LITERATURES ANGLOAMERICAN

Academic year and teacher
If you can't find the course description that you're looking for in the above list, please see the following instructions >>
Versione italiana
Academic year
2016/2017
Teacher
MARIA GIULIA FABI
Credits
9
Didactic period
Primo Semestre
SSD
L-LIN/11

Training objectives

To broaden the knowledge of American literary history, to develop the ability to do close readings, and to increase students’ analytical and critical skills through an in-depth examination of American literature and literary criticism.

Prerequisites

Knowledge of the English language: level B1+/B2. The course will be taught partly in English. The reading material will be available also in Italian translation.

Course programme

"Discourses of Gender in American Literature."
The course will examine various strategies of representation of female and male characters in American literature, discussing them within their broader literary-historical context. The textual analysis will foreground the politics of representation of gender, ethnicity, and class in relation to the critical methodologies of Ethnic Studies and Women’s Studies. Frederick Douglass, Henry James e Charlotte Perkins Gilman will be among the authors under examination. The course will be taught primarily in English. Students will be encouraged to participate actively in the discussion.

Didactic methods

Lectures and in-class student participation.

Learning assessment procedures

An oral exam will test the students' knowledge of the texts and of their literary historical context.
The exam will be partly in English. Students may choose TWO texts to discuss in Italian. The rest of the material will be analyzed in English.

Reference texts

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (edizione bilingue). 1845. (Venezia: Marsilio, 2015).
** James, Henry. Daisy Miller (edizione bilingue). 1878. (Milano: Alia, 2011).
** “La Dichiarazione di Indipendenza degli Stati Uniti d’America” (1776; pp. 68-83).
** “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” (1848, pp. 1-6). [Trad. it.: “La Dichiarazione di Seneca Falls”, pp. 3-12].
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins:
9 credits - Herland, in Herland and Selected Stories. 1915. (New York: Signet Classics, 1992, 2014). [Trad. it. La terra delle donne. (Roma: Donzelli, 2011)].
6 credits: “Spoken To.” In: Herland and Selected Stories. 1915. (New York: Signet Classics, 1992, 2014), pp. 319-327.
**: The asterisk indicates that the material is available at the copy centre Copylab (V. Terranuova 9/c).
The detailed syllabus with the list of critical essays is available in the section "Materiale didattico."