31353 - Anglo-American Literature 3

Course contents

The American Century: A Literary and Cultural Journey across 20th Century America

In 1904, Lieutenant of the American Navy who will change for ever the life of Madame Butterfly in Puccini's famous opera, praises the philosophy of the new ‘wandering Yankee': “The whole world over, on business and pleasure, the Yankee travels all danger scorning…”.The ballad ends with a sentence announcing the new American century: “America for ever”. This course will explore, through fiction, movies, artistic sources and new media, the 20th century process of ‘Americanization' of the world: from its making to its consolidation, from its crisis to its troubled rebirth

Readings/Bibliography

Final Exam Syllabus

 

A) Literary History

 

II Year Students

Mandatory: knowledge of American literary history for the period  1915 - 1945. Reference sources: Guido Fink, Mario Maffi, Franco Minganti, Bianca Tarozzi, Storia della letteratura americana (new edition), Firenze: Sansoni, 1991 /// Emory Elliott (editor), The Columbia Literary History of the United States, New York: Columbia U.P., 1988

 

III Year students

Mandatory: knowledge of American literary history for the period 1945 to present days. Reference sources: Guido Fink, Mario Maffi, Franco Minganti, Bianca Tarozzi, Storia della letteratura americana (new edition), Firenze: Sansoni, 1991 /// Emory Elliott (editor), The Columbia Literary History of the United States, New York: Columbia U.P., 1988

 

 

B)  All Students: at least 5 works (novels, poetry collections, short stories collection) chosen from  any of the authors listed here below:

 

Acker Kathy; Baldwin James; Barth John; Anderson Sherwood; Auster Paul; Barthelme Donald; Bellow Saul; Brautigan Richard; Bernard Malamud; Momaday Scott; Berryman John; Bishop Elizabeth; Brooks Gwendolyn; Burroughs William; Capote Truman; Coover Robert; Cummings e.e.; DeLillo Don; Dos Passos John; Eliot, T.S.; Ellison Ralph; Gass William; Hemigway Ernest; Fante, John; Faulkner William; Fitzgerald Francis Scott; Frost Robert; H.D.; Hammett Dashiell; Harper Michael; Heller Joseph; Kerouac Jack; Kesey Ken; Mailer Norman; Hughes Langston; Hurston Zora Neale; Lardner Ring; Lewis Wyndham; Lowell Robert; MacLeish Archibald; Masters Edgar Lee; Miller Arthur; Miller Henry; Moore Marianne; Morrison Toni; Parker Dorothy; Nabokov Vladimir; O'Connor Flannery; Palahniuk Chuck; Percy Walker; Plath Sylvia; Pynchon Thomas; Pound Ezra; Reed Ishmael; Roth Philip; Salinger Jerome D.; Schneck Stephen; Roth Henry; Runyon Damon; Sinclair Lewis; Sontag Susan; Vonnegut Kurt; Ginsberg Allen; Stein Gertrude; Steinbeck John; Stevens Wallace; Tan Amy; Tennessee Williams; Walker Alice; Williams W.C.; Wolfe Tom

 

 

C)  AT LIST TWO VOLUMES FROM THE FOLLOWING LIST:

 

Calabrese Stefano,  Codeluppi Vanni (a cura di) Nel paese delle meraviglie, Roma, Carrocci, 2009

Chiarenza C., Vance W.L., Immaginari a confronto. I rapporti culturali tra Italia e Stati Uniti: la percezione della realtà fra stereotipo e mito, Venezia, Marsilio, 1992

Chomski, Noam, Sulla nostra pelle (Marco Tropea Editore, 1999)

Cinotto, Simone, Una famiglia che mangia insieme. Cibo ed eticità nella comunità italoamericana di New York, 1920-1940, Torino, Otto Editore, 2001.

Dawidoff, N.,  In The Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music (1998).
Leavy, Patricia, Iconic Events: Media, Power, and Politics in Retelling History (Lexington Books, 2007)

Di Luzio, Alessandra, (a cura di) The Grand Tour Lives On, Bologna, Clueb, 2006

Divine Robert A., American Immigration Policy, 1924-1952,Yale University Press,1957

Dowd Doug, Blues for America. Una critica, lamento e tante memorie, Bologna, Clueb, 2011

Franci G., Mangaroni, R. , Zago E., In viaggio attraverso il Deco americano, fotografie di F. Zignani, Firenze, Alinea, 1997

Franci G., Zignani F., Stranieri in Paradiso / Lost in Paradise, Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2007

Franci Giovanna, Dreaming of Italy: Las Vegas and the Virtual Grand Tour, Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2005

La Polla Franco, Un posto nella mente. Il nuovo romanzo americano: 1962-1982, Ravenna: Longo Editore, 1983

Maffi Marco, La giungla e il grattacielo. Gli scrittori e il sogno americano, (1981)

Marcus, Greil, Like a Rolling Stone. Bob Dylan, una canzone per l'America (Donzelli, 2005)

McLuhan, Marshall, The Mechanical Bride (1954. Gingko Press, 2002)

Portelli, Alessandro, Canoni americani. Oralità, letteratura, cinema, musica,  (Donzelli,  2004)

Proietti Salvatore, Hippies! Dall'India alla California la road map del '68, Roma, Cooper 6 Castelvecchi, 2003

Rydell, Robert W., Kroes R., Buffalo Bill Show. Il west selvaggio, l'Europa e l'americanizzazione del mondo (Donzelli, 2006)

Sioli Marco (a cura di), Metropoli e natura sulle frontiere americane, Milano: FrancoAngeli, 2003.

Teaching methods

The course is structured through regular classes (three days per week); it is based on an interdisciplinary methodology juxtaposing literary sources to artistic, historical ones, as well as on  film and multimedia references.

Assessment methods

Final Exam

 

The final exam consists of a written (A) and an oral (B) part.

A)    Short essay (min 2500 max 3000 words) in English based on the topics discussed during the course and on the mandatory syllabus. The essay is due at least 10 days prior the date of the exam.

B)     Oral exam based on the essay, the topics discussed during the course and the mandatory syllabus.

 

IMPORTANT: students who do not attend classes are strongly recommended to see the course instructor PRIOR taking the exam (see office hours here below).

Teaching tools

In addition to the literary sources, in class multimedia, films and visual arts will be used.

Office hours

See the website of Elena Lamberti