Università Roma Tre

We will study a play, a novel, a novella and a selection of poems, all representative of the most distinctive phenomena in the history of English literature.

During the preparation of the course, in the following months, they instructor may slightly change some parts of the program, and will verify the usefulness of the critical material, which will be distributed at the beginning of the course. Students are advised to check the instructor's personal page online before classes start in October.

Willliam Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1606)
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847)
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899)

A selection of Romantic and 20th-century poems

This course explores the theme of the master-servant relationship in two canonical English texts, William's Shakespeare "The Tempest" and Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe", and the metamorphoses of this theme across two contemporary rewritings, Margaret Atwood's "Hag-seed" and J.M. Coetzee's "Foe".

William Shakespeare, "The Tempest" (1611) (recommended edition: Arden, Penguin or Garzanti con testo a fronte);
Daniel Defoe, "Robinson Crusoe" (1719) (recommended edition: Oxford World's Classics or Penguin Classics);
J.M. Coetzee, "Foe" (1986) (any edition in English);
Margaret Atwood, "Hag-seed. The Tempest retold", Hogarth Shakespeare, 2016.

Film:
"The Tempest", dir. Gregory Doran, RSC 2016 (full movie available on youtube).
"The Tempest", dir. Julie Taymor 2010 (full movie available on youtube)
"Man Friday", dir. Jack Gold, screenplay by Adrian Mitchell (1975) (full movie on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rPXjCy83zg)

Literature: reality as arte-fact

This first-year course will provide a historical and cultural overview of English literature through contextualization and analysis of some canonical texts within the genres of poetry, drama, and fiction. Starting from the relationship between illusion and reality in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” to Woolf’s focus on art in “To the Lighthouse”, the course means to illustrate both the nature of the literary device and literature’s self-referential interest in its own creative processes and forms of writing, by exploring the contexts, contents and formal strategies of the selected literary works.

PRIMARY SOURCES

All the volumes and articles indicated below (primary and secondary sources) are compulsory reading and will be discussed during the final exam.
Students should buy the suggested editions of the texts when indicated and are expected to read the primary sources before the beginning of the course.

1. William Shakespeare, “The Tempest/La tempesta”, introduzione e traduzione di Alessandro Serpieri, note di Clara Mucci, con testo a fronte, Marsilio, Venezia, 2006. Only In case this edition is out of stock, buy Feltrinelli a cura di A. Lombardo.
2. Jonathan Swift, “Gulliver’s Travels/I viaggi di Gulliver”. English edition: Wordsworth Classics or Penguin. Italian translation: Mondadori, Milano, 2015, a cura di Masolino d’Amico, con uno scritto di Walter Scott.
3. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan”, in “I Poemi demoniaci”, a cura di Marcello Pagnini, con testo a fronte, Giunti, Firenze, 1996.
4. Virginia Woolf, “To the Lighthouse/Al faro”. English edition: Penguin classics, edited by Stella McNichol with an Introduction and Notes by Hermione Lee; OR Wordsworth Classics, with Introduction and Notes by Dr Nicola Bradbury. Italian translation: “Al faro”, in “Romanzi”, a cura di N. Fusini, Mondadori, Milano, 2005, pp. 401-610 (notes pp. 1312-1340).

Literature: reality as arte-fact

This first-year course will provide a historical and cultural overview of English literature through contextualization and analysis of some canonical texts within the genres of poetry, drama, and fiction. Starting from the relationship between illusion and reality in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” to Woolf’s focus on art in “To the Lighthouse”, the course means to illustrate both the nature of the literary device and literature’s self-referential interest in its own creative processes and forms of writing, by exploring the contexts, contents and formal strategies of the selected literary works.

PRIMARY SOURCES

All the volumes and articles indicated below (primary and secondary sources) are compulsory reading and will be discussed during the final exam.
Students should buy the suggested editions of the texts when indicated and are expected to read the primary sources before the beginning of the course.

1. William Shakespeare, “The Tempest/La tempesta”, introduzione e traduzione di Alessandro Serpieri, note di Clara Mucci, con testo a fronte, Marsilio, Venezia, 2006. Only In case this edition is out of stock, buy Feltrinelli a cura di A. Lombardo.
2. Jonathan Swift, “Gulliver’s Travels/I viaggi di Gulliver”. English edition: Wordsworth Classics or Penguin. Italian translation: Mondadori, Milano, 2015, a cura di Masolino d’Amico, con uno scritto di Walter Scott.
3. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan”, in “I Poemi demoniaci”, a cura di Marcello Pagnini, con testo a fronte, Giunti, Firenze, 1996.
4. Virginia Woolf, “To the Lighthouse/Al faro”. English edition: Penguin classics, edited by Stella McNichol with an Introduction and Notes by Hermione Lee; OR Wordsworth Classics, with Introduction and Notes by Dr Nicola Bradbury. Italian translation: “Al faro”, in “Romanzi”, a cura di N. Fusini, Mondadori, Milano, 2005, pp. 401-610 (notes pp. 1312-1340).