LETTERATURA INGLESE DA CHAUCER ALLA RESTAURAZIONE A - L

The Course intends to pursue the following aims: 1) to introduce the students to the history of English literature, both synchronically and diachronically, from the Middle Ages to the Restoration; 2) to consolidate the contextual and specific knowledge of the period’s most important literary figures through direct exposure to a number of anthologised texts (both in full and as excerpts); 3) to enhance the students’ historical-literary awareness of key authors, texts, and genres of the period from the Middle Ages to the Restoration, while also favouring the acquisition and improvement of their language skills; 4) to offer methodological guidelines to literary criticism’s various trends, including Cultural and Gender Studies, with the aim of providing a critically more conscious approach to the texts and issues investigated.

Lectures delivered in Italian; group work in seminar format on select English literary texts (reading, translation and analysis).

(In case of remote learning, some changes may be introduced in order to abide by the program as laid out in the Syllabus).

Module A. Core Course (6 ECTS)

- Outline of the history of English literature from Chaucer to the Restoration

- Selection of significant texts/excerpts

- Methodology

Module B. In-Depth Study (3 ECTS)

Aphra Behn, the incomparable Astrea. Women and writing in the seventeenth Century

Module B offers an in-depth study of playwright, novelist and poet Aphra Behn, who is considered the first professional woman writer in English literature. We will read Behn’s biography written by Vita Sackville-West, with a selection of her texts, including extracts from her comedy The Rover, in order to examine the reasons for Astrea’s fame, from her unconventional life to her success in the world of the theatre and the literary marketplace dominated by men. We will focus in particular on the protofeminist themes that inform her work, and on the material and cultural context of its production.

Module A. Core Course (6 ECTS)

English Literature from Chaucer to the Restoration:

- Andrew Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature, Oxford UP, London, 3rd ed. 2004 (da Chaucer a Congreve, pp. 48-272, (also available in the Italian edition: Storia della letteratura inglese, Mondadori, Milano, 2001, 1° vol.).

- Anthology:

Correct English pronunciation, translation, and in-depth analysis of the rhetorics, stylistics, and formal features of the 16 chosen texts/excerpts will be required at the exam:

1. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, “The General Prologue” (vv. 1-42)
2. Thomas Wyatt, “I Find no Peace and All My War is Done”
3. Queen Elizabeth I, “Speech to the Troops at Tilbury” + John Knox’s The First Blast Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (excerpt) and Juan Luis Vives’ The Instruction of a Christen Woman (excerpt)
4. Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book I, Canto I: “A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine” (vv. 1-45)
5. Philip Sidney, Astrophel and Stella, Sonnet I, “Loving in truth, and faine in verse my love to show”
6. Mary Wroth, Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, Sonnet I, “When night’s blacke Mantle could most darknesse proue
7. Christopher Marlowe, The Tragicall History of Doctor Faustus, “Faustus’ last hour and damnation”: scene xiii (vv. 57-115)
8. William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “Oberon and Titania’s quarrel”, Act II, scene i (vv. 121-142; 161-180); “The Fairies’ love potion”, Act II, scene ii (vv. 1-41)
9. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet: “The Balcony scene”, Act II, scene ii (vv. 1-55); “Mercutio’s death”, Act III, scene i (vv. 57-113)
10. William Shakespeare, Hamlet: “To be or not to be”: Act III, scene i (vv. 64-98); “Yorick’s skull”: Act V, scene i (vv. 190-223)
11. John Donne, Songs and Sonnets, “A Lecture Upon the Shadow”
12. Katherine Philips, Poems by Mrs. Katherine Philips, the matchless Orinda, “Friendships Mystery, To My Dearest Lucasia”
13. Margaret Cavendish, The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing World, “The Epilogue to the Reader”
14. Aphra Behn, The Dutch Lover, “Epistle to the Reader” (excerpt)
15. John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I, “The Heroic Defeat” (vv. 242-70)
16. John Dryden, Mac Flecknoe (vv. 1-30)

For the historical and cultural contexts and notes to the texts, see:

- The Norton Anthology of English Literature, New York and London: W.W. Norton, vol. I;

- An Open Companion to Early British Literature, ed. A. Villarreal, Pressbooks, 2019 - open access:

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com

I testi di Shakespeare sono reperibili sul sito Folger Shakespeare Library - open access:

https://www.folger.edu/shakespeares-works

- Methodology:

- “Short Guide to English prosody and rhetorics” (handout by the teacher, available through Studium)

- Marchese, A., Dizionario di retorica e stilistica, Mondadori, Milano, 1990, the following entries: allegoria; allitterazione; anafora; anticlimax; autore; canzone; chiasmo; climax; comunicazione letteraria (solo paragrafo 3 della voce “comunicazione”); connotazione; contesto; denotazione; descrizione (o ekphrasis); destinatario; digressione; endiadi; enjambement, eroe; extratestualità; figura; generi letterari; ideologia; intertestualità; intratestualità; intreccio; iperbato; iperbole; ipotassi; ironia; leitmotiv; metafora; metonìmia; monologo; novella; ossimoro; paratassi; polisemia; prosa; punto di vista; romanzo; simbolo; similitudine; sonetto; tópos.

Module B. In-Depth Study (3 ECTS)

Aphra Behn, the incomparable Astrea. Women and writing in the seventeenth century

Primary text :

- Sackville-West, V. Aphra Behn. L’incomparabile Astrea, a cura di S. Arcara, Milano, Vanda Edizioni 2021 (con testo inglese) (pp. 210)

Critical essays :

- Aughterson, K., Aphra Behn: The Comedies, Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan 2003: ‘Introduction’, pp. 1-3; ‘Openings’, pp. 7-14; ‘Endings’, pp. 31-38; ‘Heroines and Whores’, pp. 80-87; 100-102; ‘Rakes and Gallants’, pp. 108-111; 122-123; ‘Carnival and Masquerade’, pp. 167-174; ‘General Conclusions Part 1’, pp. 202-203; ’Behn’s Literary Career’, pp. 207-220.

- Hobby, E., ‘Introduction’, in Virtue of Necessity. English Women’s Writing 1649-88, London, Virago 1988, pp. 1-13.

- Kegan Gardiner, J., ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Utopian Longings in Behn’s Lyric Poetry’, in Hutner, H., ed., Rereading Aphra Behn, University Press of Virginia 1993, pp. 273-281.

- Portelli, A., ‘Un principe nero per l’Europa’, Alias, 11, 1998, p. 17.

- Woolf, V., Una stanza tutta per sé / A Room of One’s Own, a cura di M.A. Saracino, Torino, Einaudi, 1995: Cap. 3, pp. 84-100 e Cap. 4, pp. 118-135 (testo inglese a fronte).

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).

Books listed in the programs that cannot be consulted in the Library will be available through Studium.