At the end of the course the students will reach a good knowledge of the cultural and literary history of the 19th and 20th centuries and particularly of the representaiton of violence and of the rise of mass literature, and of the relationship between literature and other media (radio, cinema, TV, comics, graphic novel, etc.).
Module A (Prof. Rosso): "War and Violence in the Literature of the USA". The goal of the course is to highlight some aspects of American culture through the representation of violence with special emphasis on war and detective fiction. Reading of one novel and short stories include: Ambrose Bierce ("Chickamauga, 1889); Mary Borden (pages from "The Forbidden Zone", 1929) or Art Spiegelman ("Maus" vol 1, 1986-1991), or Will Eisner ("Last Day in Vietnam", 2013; Tim O'Brien (three short-stories from "The Things They Carried", 1989); Raymond Chandler ("The Big Sleep", 1939). Furthermore students should read three critical essays and an encyclopedic entry of each writer treated in the course. Students should also watch three movies from this list: 1. Howard Hawks, "The Big Sleep" (1946) or John Huston, "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) or Billy Wilder, "Double Indemnity" (1944) or Fritz lang, "The Big Heat" (1953); 2. John Huston, "The Red Badge of Courage" (1951), or Stanley Kubrick, "Paths of Glory" (1957), or Francis Ford Coppola, "Apocalypse Now" (1979), or Stanley Kubrick, "Full Metal Jacket" (1986); 3. Clint Eastwood, "Blood Work" (2002) or "American Sniper" (2014), or two episodes from the TV series "Bosch" (Amazon Prime).
The course will be given in the 3rd and 4th sub-periods. All information will appear on the web page of the course (Moodle). ERASMUS students should inform the teacher of their enrollment in the course by sending him an e-mail (stefano.rosso@unibg.it(link sends e-mail)).
