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LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO-AMERICANE
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI "L'ORIENTALE"
Dati Generali
Periodo di attività
Syllabus
Obiettivi Formativi
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Analyze complex literary and cultural texts from a critical and comparative perspective.
- Understand how literature functions as a site of resistance and redefinition of national identity.
- Situate texts within their historical, political, and cultural contexts.
- Develop independent critical arguments grounded in textual analysis.
- Engage in academic discussions using appropriate literary terminology and conceptual frameworks.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Students will demonstrate:
- In-depth knowledge of the selected literary and critical texts.
- The ability to conduct close readings and develop original interpretations.
- Familiarity with key theoretical tools (postcolonialism, critical race theory, ecocriticism, etc.).
- Skills in academic writing and oral presentation.
- The capacity to critique and contextualize U.S. cultural productions from non-Eurocentric perspectives.
Prerequisiti
Prerequisiti
Indispensabile: Conoscenza avanzata della lingua inglese, adeguata alla lettura dei testi letterari e critici in versione originale, alla frequenza proficua delle lezioni in inglese e alla partecipazione a dibattiti in inglese in classe. Solida conoscenza dei metodi e della terminologia dello studio letterario.
Studenti/esse non frequentanti: Conoscenza avanzata della lingua inglese, adeguata alla lettura dei testi letterari e critici in versione originale; padronanza dei metodi e della terminologia dello studio letterari; capacità di affrontare i testi letterari, teorici e critici in modo autonomo, e di sviluppare un discorso critico personale, solidamente argomentato e basato sull’analisi e l’interpretazione critica dei testi.
Propedeuticità
Aver superato l’esame di Literature and Culture of the USA I year
Metodi didattici
Teaching Methods
- Seminar-style discussions in English
- Instructor-guided close readings
- Student presentations on selected texts
- In-class debates and keyword workshops
- Short written assignments (analytical paragraphs on key terms or passages)
Verifica Apprendimento
Assessment Methods:
The final exam will be a written in-class exam, and a brief oral exam a few days later. Those students who attended the class will be given the opportunity (non-mandatory) to take a midterm exam. Alternative modalities of in progress and final assessment may be considered in dialogue with individual students and the class.
For attending students:
- 20% Class participation
- 30% Midterm written exam (comparative analysis: keyword + quote-based open questions)
- 30% Final written exam (same format as midterm)
- 20% Oral exam (15–20 min)
For non-attending students or those not taking the midterm:
- 60% Final written exam (3 essay questions with comparative analysis)
- 40% Oral exam (approx. 40 min)
All exams will be conducted in English.
Testi
1) Declaration of Independence; Declaration of Sentiments; Ralph W. Emerson, “Self Reliance”; Henry D. Thoreau, “Resistance to Civil Government”; Frederick Douglass “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July”; David Fincher, Fight Club (film); Sacvan Bercovitch, The American Jeremiad (Intro + Ch 1).
2) Zitkala-Sa, American Indian Stories (excerpts), Haunani Jay-Trask, From a Native Daughter (selections); Joe Sacco, "The War on Gaza" (graphic), James Cameron, Avatar (film, 2009);
3) Leroi Jones, Dutchman (a play); James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (excerpts); Martin Luther King, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and “Beyond Vietnam”; Malcolm X “The Ballot or the Bullet”; Audre Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” and “Poetry is not a Luxury”; Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete? (selections, Ch 1-3).
4) Allen Ginsberg, Howl; Milos Forman, Someone Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (film)
5) Karla Jay and Allen Young, Out of the Closets: voices of gay liberation (excerpts); Tony Kushner, Angels in America, (excerpts).
6) Soujourner Truth "Ain't I a Woman?", "Born and Forgotten", Gloria Anzaldúa: from Borderlands (1987), excerpts; Handmaid’s Tale (1st season)
A list of additional passages and excerpts will be provided at the beginning of the course.
Contenuti
Course Title: U.S. Voices Against America
This course investigates how American writers, thinkers, and artists have challenged, critiqued, or reimagined dominant national narratives of the United States from early colonial settlements to the present. Through literature, essays, and other cultural texts, we will explore voices that contest the ideals of American exceptionalism, capitalism, militarism, white supremacy, heteronormativity, and extractivism. Emphasis will be placed on dissent as both a cultural and political force, with attention to marginalized voices, intersectional critique, and non-Eurocentric worldviews.
1: Introduction: What is America? What is Dissent?
2: Indigenous Resistance
3: Black Radicalism
4: Class, Free Speech, and Radicalisms
5: Queer Disruptions
6: Feminist Counter-Narratives
Lingua Insegnamento
Inglese