30030 - English Literature 1 (LM)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course the students will acquire an adequate knowledge of the general problems and individual aspects of the history of English literature. They will be able to apply specific methodologies to the analysis and interpretation of literary texts and provide an appropriate critical commentary.

Course contents

The course will analyze how female madness has been portrayed in literature throughout the centuries and how this portrayal has evolved in different historical and artistic contexts. We will study texts from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, with a focus on the nineteenth century when hysteria was socially recognized as a female malady.

The texts from the reading list cover various genres such as novels, tragedies, and short stories. We will analyze their main themes, formal features, and the portrayal of female protagonists and their perceived or actual 'madness'. Additionally, we will delve into the socio-historical background of each text's time period, emphasizing the condition of women during those times. The course will also explore topics related to gender and mental disability issues, and how they have evolved and been represented through female characters over the centuries."

The program is in progress (some essays from "critical readings" might change). Please do check this webpage for further notice. 

Readings/Bibliography

• Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria; or the Wrongs of Woman (1798)
• Joanna Baillie, Orra: a tragedy (1812) – selected excerpts
• Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847)
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper (1892)
• Antonia White, The House of Clouds (1928, published in 1954)
• Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966)
  
  
  

Any reliable edition of the primary texts will be accepted. 

Selected excerpts of the primary texts will be read and analysed in class and will be made available online the Virtuale platform. For their final exam, students should thoroughly read the three novels by Wollstonecraft, Brontë and Rhys, and the short stories by Gilman and White. As far as Baillie's tragedy is concerned, only selected excerpts will be object of examination. 

 

Critical readings (compulsory):

• Sandra Gilbert, Susan Gubar (1979) The Madwoman in the Attic. The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. Yale University Press, New Haven and London. (pp. 336-371)
• Elaine Showalter (1987) The Female Malady. Women, Madness and English Culture 1830-1980. Penguin Books, New York. (pp. 1-20, pp. 51-73)
• Roy Porter, Mind-Forg'd Manacles: A History of Madness in England from the Restoration to the Regency, London: The Athlone Press (pp. 1-32)
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1913) “Why I wrote The Yellow Wallpaper”. The Forerunner.

Critical readings (optional):

• Jane F. Thrailkill (2002), "Doctoring 'The Yellow Wallpaper'", ELH, Summer 2002, Vol. 69, No. 2, pp. 525-566.
  
• Christa Schönfelder (2013), “The ‘Wounded Mind’ Feminism, Trauma and Self-Narration in Mary Wollstonecraft’s The Wrongs of Woman”, pp. 87-126.
• B. A. Hume, (2002). Managing Madness in Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-paper". Studies in American Fiction, 30(1), pp. 3-20.

Possible further optional critical readings will be provided by the lecturer during the course and uploaded to the Virtuale platform.

Teaching methods

Lectures and seminars, reading and discussion of primary and secondary texts in class; viewing of video and media material.

Assessment methods

The course will be assessed by an oral exam which will evaluate the knowledge of the course contents and the critical skills of the student. The knowledge of primary texts and the use of critical and interpretative methods will be tested as well as the ability to engage with secondary readings and the quality of oral expression. The ability to establish links between primary texts, their historical-cultural context and the theoretical background will receive a positive evaluation.

The submission of an essay (4,000-5,000 words) on a topic relevant to the course may be agreed with the lecturer and will substitute a part of the oral exam.

Teaching tools

Power point presentations; multimedia, video and audio supports.

Office hours

See the website of Valentina Pramaggiore