LETTERATURA INGLESE DALL’ILLUMINISMO ALLA FINE DEL VITTORIANESIMO

This course intends 1) to present students with the historical-literary trends, as well as the most significant authors of 18^th-19th century Britain; 2) to discern the distinctive features of the main literary genres in those periods; 3) to consolidate and enhance text analysis and appreciation skills.

Divided into two modules, this course will be held in English.

Module A, Literature and Culture: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries in Britain (7 ECTS), is centred both on the evolutionary phases and the most representative figures of 18^th- and 19^th-century literature. The activities that will be carried out in class will also enhance stylistic and critical appreciation skills.

Module B, Mysticism and Ekphrasis in Victorian Times: Dante Gabriel Rossetti (2 ECTS) will focus on Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), the leading figure of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1849-1852), particularly on some of his most significant double works. Close reading will also be essential in showing the relations between art and poetry in the author’s production and in the Victorian Age.

The materials that will be used in class, including extracts and bibliographical references, will be immediately made available in electronic form.

Module A – Literature and Culture: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (7 ECTS)

Correct English pronunciation, translation, and in-depth analysis of the rhetorics, stylistics, and formal features of the 20 chosen texts/excerpts will be required at the exam:

1. The Eighteenth Century

a. Principles and Ideas

Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1709)

Joseph Addison, The Aims of the “Spectator” (1711)

Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)

b. Constructing and Deconstructing: The Rise of the Novel

Samuel Richardson, Pamela, Or Virtue Rewarded (1740)

Eliza Haywood, Anti-Pamela, Or Feign’d Innocence Detected (1741)

Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (1762)

c. Travels and The Grand Tour

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, The Turkish Embassy Letters (1762)

Esther Lynch Piozzi, A Journey Through France, Italy and Germany (1789)

d. The Age of the Sublime and the Gothic

Anne Radcliffe, A Sicilian Romance (1790)

Mattew Lewis, The Monk: A Romance (1796)

2. The Early Nineteenth Century: The Romantic Age

a. Nature, Imagination and Egotism

William Blake, The Lamb (1789)

William Wordsworth, “The Preface” to The Lyrical Ballads (1801) – Daffodils (1804)

b. From Dissent to the Cult of History and Beauty

John Keats, The Elgin Marbles (1817)

P.B. Shelley, Song: To the Men of England (1819)

Walter Scott, Ivanhoe (1819)

3. The Victorian Age

a. Depicting Reality

Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton (1848)

Charles Dickens: Hard Times (1854)

b. Forms of Escapism: The Past, Nonsense and Horror

Alfred Tennyson, Ulysses (1833)

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897)

Module B – Mysticism and Ekphrasis in Victorian Times: Dante Gabriel Rossetti (2 ECTS)

This module will also include an introduction to the artistic and cultural activities of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848-1852) and of its leader Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The short story Hand and Soul, which appeared in the literary journal The Germ in 1850, will have to be read in full.

D.G. Rossetti, Mary’s Girlhood. For a Picture (1849)

― Hand and Soul (1850)

― The Passover in the Holy Family. For a Picture (1867)

― Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon the Pharisee. For a Drawing (1869)

Module A – Literature and Culture: The Eighteenth and the Nineteenth Centuries (7 ECTS)

1. History of English Literature from the Enlightenment to the Victorian Age

Sanders, Andrew, The Short Oxford History of English Literature, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1994, pp. 273-483 [or third edition, 2004, pp. 276-491].

2. Anthology

For the historical and cultural contexts and notes to the texts/excerpts that will be analysed during the course, see

The Oxford Anthology of English Literature, vol. 2, New York, London and Toronto [latest edition].

The Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. 2, New York and London [latest edition].

3. Methodology and Literary Terms

Cuddon John Anthony, The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, London, Penguin [latest ed.] (the complete list of the literary terms that will be used during the course will be made available in electronic form).

Module B – Mysticism and Ekphrasis in Victorian Times: Dante Gabriel Rossetti (2 ECTS)

1. Primary Texts

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Hand and Soul, «The Germ», 1, 1850, p. 23-33.

― Mary’s Girlhood. For a Picture (1849)

― The Passover in the Holy Family. For a Picture (1867)

― Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon the Pharisee. For a Drawing (1869)

Rossetti’s poems are taken from Jan Marsh, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Collected Writings, London, J. Dent, 1999, pp. 7, 250.

2. Critical Essays

D’Amore Manuela, “Ekphrastic Representations of the Mystical ‘Other’: Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Poetry (1849-1881)”, in Gioia Angeletti, Giovanna Buonanno, Diego Saglia (a cura di), Remediating Imagination. Literatures and Cultures from the Renaissance to the Postcolonial, Roma, Carocci, 2016, pp. 73-84.

Kashtan Aaron, “Pre-Raphaelite Approaches to Ut Pictura Poesis: Sister Arts or Sibling Rivalry?”, «English and History of Art», 151, Brown University, 2004.

http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/prb/kashtan12.html

Marsh Jan, “Introduction”, in ID. (ed.), Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Collected Writings, London, J. Dent, 1999, pp. xi-xxvii.

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.