31031 - English Literature 1 (CH-L)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students will be acquainted with the lineaments of English literary history, will be able to read, understand and translate texts from English into Italian, and will be also acquainted with some basic critical methods and tools, with the aim to enable them to interpret the works of major Renaissance authors, contextualising them against the background of early-modern culture and society.

Course contents

Fairyland and its people

Readings/Bibliography

Primary sources:

Sir Orfeo, a cura di Enrico Giaccherini, Parma, Pratiche, 1994 (BDL)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (BDL)

Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Wife of Bath Tale” in The Canterbury Tales

Selection from Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur

Selection from Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene

“Tam Lin” and “Thomas Rymer”, in G. Grigson, ed. by, The Penguin Book of Ballads, London, Penguin, 1977

William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

William Shakespeare, The Tempest

Critical sources:

About the fairies

C.S. Lewis, “The Longaevi”, in The Discarded Image, Cambridge, University Press, 1964, pp. 122-138

L. Harf-Lancner, “Fairy Godmother and Fairy Lovers”, in T.S. Fenster, ed. by, Arthurian Women, New York, Garland, 1996, pp. 135-151

J.R.R. Tolkien, “Sulle fiabe”, in Il medioevo e il fantastico, Milano, Bompiani, 2003, pp. 167-194 e 205-238

On the literary works

P. Boitani, “Introduzione”, in Sir Gawain e il Cavaliere Verde, Milano, Adelphi, 1986, pp. 11-40 (BDL)

J.A. Burrow, from “The Canterbury Tales I: Romance”, in P. Boitani and J. Mann, ed. by, The Cambridge Chaucer Companion, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986, pp. 109-112.

G. Heng, “Enchanted Ground. The feminine subtext in Malory”, in T.S. Fenster, ed. by, Arthurian Women, 97-113

E. Giaccherini, “Introduzione”, in Sir Orfeo, Parma, Pratiche, 1994, pp. 7-33 (BDL)

E. Vinaver, “Sir Thomas Malory”, in R.S. Loomis, ed. by, Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1967, pp. 541-552

About Shakespeare

John H. Astington, “Playhouses, players, and playgoers in Shakespeare's time”, in Margreta De Grazia and Stanley Wells, edited by, The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 99-113

Harold Bloom, “Sogno di una notte di mezza estate” and “La tempesta”, in Shakespeare, Milano, Rizzoli, 2001

Northrop Frye, “Sogno di una notte di mezza estate” and “La tempesta”, in Shakespeare, Torino, Einaudi, 1990, pp. 39-56 e 185-201

Jan Kott, “La bacchetta di Prospero” and “Titania e la testa di asino”, in Shakespeare nostro contemporaneo, Milano, Feltrinelli, 1964, pp. 166-210 e 211-234

Giorgio Melchiori, “Shakespeare e il mestiere del teatro”, in Shakespeare, Bari, Laterza, 2005, pp. 3-25.

The text followed by "(BDL)" could be found in the Library of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. The other texts (except the plays by Shakespeare) could be found in the photocopy shops in via Cartoleria.


Literary history:

Students are also required to know the lineaments of English literary history from its origins to the end of the XVII Century. International students may use the introductions to the literary periods and to the single authors in the Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. 1, available in the Library of the Dipartimento di Lingue. Students are also required to read the following texts:

Beowulf (vv. 332-490; 662-835; translated by S. Heaney)

Geoffrey Chaucer, “General Prologue", and "The Wife of Bath: Prologue" from The Canterbury Tales

Philip Sidney, Astrophil and Stella, sonnets no. 1, 31, 52

Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, act V, scenes 12-13

William Shakespeare, Sonnets no. 3, 17, 55, 126, 130, 144

John Donne, “The Good-Morrow”, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”, “The Funerall”; “Death Be Not Proud”

Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress”

John Milton, Paradise Lost (Book One)

William Congreve, The Way of the World, act I, scenes 1-6

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Teaching methods

Frontal lessons.
Reading and analysis of literary texts.

Assessment methods

Office hours

See the website of Gino Scatasta