Unit ENGLISH LITERATURE II
- Course
- Foreign languages and cultures
- Study-unit Code
- 35308009
- Curriculum
- In all curricula
- Teacher
- Francesca Montesperelli
- Teachers
-
- Francesca Montesperelli
- Hours
- 54 ore - Francesca Montesperelli
- CFU
- 9
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2020
- Offered
- 2021/22
- Learning activities
- Caratterizzante
- Area
- Letterature straniere
- Academic discipline
- L-LIN/10
- Type of study-unit
- Opzionale (Optional)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- ITALIAN
- Contents
- The Imperial Gothic: “otherness” and Empire in the Victorian Literature.
- Reference texts
- 1- C. Brontë, Jane Eyre
2- R. Kipling, “The Phantom Rickshaw”
3- J. Conrad, Heart of Darkness - Educational objectives
- This teaching aims to provide a basic knowledge of the English 19th century literature, and a deep, accurate acquaintance and comprehension of four influential texts of the 19th century. Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to do the following:
1. Demonstrate detailed knowledge of the primary texts and of their historical framework.
2. Identify aesthetic principles of literature, arts and humanities.
3. Select and use the vocabulary of the humanities at an appropriate intellectual level.
4. Demonstrate the skill of reading, translating and commenting on the texts. - Prerequisites
- In order to be able to know how to tackle the course, students
1. must have an in-depht knowledge of history and geography of Great Britain; they must also have a basic knowledge of World history and geography;
2. are expected to be able to read primary texts in their original language;
3. must be able to read critically and formulate relevant conclusions (critical thinking);
4. must have acquired proficiency in communication (writing, reading, listening skills).
These are competences that the student should have already acquired in his/her school curriculum. These preconditions are valid both for attending and not attending students. - Teaching methods
- Class, primary resources, slides, PowerPoint presentations, video clips, films.
- Other information
- contacts:
francesca.montesperelli@unipg.it - Learning verification modality
- WRITTEN EXAM and/or ORAL EXAM
The course program is valid only for one academic year. - Extended program
- The Imperial Gothic: “otherness” and Empire in the Victorian Literature.
The term ‘imperial Gothic’ refers to late 19th-century fiction set in the British Empire that employs and adapts elements drawn from Gothic novels such as a gloomy atmosphere, brutal and tyrannical men, and the presence of the occult or the supernatural. In "Orientalism" (1978), literary critic Edward Said demonstrated how 18th- and 19th-century European literature depicts the ‘Orient’ in stark opposition to the West, as mysterious, barbaric, irrational, seductive and dangerous, a conception of the East highly compatible with the conventions of Gothic fiction.
The course aims to examine three classical examples of narratives that make extensive use of Gothic qualities and popular stereotypes regarding the British Empire: Charlotte Brontë’s "Jane Eyre" (1847), in which Rochester’s insane and ‘infamous’ wife Bertha is a Jamaican-born heiress, Rudyard Kipling’s “The Phantom Rickshaw” (1885), a horror short-story which evokes images and atmospheres of Colonial India, and Joseph Conrad’s "Heart of Darkness" (1899), which represents the imperial Gothic in its most fully developed form, both revealing and enacting the contradictions that structure the “civilising mission” of imperialism.