Università Roma Tre

Transatlantic Perspectives: Italy in 19th-century US literature

This module examines some texts from the nineteenth-century American literary canon in order to analyse the representations of Italian (and European) culture that they convey. Students are invited to reflect critically on the formal characteristics of the various literary genres (novel, short story, essay, newspaper article), and on the intercultural and transcultural dynamics that emerge from the narratives in the comparison between the United States and Italy. Particular attention is paid to aspects such as the construction of the national identity of both countries, the stereotypes associated with the respective cultures, and issues related to gender, class and ethnicity.

Main texts
- Margaret Fuller, “These Sad But Glorious Days.” Dispatches from Europe, 1846-1850, eds. Larry J. Reynolds and Susan Belasco Smith (Yale UP, 1991) (una selezione di articoli da concordare con la docente);
- Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun (Oxford UP, 2002);
- Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrim’s Progress (Wordsworth Classics Edition, 2010);
- Henry James, Daisy Miller. Uno studio (Marsilio, 2017 – con testo a fronte);
- Edith Wharton, “Roman Fever” (qualunque edizione).

Critical essays
Roman Holidays: American Writers and Artists in Nineteenth-Century Italy, eds. Robert K. Martin, Leland S. Person (U of Iowa P, 2002) (disponibile in Discovery).

History of literature
- The Heath Anthology of American Literature – Vol. B, “Early Nineteenth Century: 1800-1865”, pp. 1443-1473; Vol. C, “Late Nineteenth Century: 1865-1910”, pp. 1-32 (i volumi sono reperibili in biblioteca).
- A New Literary History of America, eds. G. Marcus and W. Sollors (Harvard U.P. 2009), the following chapters: 1776 The Declaration of Independence; 1798 Mary Rowlandson and the Alien and Sedition Acts; 1826 Cooper’s Leatherstocking tales; 1826, 1927 Transnational poetry; 1831 The Cherokee Nation Decision; 1835 Democracy in America; 1836 The Alamo and Texas border; 1837 Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar”; 1846 Henry David Thoreau; 1850 Margaret Fuller and the Transcendentalist Movement; 1851 Moby-Dick; 1852 Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”; 1855 Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass; 1861 Emily Dickinson; 1872 All men and women are created equal; 1881 Henry James, Portrait of a Lady; 1895 Ida B. Wells, A Red Record; 1898 Literature and Imperialism (il volume è reperibile in biblioteca).

Text analysis (a volume to be chosen from):
- Loredana Chines, Carlo Varotti, Che cos’è un testo letterario (Carocci 2001);
- Remo Ceserani, Breve guida allo studio della letteratura (Laterza 2003);
- Robert Scholes, James Phelan, Robert Kellog, The Nature of Narrative (fortieth anniversary edition revised and expanded) (Oxford U.P. 2006).