LETTERATURA INGLESE DA CHAUCER ALLA RESTAURAZIONE

The course aims: 1) to promote and/or to improve the study of English literature, also providing the basic tools for in-depth analysis of literary texts; 2) to provide a broad, general survey of the development of English literature from Chaucer to the end of the 17th century, with special emphasis on the main features of literary periods and movements and selected (major) authors; 3) to help undergraduates acquire critical habits in reading literature and to develop an understanding of the importance of social and cultural issues in literary texts.

Traditional lessons for a total number of 54 hours: 36 hours (6 credits) for Module A: “I Fondamenti” + 18 hours (3 credits) for Module B: “Approfondimenti".

Though not compulsory, attendance to the lessons is strongly recommended.

Module A) Defining features of Middle-English, Elizabethan and Restoration literature; literary movements and selected authors; close reading of excerpts from major authors’ works.

Module B) This module investigates the way in which political and social demands of the Elizabethan Age and of the Restoration foster coeval dramatic productions. Trough the close reading of excerpts from a few paradigmatic plays, the student will see how aspects of the contemporary debate on the role and nature of the sovereign, colonialism, racism, religious prejudice and woman condition, are dramatized by Shakespeare, Lee and Congreve.

Module A. «Fondamenti» (6 CFU)

P. Bertinetti (ed.), Storia della letteratura Inglese, Einaudi, Torino, 2000, in two volumes: I volume, Dalle origini al Settecento, pp. 36-314.

Or one of the following:

A. Cattaneo, Short History of English Literature. Vol. I: From the Middle Ages to the Romantics, Milano, Mondadori, 2011, pp. 14-139.

A. Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature, London, O.U.P., (capp. 2-4), pp. 56-272.

Suggested reading:

L.M. Crisafulli - K. Elam (eds.), Manuale di letteratura e di cultura inglese, Bononia University Press, Bologna, 2009, pp. 12-137.

Anthology: Selected literary texts and excerpts (available in the teacher’s office and at studium.unict.it).

Methodology and critical terms: J.A. Cuddon, The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, London, Penguin, last ed. (selected entries); or: R. Fowler, A dictionary of modern critical terms, London, Routledge, last ed. (selected entries).

Module B. «Politics and society in the Elizabethan and Restoration drama» (3 CFU)

Primary sources:

- Shakespeare William,The Merchant of Venice, London, Arden, last ed., selected excerpts;

- Shakespeare William, Macbeth, London, Arden, last ed., selected excerpts;

- Shakespeare William, The Tempest, London, Arden, last ed., selected excerpts;

- Lee Nathaniel, Lucius Junius Brutus, Regents Restoration Drama, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, last ed., selected excerpts;

- Congreve William, The Way of the World, London, Methuen, 2020, last ed., selected excerpts.

Secondary sources (at least one for each primary source):

- Belsey Catherine, “Introduction: Reading the Past”, in The Subject of Tragedy: Identity and Difference in Renaissance Drama, London, Routledge 2014, pp 1-10;

- Brown Paul, “ ‘This thing of darkness I ackowledge mine’: The Tempest and the discourse of colonialism”, in Dollimore Jonathan and Sinfield Alan, eds., Political Shakespeare. Essays in cultural materialism, Manchester, Manchester U.P., 2003, pp. 48-71;

- Lombardo, Agostino, La grande conchiglia. Due studi su La Tempesta, Roma, Bulzoni, 2002;

- Manferlotti Stefano, Shakespeare, Roma, Salerno editrice, 2010, pp. 141-148, pp. 180-203;

McEachern Claire, “Shakespeare, religion and politics”, in The New Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare, Cambridge U.P., 2010 (e-book 2011), pp. 185-200;

- Montrose Louis, “Shakespeare, the Stage, and the State”, SubStance, Special Issue Politics on Stage, 25, 2, 1996, pp. 46-67;

- Papetti Viola, “Introduzione”, in Congreve William, Così va il mondo, Milano, Rizzoli, 1995, pp. 7-28;

- Persico Gemma, “ 'Why should any one man have more power than the people?': la teatralizzazione del dibattito politico-costituzionale nel Lucius Junius Brutus di Nathaniel Lee", in AAVV., Le Forme del Teatro. Saggi sul teatro Elisabettiano e della Restaurazione, Roma, Dipartimento di Letterature Comparate della Terza Università di Roma, pp. 131-149;
- Serpieri Alessandro, “Contratti d’amore e di morte in The Merchant of Venice”, in Tempera Mariangela, ed., The Merchant of Venice. Dal testo alla scena, Bologna, CLUEB, 1994, pp. 9-21;

- Williams George Walton, “Macbeth: King James's Play”, South Atlantic Review, 47, 2, 1982, pp.12-21.

Suggested reading:

- Greenblatt Stephen et al., Introductions to The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, The Tempest, in The Norton Shakespeare, New York, Norton, 1997, pp. 1081-1089, pp. 2555-2563, pp 3047-3053.

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 program can be consulted in the Library.