Contemporary English

The course aims to reinforce students’ linguistic and communicative competences in English, accompanying them to level C2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Teaching will be in English and the course is organized into two modules.

MODULE A represents one third of the course (six of the eighteen classes) and will involve consideration and analysis (close reading) of a series of texts provided specifically for (and in advance of) each meeting, each an example of written or spoken contemporary English, each coming from a different domain - mass media (print and broadcast), literature, translation, academia, international communication. Some attention will be given to some basic instruments of critical discourse analysis.

MODULE B represents the remaining two thirds of the course (12 classes) and will be dedicated to literary translation with particular emphasis on Italian texts translated into English. Translation Studies will be presented as a multi- and interdisciplinary approach that can provide instruments useful in helping to understand the natures and the purposes of the various expressions of contemporary English.

Orwell, George 1946 “Politics and the English Language” (1946)

http://ojs.ub.gu.se/ojs/index.php/njes/article/viewFile/658/609

Machin, David and Mayr, Andrea 2012 How to Do Critical Discourse

Analysis: A Multimodal Introduction, London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Wright, Chantal 2016 Literary Translation, London: Routledge.