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 19th-century literature by exploring some poems, novels, non-fiction of 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 British literature, also in an interdisciplinary perspective, applying cultural theories, and exploring particular aspects of visual culture.
- 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, 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 introduce the student to the classical origins of pastoral literature, focussing on some works of the long 19th century, whose settings, are constructed on these two poles of the narrative space.

The module will examine the following novels and poems:

Poems by John Milton, William Wordsworth, George Crabbe, J.M. Hopkins, Christina Rossetti, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning

John Ruskin, passages from: "Pre-Raphaelitism"; "On the Pathetic Fallacy"(Modern Painters III); "Fiction Fair and Foul".
Novels by
George Eliot, "Adam Bede", "Silas Marner" (1863)
Elizabeth Gaskell, "Sylvia's Lovers" (1863)
Thomas Hardy, one novel
Virginia Woolf, "Flush" (1933)

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) 3000-word essay to be handed in one week before the oral exam, on a topic of the module (50% of final grade)
2) ORAL EXAM: (30 minutes) in which students will be evaluated on 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 groups with other students (25%of the final grade).

written and oral

28-30: mastery of the topics covered in the lectures and in the reference texts; ability to order information and present it orally; familiarity with the appropriate critical terminology. Honours will be awarded in the presence of excellent knowledge and understanding of the syllabus, judgement and communication skills;

26-27: very good knowledge of topics covered in lectures and in reference texts; good ability to order information and present it orally; familiarity with critical terminology;

24-25: good knowledge of the topics covered in the lecture and in the reference texts; orderly oral presentation but not always correct use of critical terminology;

22-23: fair knowledge of the topics covered in class and in the reference texts; oral exposition unclear and lacking in critical terminology;

18-21: Superficial knowledge of the topics dealt with in the lecture and in the reference texts; oral exposition confused, with little use of specific terminology.

lectures, guest lectures, seminars, students' presentations