The course is meant 1. to provide tools of critical, cultural and literary analysis along with notions of critical theory; 2. to teach ways of reading cultural and literary texts.
At the end of the course students:
a. will have acquired an enhanced familiarity with British literary and cultural history;
b. will competently apply critical skills to literary texts;
c. will be able to describe and discuss literature as a complex cultural system;
d. will be able to assess literary texts independently;
e. will have refined their aesthetic sensibility to literary language and to the rhetorical richness of the texts to literary language and to the rhetorical richness of the texts.
A good command of spoken and written English; a sound knowledge of the history of English literature and culture; students should also possess a good knowledge of Italian.
Lectures, films. Lessons will include PowerPoint slides, as well as audio-video materials.
Students will be asked to actively participate in these activities, with discussion and debate.
Guest lecturers will contribute to focus on specific topics.
Should the course switch to remote learning, some changes to the syllabus may be introduced.
Attending students will be tested by means of a final oral exam and through oral presentations and written tests during the course.
Required abilities for the oral or written exam:
1. students must show good knowledge of the literary and cultural contexts related to the issues discussed in the course
2. students are expected to read all the texts in English and to translate them into Italian
3. students are expected to engage the issues critically with relevant references to the texts addressed in the course.
The final grade is the average mark for the two assessments given in the same exam session. The mark of the written exams is visible in the student's webpage. A mail is sent by the system to inform about the publication of results.
Grading scale:
a.Outstanding (30 e lode ): excellent knowledge of all of the contents of the course. Excellent ability to analyze the texts and to contextualize them in an appropriate way. The student uses the academic writing register/style with appropriate linguistic terminologies. The translation if required is correct.
b. Very good (30 to 27): very good knowledge of all of the contents of the course. Very good ability to analyze the texts and to contextualize them in an appropriate way. The translation if required contains hardly any mistakes.
c. Good (26-24): Good knowledge of the contents of the course. Adequate ability to describe the texts. The language used is simple but correct. The translation if required is good.
d. Fair/sufficient (23-18): The exam show sufficient knowledge, coherence, use of appropriate resources and quality of presentation to warrant a basic pass. The ability to analyze the texts is not wholly satisfactory. The answer is very descriptive and does not fully address the issues raised by the question. The translation if required is not wholly satisfactory.
e. Fail (below 18): The student demonstrates only a basic awareness of the contents of the course. The answer is frequently confused and incoherent, contains inaccuracies and major errors.
The course addresses a selection of novels, moves from the definition of literature, introduces the historical development of the novel as genre and analyzes with different critical approaches some works starting with the XIXth C. through the XXth C and XXIth C, dealing specifically with different representations of British culture and of the Imperial roots of contemporary multiethnic culture.
Students who cannot attend classes may be required to attend recorded lessons and to submit the requested assignments in order to be admitted to the exam.
They are requested to get in touch with the instructor.
Coursebooks are also available in the University Library
