54
Anglo-American Languages and Literature
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI "L'ORIENTALE"
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
Expected Learning Outcomes
Detailed and personal knowledge of literary texts, critical texts, and all other materials included in the syllabus. Ability to articulate a rigorous and original critical analysis of the aforementioned materials. Knowledge of the literary and cultural context within which the texts being analyzed were produced.
Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
Appropriation of critical and methodological tools to establish analogies or divergences between literary and cultural texts, on the one hand considering the specificity of the historical and social context of each work, and on the other hand extrapolating from them transversal connections and themes. The active participation of students in lessons is always strongly encouraged.
Further EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Autonomy of judgment:
Ability to construct an autonomous critical reading of texts, supported by adequate analysis tools and conceptual categories, and by in-depth knowledge of texts and contexts.
Communication skills:
Ability to construct and support autonomous critical arguments in a rigorous language that resists simplifications.
Learning skills:
Acquisition of theoretical-conceptual categories and specific knowledge useful for the autonomous understanding and interpretation of texts.
Course Prerequisites
Good knowledge of the English language. Familiarity with elementary categories of literary criticism and textual analysis.
Teaching Methods
The course will be held in Italian and will combine lectures, textual analysis and group discussion of the topics or texts (cultural and literary) assigned for that lesson. All texts will be read in English. Students will be required to read the assigned texts regularly, actively participate in class discussion. Textual analysis activities in small groups or individually are planned during the lesson or to be completed at home.
Assessment Methods
The exam consists of a written test lasting 3-4 hours, based on open-ended questions, in Italian or, upon request, in English, followed by an oral exam that focuses on the discussion of the written exam and the reading and discussion of one or more passages from the materials in the program. For students attending classes, it is possible to take a midterm exam (written, duration 2 hours). The midterm is optional.
Language in which the exam is held: Italian or English (upon request).
Evaluation: a scale of grades 18 (minimum to pass)-30 (top grade).
Evaluation criteria: the exams are designed to ascertain direct and critical knowledge of the primary texts, the theoretical bibliography, the contexts and concepts covered, and the ability to produce a personal and structured critical discourse. Autonomy of judgment and rigorous logical reasoning will be central to the evaluation.
Texts
Literary texts:
- A selection of historical documents, poetic texts, prose texts provided in the "teaching materials" section which includes:
“Iroquois Creation Story” (pp. 31-35*) + “The Winnebago Trickster Cycle” (pp. 43-46)
Christopher Columbus, “Letter of Discovery” (estratto);
Bartolomé de Las Casas, da An Account, Much Abbreviated, of the Destruction of the Indies (estratto);
John Smith da The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (estratto da vol. 3, cap. 2, pp. 119-21);
William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation(estratto da cap. IX, “Of Their Voyage” pp. 141-44; da cap. XI, “The Mayflower Compact” pp. 149-52);
John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity” (estratto pp. 178-79 e 187-89);
Mary Rowlandson da Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (estratto);
Cotton Mather da Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions(estratto);
Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography(estratto);
Jonathan Edwards, da “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (estratto)
Jean De Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer (estratto da Letter III. “What Is an American?”);
Thomas Jefferson, “The Declaration of Independence” (pp. 706-10);
Irving, “Rip van Winkle” (estratto)
Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans (estratto dal cap. 21)
Edgar Allan Poe “The Raven” (pp. 612-15), “The Tell-Tale Heart” (666-670);
Ralph Waldo Emerson, da Nature, “Self-Reliance”, “The Poet” (estratti);
Margaret Fuller, “The Great Lawsuit” (estratto)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (qualsiasi edizione integrale in lingua originale, oppure pp. 425-569)
Henry David Thoreau, “Resistance to Civil Government” (estratto);
Elizabeth Cady Stanton Declaration of Sentiments;
Frederick Douglass “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”;
Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?”;
Walt Whitman da Song of myself;
Emily Dickinson selected poems;
Herman Melville, Moby Dick (qualsiasi edizione integrale in lingua originale, e in particolare Ch 1-50, 87, 91, 99, 133-epilogo)
*Where a page number is given, it refers to The Norton Anthology of American Literature, ed. by Robert Levine, 9th edition, vols A and B.
Textbook : Richard Gray, A Brief History of American Literature, Malden and Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, PART I e II.
- Robert S. Levine (ed.), The Norton Anthology of American Literature (qualsiasi edizione, preferibilmente 9th edition, volume A “Beginnings to 1820” and B “1820 to 1865”), all the introductory notes to the historical periods, and the biographical notes of the authors studied.
Critical literature and secondary sources provided in the “teaching materials” section which includes:
-Baym, Nina, “Melodramas of Beset Manhood: How Theories of American Fiction Exclude Women Authors,” American Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 2 (summer, 1981), pp. 123 - 139.
-Bercovitch, Sacvan, “Rappresentare la Rivoluzione: L’esempio di Hester Prynne”, in Sacvan Bercovitch, America Puritana, Editori Riuniti, 1992, pp. 229 - 257.
-Bercovitch, Sacvan, “Visione puritana del nuovo mondo” in Storia della civiltà letteraria degli Stati Uniti, (a cura di Emory Elliot), Utet, Torino, 1990, pp. 28 - 37;
-Kennedy, Liam, “1852, July 5. Frederick Douglass addresses the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Sewing Society”, in A New Literary History of America (a cura di Greil Marcus e Werner Sollors), Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 2009, pp. 297 – 302.
- Kleine, Don W., “Civil Disobedience: The Way to Walden”, Modern Language Notes, Vol. 75, No. 4 (Apr., 1960), pp. 297-304.
-Lawrence, D.H., “Benjamin Franklin” in Studies in Classic American Literature (1923), (excerpts)
-Mariani, Giorgio, “Epilogo: una salvezza da interrogare” in Melville: Guida a Moby-Dick, Carocci, Roma, 2022, pp. 115-124.
-Martin, Terence, “The Romance”, in The Columbia History of the American Novel (a cura di Emory Elliot), pp. 72 – 88.
-Pease, Donald, “Walt Whitman’s Revisionary Democracy” in The Columbia History of American Poetry, (a cura di Jay Parini e Brett Millier), New York, Columbia University Press, pp. 148 – 171.
- Poe, Edgar Allan, “The Philosophy of Composition” (1846) available on the Norton Anthology (and online).
Contents
Course title: Survey course in American Literature: Origin to the Civil War.
- First Encounters: Europeans and Native Nations
- Colonial North America
- Puritanism
- American Enlightenment and Independence
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Transcendentalism
- Abolitionism and Civil Disobedience
- American Renaissance: Hawthorne, Melville
- XIX century poetry: Whitman, Dickinson
Course Language
Italian