ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURE

Knowledge (Contents)

Genres, texts, contexts and representative North American writers in English (XVII-XXI century).

 

Know-How (Skills)

Text-types and literary genres recognition. Critical reading (textual/contextual analysis) of representative Anglo-American works.

Module A (6 CFU, 36 hrs) “Texts, Contexts, Cognitive Maps”

Concise history of AmLit (XVII-XXI centuries). Introduction to a critical reading of works, authors, themes, motifs, text-types, genres, forms.

 

Module B (3CFU, 18 hrs) “Adaptation, transcodification, intermedia: City of Glass by Paul Auster”

City of Glass, the first novel of Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy, and its comic book and theatrical versions (respectively, by Paul Karasik/David Mazzucchelli, and Duncan MacMillan).

► Module A

1) All the writers and the “literary movements” listed in D. Campbell’s site, Brief Timeline of American Literature and Events: Pre-1620 to 1920:

http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/

However, study of the above requires the use of a literary history. Students may choose among: P. Lauter (ed.), A Companion to American Literature and Culture, Hobboken, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010; R. Gray, A History of American Literature, Blackwell, Malden and Oxford 2004; G. Fink, Storia della letteratura americana, Milano, Rizzoli, 2013.

 

2) Sixteen representative texts chosen from one of the following anthologies: P. Lauter (gen. ed.), The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Lexington, D.C. Heath & Co. (whatever edition); N. Baym et alii, (eds.), The Norton Anthology of American Literature, New York, W. W. Norton & Co. (whatever edition); D. McQuade et alii (eds.), The Harper American Literature, New York, HarperCollins ( (whatever edition).

 

3) Two classics, in whatever critical edition, chosen from the following list: B. Franklin, Autobiography (1793); W. Irving, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1820); J.F. Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans (1826); E.A. Poe, Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque (1840); F. Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845); N. Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850); M. Fuller, Memoirs (1852); H. Melville, Billy Budd, Sailor (1891); Mark Twain, Pudd’n’head Wilson (1894); S. Crane, The Red Badge of Courage (1895); K. Chopin, The Awakening (1899); J. London, The Iron Heel (1908); E. Wharton, The Age of Innocence (1920); F.S. Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise (1920); T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922); W. Stevens, Harmonium (1923); J. Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer (1925); W. Cather, The Professor’s House (1925); N. Larsen, Passing (1929); W. Faulkner, Sanctuary (1931); G. Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933); E. Hemingway, Winner Take Nothing (1933); D. Barnes, Nightwood (1936); J. Fante, Ask the Dust (1939); C. McCullers, The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (1940); H.D., Trilogy (1944); S. Bellow, Dangling Man (1944); T. Capote, The Grass Harp (1951); R. Ellison, Invisible Man (1952); A. Miller, The Crucible (1952); J. Barth, The Floating Opera (1956); E. O’Neill, Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1956); J. Kerouac, On the Road (1957); W. Burroughs, The Naked Lunch (1959); A. Baraka, Blues People (1963); G. Brooks, Selected Poems (1963); A. Sexton, Selected Poems (1964); R. Brautigan, The Abortion (1971); V. Nabokov, Tyrants Destroyed and Other Stories (1975); J. Ashbery, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1975); L.M. Silko, Ceremony (1977); Ph. K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly (1977); W. Abish, How German Is It (1980); S. Plath, The Collected Poems (1981); R. Coover, Spanking the Maid (1982); J. Kosinski, Pinball (1982); E. Bishop, Complete Poems, 1927-1979 (1983); R. Carver, Cathedral (1983); R. Creeley, Collected Poems, 1945-1975 (1983); J. Harjo, She Had Some Horses (1983); D. Mamet, Glengarry Glenn Ross (1983); W. Gibson, Neuromancer (1984); T. Morrison, Beloved (1987); J. Ellroy, My Dark Places (1996); D. DeLillo, Underworld (1997); J. Franzen, The Corrections (2001); J. Eugenides, Middlesex (2002); D.F. Wallace, Oblivion (2004); J.S. Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005); H. Mathews, My Life in CIA (2005); Th. Pynchon, Inherent Vice (2009).

 

► Module B

1) P. Auster, City of Glass, New York, Penguin Books, 1985; P. Karasik, D. Mazzucchelli, City of Glass: The Graphic Novel, New York, Avon Books, 1994; D. Mac Millan, Paul Auster’s City of Glass. Adapted for the Stage by Duncan Mac Millan, Islington (London); Oberon Books, 2017.

 

2) M. Wood, “Paul Auster, The Art of Fiction n.178”, The Paris Review, 167, Fall 2003:

https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/121/paul-auster-the-art-of-fiction-no-178-paul-auster

 

3) D. Coughlan, “Paul Auster’s City of Glass: the Graphic Novel”, Modern Fiction Studies 52 (4), Winter 2006, 832-854:

http://comicsstudies.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/52389497/52.4coughlan.pdf

 

4) L. Gardner, “City of Glass Review – Paul Auster’s meta-mystery gets a stunning staging”, the guardian, March 10^th, 2017:

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/10/city-of-glass-review-paul-auster-staging-home-manchester-lyric-hammersmith

 

► Further readings

On the literaty text, in prose or verse, student may wish to consult: L. Chines, C. Varotti, Che cos’è un testo letterario, Roma, Carocci, 2015 (2^nd ed.); J. Hollander, Rhyme’s Reason. A Guide to English Verse (New, Enlarged Edition), New Haven, Yale University Press, 1989.

 

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