Unit ENGLISH LITERATURE
- Course
- Italian, classical studies and european history
- Study-unit Code
- 40A00040
- Curriculum
- Letteratura e filologia italiana
- Teacher
- Camilla Caporicci
- Teachers
-
- Camilla Caporicci
- Hours
- 54 ore - Camilla Caporicci
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2025
- Offered
- 2025/26
- Learning activities
- Caratterizzante
- Area
- Lingue e letterature moderne
- Academic discipline
- L-LIN/10
- Type of study-unit
- Opzionale (Optional)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- English
- Contents
- Taking into account text pertaining to different literary genres, the course explores the role and influence of the Bible in the literary, and especially poetic, output, both sacred and secular, in the British Isles of the sixteenth-century. Particular attention will be paid to the role of the biblical Song of Songs in the literary tradition of the period.
- Reference texts
- The Oxford Handbook of The Bible in Early Modern England, c. 1530-1700, edited by Kevin Killeen, Helen Smith, and Rachel Willie (Oxford University Press, 2015). Capitolo 2: “Genevan Legacies: The Making of the English Geneva Bible”.
The Cambridge Companion to the Bible and Literature, edited by Calum Carmichael (Cambridge University Press, 2020). Chapter 12: “The Bible and John Milton’s Paradise Lost”.
Naseeb Shaheen, Biblical References in Shakespeare’s Plays (University of Delaware Press, 1999. Chapter: “The English Bible in Shakespeare’s Day”.
Camilla Caporicci, The Song of Songs and Its Tradition in Renaissance Love Lyric (Oxford University Press, 2024). Chapters: Introduction; 6: “The English Spouse: The Song of Songs in sixteenth-century England”;
7: “Blooming again: The Song of Songs in the Elizabethan love lyric”; 8: “Awaking the turtle dove: Edmund Spenser's Amoretti and Epithalamion”.
The literary texts will be available via Unistudium: https://www.unistudium.unipg.it/unistudium/login/index.php in the page dedicated to the course English Literature II.
The selection will include texts by William Baldwin, Gervase Markham, Henry Constable, John Donne, Aemilia Lanyer, Elizabeth Melville, Elizabeth I, Bartholomew Griffin, Thomas Campion, Richard Barnfield, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare and John Milton.
All texts of the critical bibliography are available in the Biblioteca Umanistica of the University of Perugia, and some of them will also be available via Unistudium:
https://www.unistudium.unipg.it/unistudium/login/index.php in the page dedicated to the course English Literature II.
Students with disabilities and/or with SLD who, having completed regular accreditation through SOL, have obtained access to University services, can apply for the compensatory tools ensured by law (e.g. textbooks in digital format; teaching materials in accessible formats: presentations, handouts, workbooks, provided if necessary in advance of the lessons), for which consult https://www.unipg.it/disabilita-e-dsa.
For the request, students are invited to ask the teacher, who will put them in contact with the Disability and/or DSA Department Coordinator (prof. Alessandra Di Pilla: alessandra.dipilla@unipg.it). - Educational objectives
- By the end of the course, students will have gained the following:
Knowledge
Knowledge of the main literary and poetic genres of sixteenth-century England and their protagonists, with specific attention to the historical and cultural period and to the relationship between literary and biblical texts.
Skills
Ability to analyse the primary texts, both through close reading techniques and in relation to their historico-cultural context, and to efficaciously communicate the acquired knowledge consistently and through an adequate critical language.
Abilities
An adequate level of critical judgement and the ability to recognize and understand the dynamics of intertextuality and interdiscursivity. - Prerequisites
- 1. A good knowledge of Renaissance history, culture, and literature
2. The ability to understand the lectures, in English, and to read and comprehend the primary texts, presented in the original language.
3. The ability to adequately communicate their knowledge. - Teaching methods
- Frontal teaching, with slides.
Close reading: in-depth reading and analysis of selected passages.
Class discussions: active participation in the exchange of opinions and interpretations. - Other information
- Students with disabilities and/or SLD: for any information on University services, consult the page https://lettere.unipg.it/home/disabilita-e-dsa and contact the Disability and/or DSA Department Coordinator (prof. Alessandra Di Pilla: alessandra.dipilla@unipg.it).
- Learning verification modality
- The exam will consist of an ORAL test of about twenty minutes. The test, which will consist of questions on the texts and topics discussed during the course, will ascertain the level of knowledge gained by the students, together with the ability to communicate this knowledge in an efficacious, clear, and adequate way. The language of the exam is English.
The course program is valid for one academic year.
Students with disabilities and/or with SLD who, having completed regular accreditation through SOL, have obtained access to University services, can apply for compensatory tools, dispensatory measures and inclusive technologies ensured by law, to be requested and agreed with the teacher well in advance of tests and exams. For general information, consult the page https://www.unipg.it/disabilita-e-dsa and contact the Disability and/or SLD Department Coordinator (prof. Alessandra Di Pilla: alessandra.dipilla@unipg.it). - Extended program
- Taking into account text pertaining to different literary genres, the course explores the role and influence of the Bible in the literary, and especially poetic output, both sacred and secular, in the British Isles of the sixteenth-century. Particular attention will be paid to the role of the biblical Song of Songs in the literary tradition of the period.
The first part of the course will consist of an introduction to the textual tradition and the role of the Bible in the politico-religious, cultural and literary panorama of sixteenth-century England, with particular attention to the Geneva Bible.
Texts of diverse poetic genres will then be taken into account.
With regards to religious literature, some commentaries of the biblical book will be taken into account. Then, the genre of verse paraphrases of the biblical book will be explored: after an examination of the first influential work in this tradition in the British Isles, William Baldwin’s Canticles, or Balades of Salomon, Gervase Markham’s The Poem of Poems. Or, Sions Muse, will be analysed.
For what concerns religious poetry, a selection of texts of different sixteenth-century authors will be the object of analysis, including works by Henry Constable, John Donne, Elizabeth I, Aemilia Lanyer, and Elizabeth Melville.
The interaction between the biblical text and secular literature will be explored through a selection of texts by such authors as Bartholomew Griffin, Thomas Campion, Richard Barnfield, Edmund Spenser, and John Milton. - Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile
- 4 and 5