30163 - Literature of English-speaking Countries 2 (2nd cycle)

Learning outcomes

Students are requested  to enter critical debates on postcolonial theories and methodologies, gender studies and methodologies, to elaborates on the relationship between texts and contexts, literary genres and literary theories in a transnational perspective.

Course contents

“Seeking light in darkness and harmony in confusion”: Politics of the Body, Violence and Healing in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction.

The course intends to analyse the issue of ‘race' and gender and politics of the body in the representations, transmissions and elaborations of traumatic events in literary and visual texts with specific reference to utopian and dystopian fiction. The course will explore texts representing founding traumas,  the heritage of individual and collective memory, post-traumatic conflicts, the need for reconciliation. The analysis will focus on the ways in which the individual and the collectivity are transformed, lacerated, disrupt, or unified, through traumatic events. Within this perspective, lessons will analyse the relationship between the individual and the community, his/her ethical and political complicity, his/her loneliness and need to belong. The first part of the course will be introduced by an analysis of the theoretical debates concerning postcolonial methodologies and gender studies. The notion of critical utopia and dystopia exemplifies these genres as critical tools to investigates the relationship between macro-histories and micro-stories, individual and communities, memories and countermemories and the function of literature and art. The reading of the texts will focus on the relationship between power, violence and strategies of resistance and subversion in women's dystopias and utopias.  Within this perspective, utopian and dystopian spaces will be also read as spaces for the imaginary – including archetypical experiences - and the deconstruction of the symbolic and social order.

The course intends: to enable the analysis of the construction of ‘race', gender, diversity, in diverse forms of text (theoretical, literary, visual); to approach the study of traumatic events as a critical field within an intercultural perspective; to analyse politics of representation and interpretation in the inheritance and transmission of traumatic events within a community; to gain critical tools to reflect upon diverse cultural debates, to elaborate on the interconnections between texts and contexts, the individual and the community, to favour critical thinking; to analyse politics of the body within utopian and dystopian communities in a gender and postcolonial  perspective.

Readings/Bibliography

Testi/Bibliografia

Primary texts:

Burdekin, Katharine, Swastika Night, 1937.

Butler, Octavia E., Kindred, Boston: Beacon Press, 1988, f. p. 1979.

Gearhart, Sally Miller, The Wanderground, London: The Women's Press, f. p. 1979.

Gordimer, Nadine, July's People, London: Penguin, 1981.

Carter, Angela, The Passion of New Eve, London: Virago, 1977

Atwood, Margaret, The Handmaid's Tale, McClelland and Stewar, 1985, London: Cape, 1986 (Il racconto dell'ancella, TEA, 2007)

 (Students are requested to choose four books from the reading list of the primary sources).

 The Village (movie), U.S.A, director M. Night Shyamalan, 2004

Bibliography of Secondary texts (essays, articles, volumes) IN PROGRESS:

Lesson will make reference to the following critical sources:

(Students will be requested to choose texts/essays/articles from the following list and the ones proposed during the course, in accordance with the lecturer):

Albertazzi, Silvia, Nel bosco degli spiriti. Senso del corpo e fantasmaticità nelle nuove letterature di lingua inglese. Manziana, Vecchiarelli, 1998. (selected chapters). reperibile in biblioteca

Appadurai, Arjun "The Heart of Whiteness" in Callaloo, 16 (4), Autumn 1993, pp. 796-807 reperibile nel reader

Baccolini, Raffaella “Gender and Genre in the Feminist Critical Dystopias of Katharine Burdekin, Margaret Atwood, and Octavia Butler.” Future Females, The Next Generation: New Voices and Velocities in Feminist Science Fiction Criticism. Ed. Marleen S. Barr. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. 13-34. reperibile nel reader

Baccolini, Raffaella and Tom Moylan (ed.) Dark Horizons. Science Fiction and The Dystopian Imagination. London and New York: Routledge, 2003. (selected chapters) reperibile in biblioteca

Bauman, Zygmunt, Seeking Safety in an Insecure World, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001. (selected chapters) parti reperibili nel reader

Braidotti, Rosi “Difference, Diversity, and Nomadic Subjectivity” documento Internet, http://women.ped.kun.nl , 2000.

