerning the main themes above described; seminars for the discussions of texts and videos.

Italian

written