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: the Myth of America in literary texts and comics in the first half of the XX century.

Module A (3 CFU, 18 ore) “Comparative theories and criticism in the USA”

Comparative study of some the main theories and methodological approaches in contemporary literary criticism.

Modulo B (3 CFU, 18 ore) “The Myth of America from Literature to Comics: William Carlos Williams, Hart Crane, Carl Barks”

The construction and deconstruction of the national identity myth in literary texts and comics in the aftermath of WW I and WW II (1920s-1960s)

► 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

1) One book for choice between: W.C. Williams, In the American Grain (1925); H. Crane, The Bridge (1930), in whatever critical edition, yet preferably: the Williams’s book edited by R. Moody (New York, New Directions, 2009, 2^nd ed.); and the annotated version, ed. by L. Kramer, of Crane’s poem (New York, Fordham University Press, 2011).

2) Five comics for choice among:

C. Barks, “Mystery of the Swamp” (1945); “Donald Duck and the Ghost of the Grotto” (1947); “Sheriff of Bullett Valley” (1948); “Lost in the Andes” (1949); “Luck of the North” (1949); “Donald Duck [and the Jumping Frog]” (1950); “Rip Van Donald” (1950); “Vacation Time” (1950); “Donald Duck in Old California” (1951); “Donald Duck and the Golden Helmet” (1952); “Donald Duck and the Gilded Man” (1952); “Uncle Scrooge Back to Klondike” (1953); “Uncle Scrooge and the Seven Cities of Cibola” (1954); “Back to Long Ago!” (1956); “Donald Duck in Forbidden Valley” (1957); “Land of the Pigmy Indians” (1957); “Fantastic River Race” (1957); “Fabulous Tycoon” (1958); “The Prize of Pizzarro” (1959); “Ghosts of Pizen Bluff” (1959); “That’s No Fable!” (1960); “Island in the Sky” (1960); “Northeaster on Cape Quack” (1962); “Raven Mad” (1962); “Crown of the Mayas” (1963); “The Not-So-Ancient Mariner” (1966). [*]

3) J.B. Vickery, “Myth”, in A. Preminger, T.V.F. Brogan (eds.), The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1995, pp. 806-809. [*]

4) B. Anderson, “Imagined Communities: Nationalism’s Cultural Roots”, in S. During (ed.), The Cultural Studies Reader, New York and London, Routledge, 2007 (pp. 253-263) [*]

5) One article for choice between: B. Lanati, “In the American Grain” e il collage: tra indagine storica e sperimentalismo linguistico”, in L’avanguardia americana. Tre esperimenti, Einaudi, Torino 1977 (pp. 121-160) [*]; P. Dilonardo, “L’arpa e il telaio: lettura di The Bridge di Hart Crane”, in Contesti, 1, a. c. di V. Amoruso, Adriatica, Bari 1988 (pp. 83-139). [*]

6) T. Andrae, Carl Barks and the Disney Comic Book, Jackson, University Press of Mississippi, 2006 (pp. 3-30; 157-277). [*]

► Further readings: students with little or no knowledge of the history of American Literature will study the sections devoted to “Modernism”, and especially to W.C. Williams and H. Crane, from G. Fink et alii, Storia della letteratura americana, Milano, Rizzoli, 2013.

[*] The texts marked by the star will be available in .pdf, according to the dispositions concernig their fair use.

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