Butler , Judith, 1993, Bodies that Matter. On the Discoursive Limits of “Sex”. New York and London: Routledge, 1996, Corpi che Contano. I limiti discorsivi del “sesso” Trad. S. Capelli. Milano: Feltrinelli. (selected chapters and Introduction) reperibile in biblioteca

Fabi, M. Giulia, "Postfazione", in O. E. Butler, Legami di Sangue, Firenze: Le lettere, 2005, pp. 327-341 

Fortunati, Vita, Gilberta Golinelli, Rita Monticelli (a cura di) Studi di genere e memoria culturale. Women and Cultural Memory. Bologna: Clueb, 2004. (selected chapters) reperibile in biblioteca

Foucault, Michel, Utopie eterotopie ( Les Héterotopies Les corps utopique) a cura di A. Moscati. Napoli: Cronopio, 2006 reperibile online e nel reader

Gates, Henry. Louis., ed., 1986, “Race”, Writing, and Difference, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London. (selected essays) reperibile in biblioteca

Gilroy, Paul, "Urban Social Movements, 'Race' and Community" in P. Williams and L. Chrisman, eds, Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory. A Reader, New York: Columbia UP, 1994, pp. 404-420 reperibile nel reader

Hall, Stuart "Culture, Community, Nation" in Cultural Studies, October 1993, 7 (3), pp. 349-63 reperibile nel reader

Hirsch, Marianne, Smith, Valerie, a cura, 2002, <<Signs>>, n. 28, 1 (Spec. Issue Gender and Cultural Memory). (selected essays, GEMMA students only) reperibile in biblioteca

Irigaray, Luce, “Donne Divine" in Sessi e Genealogie, 1989. Trad. L. Muraro. Milano: La Tartaruga. Sexes et parentés Paris: Minuit, 1987, Divine Women, Occasional Paper, Sydney, 1986, trans. S. Muecke reperibile nel reader

Lefanu, Sarah, In the Chinks of the World Machine. Feminism and Science Fiction. London: The Women's Press, 1988

Mediazioni online, Special issue on The Village(reperibile online) www.mediazionionline.it

Monticelli Rita, 2006, “‘Nei "giardini delle nostre madri': memorie e riscritture del corpo”. Postfazione. In Gatti come angeli. L'eros nella poesia femminile di lingua inglese, a cura di Loredana Magazzeni e Andrea Sirotti. Milano: Medusa, pp. 209 - 232. reperibile in biblioteca

Monticelli, Rita Be/coming Women: Luce Irigaray's Utopian Process and Radical Utopias (in corso di stampa), capitoli su The Wanderground and Divine Women (reperibili presso la docente)

Monticelli, Rita, 1997, sezione "Soggetti corporei", in Critiche femministe e teorie letterarie, Bologna: Clueb, pp. 205-255 (selected essays) reperibile in biblioteca

Monticelli, Rita, “Seeking Light in Darkness and Harmony in Confusion”: Death, Memory, and Resistance in Swastika Night by Katharine Burdekin and Kindred  by Octavia Butler. Dedalus, Revista Portuguesa de Literatura Comparada, N. 11-12, 2006-2008 (reperibile in biblioteca)

Monticelli, Rita, « Utopie, Utopisme, Féminisme » in Histoire transnationale des utopies littéraires et de l'utopisme Coordonné par Vita Fortunati et Raymond Trousson. Paris, Honoré Champion, France, 2008, (pp. 1127 - 1143). Bibliothèque de Littérature générale et comparée. reperibile in biblioteca e nel reader

Nancy, Jean Luc, La comunità inoperosa. A cura di A. Moscati., Cronopio, 1992 (selected chapters) reperibile presso la docente e nel reader

Patai, Daphne, "Introduction" in K. Burdekin, Swastika Night, New York: The Feminist Press, 1985, pp. iii-xv.

