Università Roma Tre

“And what should they know of England who only England know?”

This year’s course sets out to find an answer to the question raised by Rudyard Kipling in this famous line taken from his poem “The English Flag” (1891). When the then young Kipling arrived from India to London, already famous for his Indian tales, it came as a shock to him when he realized that the English were totally ignorant of what their compatriots involved in the colonial enterprise were doing around the world, testing and inevitably modifying the founding values of the English culture. The mid twentieth-century fall of the British Empire led to the creation of a number of postcolonial states, whose cosmopolitan elites gave rise to a literary corpus written in Englishy that (in London mostly) has perpetuated the relevance of Kipling’s question.
The choice of the authors on the syllabus was guided by this historical-cultural problematic. We will start with Charlotte Brontë’ masterpiece, one of the great Victorian novels, haunted by the threatening presence of a female Other coming from the colonies. Kipling’s novella transports us to the world of the adventure tales, suspended between fantasy and history – the ideal site for an investigation of the myths underpinning the presumed superiority of the Homo Britannicus. The ghost story of the Anglicized American, Henry James, will we used – among other things – to introduce one of the key themes of English Modernism: the American authors’ increasing influence on the London literary scene. Joyce’s short story – in conjunction with a couple of Yeats’s poems – will allows to investigate the many complexities implicit in the constructions of a national Irish culture at a time when England’s oldest colony acquired political independence. Orwell’s two Burmese stories/essays will reveal the many ways in which his anti-colonial feelings shaped his later political ideas. Finally, Jean Rhys novel, a triumph of intelligence and creativity, will allow us to return to where we started, with her retelling of Jane Eyre.
As we will proceed, the historical-cultural issues will recede into the background and the focus will increasingly shift toward technical matters. The course intends to clarify some of the fundamental narratological and theoretical notions required for interpreting a literary text. We will start with the constitutive elements of the novel and the way they are constantly combined together writer after writer. Before we actually get to read a texts we will begin to get acquainted with the basic terminology which is necessary to isolate and describe these elements.

Prescribed reading

Novels and Short Stories

Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847);
Rudyard Kipling, “The Man Who Would Be King” (1888);
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (1898);
James Joyce, “The Dead” (1914);
George Orwell, “A Hanging” (1931), “Shooting an Elephant” (1936);
Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966).

Teaching Materials

A number or critical essays compulsory for non-attending students is available at the Copyando shop across the street from the Faculty’s entrance.

TESTI D’ESAME

NARRATIVA

CHARLOTTE BRONTË, JANE EYRE (1847)
RUDYARD KIPLING, “THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING” (1888)
HENRY JAMES, THE TURN OF THE SCREW (1898)
JAMES JOYCE, “THE DEAD” (1914)
GEORGE ORWELL, “A HANGING”, (1931), “SHOOTING AN ELEPHANT” (1936)
GRAHAM GREENE, THE QUIET AMERICAN (1955)
JEAN RHYS, WIDE SARGASSO SEA (1966)

POESIE (SOLO PER FREQUENTANTI)

SELEZIONE DI POESIE DI ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, RUDYARD KIPLING, T. S. ELIOT, W. B. YEATS, LES MURRAY, WOLE SOYINKA, DEREK WALCOTT.

MATERIALE DIDATTICO

PRIMA DELL’INIZIO DEL CORSO SARANNO DISPONIBILI I SEGUENTI MATERIALI DESTINATI AI FREQUENTANTI:
- UNA DISPENSA DI NARRATOLOGIA;
- UNA RACCOLTA DI BRANI ESEMPLIFICATIVI DELLA SCRITTURA MODERNISTA;
- UNA SELEZIONE DI POESIE.

PER QUELLA DATA, SARÀ RESO DISPONIBILE UN ELENCO DEI SAGGI CRITICI E DEI CAPITOLI DELLA STORIA LETTERARIA CHE COSTITUIRANNO MATERIA D’ESAME PER GLI STUDENTI NON FREQUENTANTI.

READING LIST

OLTRE AI TESTI STUDIATI IN CLASSE VE NE SONO ALTRI DUE CHE GLI STUDENTI DOVRANNO PREPARARE PER CONTO LORO.

CHARLES DICKENS, GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1861)
JOSEPH CONRAD, HEART OF DARKNESS (1899)

STORIA DELLA LETTERATURA

DAVID DAICHES, STORIA DELLA LETTERATURA INGLESE, VOL. 3, GARZANTI, 1999.