ENGLISH CULTURE AND LITERATURE

The course is part of the core subjects of Bachelor's Degree Programme in Linguistic and Cultural Mediation and aims to introduce students to the analysis of literary works produced in the context of Anglophone cultures. It will provide students with the tools to analyse such works from a formal point of view and to relate them to the cultural, historical and social issues from which they emerge and which they represent. The course also aims to stimulate reflection on interconnected facets of modernity (ecology, colonialism, capitalism, migration) represented in the texts.

Students should acquire basic knowledge of the cultures and history of Anglophone countries, literary genres and the categories of stylistic and narratological analysis. They should learn to read and analyse literary works from a formal point of view, and establish relationships between texts and their cultural and historical context. Finally, they will have to develop skills in oral (through class discussion) and written communication (in order to prepare for the exam); and to develop the ability to independently analyse literary texts and the issues raised by them.

No prerequisites, but knowledge of English to at least B1 level is recommended.

TITLE: Anglophone Literatures and Cultures as a Mirror of Modernity: Colonialism, Capitalism, Ecology, Migration

The course aims to offer an introduction to Anglophone cultures within modernity (Britain, the United States, Canada), including the literary and cultural production in English by minority authors (e.g., diasporic or Indigenous authors). It offers a diachronic journey that will enable students to understand how Anglophone cultures participate in the construction of (and are in turn influenced by) fundamental global dynamics such as colonialism, capitalism, ecological crises, and migration. This will lead us to talk about seemingly disconnected themes such as the cultural construction of the Other, globalization, the relationship between humans and non-humans, mythologies of the frontier, colonial invasions, practices of extractivism and exploitation, the emergence of multicultural societies, disasters, and post-apocalyptic narratives.

We will begin by problematizing the concept of ‘English culture’ and discussing how literature and culture can narrate reality, even when they use non-mimetic modes of narration (such as the fairy-tale/fable or speculative literature). We will then address some short stories by two writers (the Anglo-Indian author Rudyard Kipling, and the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson) that depict two different colonial realities of the late 1800s (India under British rule, and the Pacific, partitioned among various colonial powers). These stories will present to us (from two politically distant perspectives) the ambiguities, complexities, and contradictions of British colonial culture in its relationship with colonized populations. We will then address the American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, and the way in which her science fiction reimagines the myth of the frontier and American expansionism, either to criticize it (in the novel The World for Word is Forest) or to imagine it in more benign, though not necessarily utopian, versions (as in the short story “Solitude”). We will then discuss the Refugee Tales project, which will open a window on the hostile migration policies of contemporary British society, with particular emphasis on “The Soldier's Tale as told to Neel Mukherjee.” Finally, the novel “The Marrow Thieves” by Cherie Dimaline (a dystopian novel belonging to the Young Adult genre, written by an Indigenous author) will allow us to discuss how a certain view of the environment and nature, in the context of a world-system that maintains colonial inequalities, perpetuates forms of environmental and social injustice.

Essential readings:
Rudyard Kipling, “The Phantom Rickshaw” (1888) and “Kaa’s Hunting” (1893), available on Moodle.
Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Bottle-Imp” (1891), available on Moodle
Ursula K. Le Guin, "Solitude" [1994] in The Real and the Unreal - Selected Short Stories Vol. 2 (2012), Gollancz
Ursula K. Le Guin, The World for Word is Forest (2015)[1972], The Orion Publishing Group
Neel Mukherjee, “The Soldier's Tale”, in Refugee Tales II (2017), a cura di David Herd e Anna Pincus, Comma Press.
Cherie Dimaline, The Marrow Thieves, DCB, 2017.

Optional Readings:
Available on Moodle.

The written examination (in Italian) lasts 2 hours and consists of four questions on the topics of the course, including the analysis of short excerpts from the texts. The student must be able to understand and comment on the excertps independently. In the examination, the student must demonstrate knowledge of the contents of the texts discussed in class (including the plot of the novels/short stories), knowledge of the historical and cultural context of the texts, be able to apply basic textual analysis tools presented in class, and be able to reflect on the political issues in the texts.

written

The minimum grade is 18, the maximum grade is 30 cum laude. The grades will be assigned as follows:
A. range 18-22: sufficient content knowledge; limited ability for independent discussion; limited knowledge of basic textual analysis tools; limited knowledge of the cultural-historical context and issues in the texts.
B. range 23-26: decent content knowledge; decent independent discussion skills, decent knowledge of basic textual analysis tools, decent knowledge of the historical-cultural context and issues present in the texts.
C. range 27-30: good content knowledge; good independent discussion skills, good knowledge of basic textual analysis tools, good knowledge of the historical-cultural context and issues present in the texts.
D. Cum Laude: awarded in case the content knowledge, independent discussion skills, knowledge of basic textual analysis tools, and knowledge of the cultural-historical context and issues present in the texts is excellent.

Lectures. Class discussions. The Moodle e-learning platform will be used for communication with the students and to distribute teaching materials (slides; parts of the bibliography).

Students can (and are encouraged to) view the written exam by asking for an appointment.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development