Rivisiting Feminism: Cultural trajectories ed. Kalpana Das and Fréderique Apffel Marglin. iim, InterCulture, Intercultural Institute of Montreal, n. 150. INTERCULTURE. vol. 150. anno 2, n. 6. Edizione italiana della rivista canadese dell'Intercultural Institute of Montreal. (selected essays, GEMMA students only), reperibile in biblioteca

Salgueiro Seabra Ferreira, Maria Aline, "Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl and Angela Carter's The Passion of New Eve: A Comparative Reading". Online document

Sargent, Lyman Tower, The Problem of the « Flawed Utopia »: a Note on the Costs of Eutopia » in Baccolini, Raffaella and Tom Moylan (ed.) Dark Horizon. Science Fiction and The Dystopian Imagination . London and New York: Routledge, 2003 reperibile nel reader

Sargisson, Lucy, "The Curious Relationship Between Politics and Utopia" in Moylan, Tom and Raffaella Baccolini, (eds) in Moylan, Tom and Raffaella Baccolini, (eds) Utopia Method Vision: The Use Value Of Social Dreaming, Berne and Oxford: Peter Lang, 2007 reperibile nel reader

Spillers, Hortense J. “Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book”, in Diacritics. A Review of Contemporary Criticism 17 (2), 1987, pp. 65-81. “Figli/e di madre, del padre forse: una grammatica Americana” in Critiche femministe e teorie letterarie . A cura di Raffaella Baccolini; M. Giulia Fabi, Vita Fortunati, Rita Monticelli. Bologna: CLUEB, 1997, pp. 255-279, trad. Lucia Gunella e Rita Monticelli. reperibile in biblioteca e nel reader

Spivak, Gayatri C., 1981, “French Feminism in an International Frame”, in Yale French Studies, No. 62, Feminist Readings: French Texts/American Contexts. reperibile nel reader

Spivak, Gayatri C., 1985, “Imperialism and Sexual Difference”, in Oxford Literary Review 8, pp. 224-240 reperibile nel reader e online

Zaki, Hoda M., "New Spaces for Utopian Politics: Theorizing About Identity, Community, and The World Conference Against Racism" in Moylan, Tom and Raffaella Baccolini, (eds) Utopia Method Vision: The Use Value Of Social Dreaming, Berne and Oxford: Peter Lang, 2007 reperibile nel reader

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY IN PROGRESS: Please do check this web page for further notice and information. The complete list of secondary sources will be ready at the beginning of the course.

Gli studenti e le studentesse di Letteratura dei Paesi di lingua inglese 2 LM dovranno analizzare 4 testi primari (da scegliersi tra quelli in elenco) e saggi/ capitoli di volumi/articoli da scegliere tra le  fonti critiche in elenco per un numero di 200/220 pagine. E' inoltre richiesta l'analisi del film The Village, che sarà proiettato a lezione.

Students of the course Letteratura dei paesi di lingua inglese 2 LM are requested to analyse 4 primary texts (to be chosen amongst the volumes in the Reading list of the primary sources) and articles/essays/chapters (about 200/220 pages) from the Reading list of the Secondary sources; the analysis of the movie The Village.

Le studentesse e gli studenti  Gemma del I Anno (Feminist Theory between Difference and Diversity) dovranno analizzare 4 testi primari (da scegliersi tra quelli in elenco) e saggi/ capitoli di volumi/articoli da scegliere tra le  fonti critiche in elenco per un numero di 250 pagine. E' inoltre richiesta l'analisi del film The Village, che sarà proiettato a lezione.

Gemma students (first year) are requested to analyse 4 primary texts (to be chosen amongst the  volumes in the Reading list of the primary sources) and articles/essays/chapters (about 250 pages) from the Reading list of the Secondary sources; the analysis of the movie The Village.

 Gemma students (second year) are requested to analyse 2 primary texts (to be chosen amongst the volumes in the Reading list of the primary sources) and articles/essays/chapters (about 150 pages) from the Reading list of the Secondary sources; the analysis of the movie The Village.

 

 

Teaching methods

Bibliography and critical tools will be also provided during the course. For this reason some critical sources might be changed during lessons. Languages requested: English AND Italian. Fort further notice please do check this web page during the course. This course is intended for graduate students only.

Students are also invited to attend a seminar on Nadine Gordimer (July's People) by Dr.ssa Federica Zullo, Assegnista di ricerca, University of Bologna.

Gemma students are also invited to attend a seminar on African American criticism and literature by Dr. Amanda Nadalini, cultrice della materia.

Assessment methods

Final oral exam.

Active participation in class: 25%

Students' presentation: 25%

Final oral exam: 50%

Teaching tools

Texts: literary and visual; videos, power point, movies.

Office hours

See the website of Rita Monticelli