LETTERATURA ANGLO-AMERICANACOMPARATA / COMPARATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE

Knowledge (Contents)

Literary theory and criticism in the US (XX-XXI century).

Know-How (Skills)

The practice of literary theory and criticism. Case study: a critical reading of the literary hoax.

Lectures, assignements, class discussion.

Module A

“Comparative theories and criticism in the USA”

Comparative study of some the main theories and methological approaches in contemporary literaty criticism.

Module B

“Hoax! Literature and Fake News between Science, History, and Biography”

Four literary hoaxers between xvii and xx century: Benjamin Franklin, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Clifford Irving (with a note on Alain Sokal).

► Module A

1) Ten chapters from: P. Barry, Beginning Theory. An Introduction to

Literary and Cultural Theory, Manchester and New York, Manchester University Press, 2009: “Introduction” (pp. 1-10); “Structuralism” (pp. 38-58); “Post-structuralism and Deconstruction” (pp. 59-77); “Postmodernism” (pp. 78-91); “Psychoanalytic Criticism” (pp. 92-115); “Feminist Criticism” (pp. 116-133); “Lesbian/Gay Criticism” (pp. 134-149); “New Historicism and Cultural Materialism” (pp. 178-184); “Postcolonial Criticism” (pp. 185-197); “Ecocriticism” (pp. 239-261).

2) Six essays, for choice, from: J. Rivkin, M. Ryan (eds.), Literary Theory: An Anthology, New York and London, Blackwell, 2004.

► Module B

Texts

A choice of texts for each author will be agreed on with the teacher:

Benjamin Franklin

“The Silence Dogood Letters” (1722); “A Witch Trial at Mount Holly” (1730); “The Death of Titan Leeds” (1732); “The Trial of Polly Baker” (1747); “The Electric Kite” (1752); Fart Proudly (1781); “Supplement to the Boston Independent Chronicle” (1782).

Edgar Allan Poe

“The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Phaall” (1835); “Maelzel’s Chess-Player” (1836); “The Balloon Hoax” (1844); “Mesmeric Revelation” (1844); “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” (1845); “Von Kempelen and His Discovery” (1849).

Mark Twain

“The Petrified Man” (1862); “A Bloody Massacre Near Carson” (1863); “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (1865); “A Touching Story of George Washington’s Boyhood” (1867); 1601. Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors. (1880); A Double-Barrelled Detective Stor, cap. IV, “Incipit” (1901); “The Jumping Frog: In English, then in French, then Clawed Back into a Civilized Language Once More by Patient, Unremunerated Toil” (1903).

Clifford Irving

Autobiograhy of Howard Hughes (New York, McGraw-Hill 1972, volume mandato al macero), nella edizione diffusa in .pdf dall’autore, 2006²; The Hoax, New York, Permanent Press, 1981.

Criticism

Mandatory study of the following articles and essays:

On Literary Hoaxes | B. McHale, “‘A Poet May Not Exist’: Mock-Hoaxes and the Construction of National Identity”, in The Faces of Anonymity: Anonymous and Pseudonymous Publication from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century, ed. by R.J. Griffin, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, pp. 233-252; L. Rosson, “Brian McHale’s Literary Hoaxes”, The Busybody, November 1, 2005:

https://rossonl.wordpress.com/2005/11/01/brian-mchale-on-literary-hoaxes/

On Franklin | G. Del Guercio, “How Benjamin Franklin’s Dream Came True. The Origins of the American’s Dream in His Autobiograaphy”, Varsity Tutors:

https://www.varsitytutors.com/earlyamerica/early-america-review/volume-14/franklins-american-dream

J. Weinberger, “Benjamin Franklin and Fake News”, Hudson Institute, December 12, 2016;

https://www.hudson.org/research/13133-benjamin-franklin-and-fake-news

On Poe | T. Whalen, “Poe and the American Publishing Industry”, in A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe, ed. J. G. Kennedy, Oxford and New York, OUP, 2001, pp. 63-93; L. Walsh, “Poe’s Hoaxing and the Construction of Readerships”, in Sins Against Science. The Scientific Media Hoaxes of Poe, Twain, and Others, New York, State University of New York Press, 2006. pp. 51-119

On Mark Twain | B. Michelson, “Mark Twain and the Escape from Sense”, in Mark Twain on the Loose. A Comic Writer and the American Self, Amherst, University of Massachissets Press, 1995, pp. 1-37; L. Walsh, “Mark Twain and the Social Mechanics of Laughter”, in Sins Against Science. The Scientific Media Hoaxes of Poe, Twain, and Others, cit., pp. 121-171.

On Irving | M. Katsoulis, “The Autobiography of Howard Hughes”, in Telling Tales: A History of Literary Hoaxes, London, Constable, 2009, pp. 108-11; W. Grimes, “Clifford Irving, Author of a Notorious Literary Hoax, Dies at 87”, New York Times, December 20, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/obituaries/clifford-irving-author-of-a-notorious-literary-hoax-dies-at-87.html

Extra

Suggested reading and vision, although not mandatory, of the following articles and movies:

Film with and on Clifford Irving

Orson Welles, F For Fake! (1973); Lasse Hallström, The Hoax (2006).

Alain Sokal’s Hoax

“Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics”, Social Text, 46/47, Spring/Summer 1996, pp. 217-252

https://physics.nyu.edu/sokal/transgress_v2/transgress_v2_singlefile.html

B. Robbins, A. Ross, “Editorial Response to Sokal’s Hoax by the Editors of Social Texts” https://physics.nyu.edu/sokal/SocialText_reply_LF.pdf

On Sokal | P. Barry, “The Sokal Affair”, in Beginning Theory, cit. (pp. 284-286)

► Further readings

Students with little or no knowledge of the history of American Literature, or do not attend classes, or want to know more will find detailed information on the authors at the following links:

The Papers of Benjamin Franklin

https://franklinpapers.org/

The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore

https://www.eapoe.org/index.htm

“Mark Twain”, Enciclopædia Britannica

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mark-Twain

K. Kipling, “Behind the Fake: An Interview with Author Clifford Irving”, Sarasota Magazine, May 30, 2014

https://www.sarasotamagazine.com/arts-and-entertainment/2014/05/behind-fake-interview-author-clifford-irving

Online access to Criticism

Within the limits of fair use, the texts will be made available in .pdf on Studium.

Briefing Note on Copyright

Please remember that in compliance with art 171 L22.04.1941, n. 633 and its amendments, it is illegal to copy entire books or journals, only 15% of their content can be copied.

For further information on sanctions and regulations concerning photocopying please refer to the regulations on copyright (Linee Guida sulla Gestione dei Diritti d’Autore) provided by AIDRO - Associazione Italiana per i Diritti di Riproduzione delle opere dell’ingegno (the Italian Association on Copyright).

All the books listed in the programs can be consulted in the Library.