19TH CENTURY LITERATURE

This module is part of the curriculum in English literature in the LLEAP MastersA and it is part of the EUROPEAN JOINT DEGREE IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES programme. It is an advanced course that builds on the students’ solid knowledge of English literary history and criticism.
Students are expected to:
1. have a very good knowledge of English Literature of the 19th century;
2. read a variety of Victorian works which are representative of the period under scrutiny;
3. handle stylistic and formal concepts, applying them to the texts in the syllabus referring to their contexts and to the impact on the readers;
4. read and discuss the critical sources in the syllabus, formulating judgements;
5. analyze and contextualize primary and secondary texts in an appropriately and autonomously.


The module examines the literature of the Victorian era, by studying a selection of key themes and texts in relation to the social and political context. The module introduces the students to some fundamental concepts, methods, and vocabulary employed in Victorian Studies. The course is part of the syllabus of EUROPEAN JOINT DEGREE IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES, and the competence achieved will be tested in the foreign universities where Joint Degree students spend a semester as part of the programme, in interaction with international students.

- This module engages the student in gaining a critical appreciation of Victorian literature by exploring the works of some 19th-century British authors.
- The student will develop his/her skills in critical analysis and close textual reading, and will learn to place selected works within the social, cultural and literary contexts.
- The aim is to enable the student to gain a deeper understanding of Victorian culture also in an interdisciplinary perspective, applying cultural theories, and exploring particular aspects of visual culture, such as art, architecture, book illustration.
- The student will develop his/her critical abilities and independent capacity of judgement, and reflect on the social and ethical issues at the heart of the works, reaching an advanced capacity of expressing the range of cultural and literary acquisitions in an appropriate English language, of arguing critically about them, and of communicating them clearly.

An excellent command of the English language.
Good general knowledge of the history of English literature.

The Country and the City in Victorian Literature

Why do certain images of rural life occur or recur in different periods of time, and what kinds of experiences, ideas and feelings of the countryside and the city are represented in nineteenth century literature? Starting from Raymond Williams’s seminal book "The Country and the City" (1973) on English cultural history, and more recent criticism on the subject, the module will engage the students in a reading of some works of the long 19th century, whose settings, plots and characters’ lives are constructed on these two poles of the narrative space.

Works :
a selection of verses by William Wordsworth, George Crabbe, John Clare
Elizabeth Gaskell, "Sylvia’s Lovers", 1863
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "Aurora Leigh", 1857
George Eliot, "Middlemarch", 1874
John Ruskin (ed.) "Roadside Songs of Tuscany", 1885

Criticism:
Raymond Williams, "The Country and the City" (1973), 2011
Malcolm Andrews, "A Sweet View the Making of an English Idyll", 2023
Gerald M. MacLean, Donna Landry, Joseph P. Ward, "The Country and the City Revisited: England and the Politics of Culture", 1999.
A full list of secondary readings will be provided during the lectures

Works :
a selection of verses by William Wordsworth, George Crabbe, John Clare
Elizabeth Gaskell, "Sylvia’s Lovers", 1863
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "Aurora Leigh", 1857
George Eliot, "Middlemarch", 1874
John Ruskin (ed.) "Roadside Songs of Tuscany", 1885

Criticism:
Raymond Williams, The Country and the City (1973), 2011
Malcolm Andrews, A Sweet View the Making of an English Idyll, 2023
Gerald M. MacLean, Donna Landry, Joseph P. Ward, The Country and the City Revisited: England and the Politics of Culture, 1999.

A full list of secondary readings will be provided at the beginning of the module and, if unavailable at the library, will be uploaded on the Moodle platform.

The exam is composed of two parts:

1) Written test with two open questions on the topics of the course (50% of final grade)
2) ORAL EXAM: (30 minutes) in which students will be evaluated in their ability to critically discuss the texts in correct and fluent English.

During the course students may present a text on the syllabus working in group with other students (25%of the final grade).

lezioni frontali, seminari, con presentazioni di gruppo

English

written and oral