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 2026
- Offered
- 2026/27
- Learning activities
- Caratterizzante
- Area
- Lingue e letterature moderne
- Sector
- ANGL-01/A
- Type of study-unit
- Opzionale (Optional)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- English
- Contents
- The course will examine the portrayal of Italy in early modern English literature. After exploring, through a series of key texts, the complex dynamics characterising the ambivalent view of Italy in the English imagination of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries, we will focus on two Shakespearean plays set in Italy: Julius Caesar and Much Ado About Nothing.
- Reference texts
- William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (The Arden Shakespeare, or other critical edition)
William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (The Arden Shakespeare, or other critical edition)
A selection of 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.
Critical bibliography will 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 dynamics at work in the conceptualization and representation of Italy in early modern England, with particular attention to the sources and their appropriation/reshaping;
Knowledge of Italy’s role in William Shakespeare’s work.
Skills and Abilities
Ability to analyse the primary texts, both through close reading techniques and in relation to their historical and cultural context, and to efficaciously communicate the acquired knowledge through an adequate critical language;
Develop an adequate level of critical judgement. - Prerequisites
- 1. A good knowledge of early modern 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
- The course will examine the portrayal of Italy in early modern English literature. The first part of the course will be devoted to exploring the complex dynamics that characterise the ambivalent view of Italy in the English imagination of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries. This exploration will be based on a close reading of a series of key texts of various genres, including translations, pamphlets, dialogues, treatises, picaresque novels and travelogues. In particular, we will take into account the role and significance of the vast corpus of early modern English translations of Italian works, and we will examine the reception and ideological appropriation of Francesco Petrarca’s anti-curial texts (the Liber sine nomine and the so-called “Babylonian” sonnets), Roger Ascham’s treatise The Schoolmaster, Thomas Nashe’s picaresque novel The Unfortunate Traveller, and Thomas Coryat’s travelogue Coryat’s Crudities.
We will then move on to examine two of Shakespeare’s plays set in Italy, one in ancient Rome and the other in sixteenth-century Messina: Julius Caesar and Much Ado About Nothing. The analysis of these plays will highlight the multifaceted significance of the Italian setting in Shakespeare’s work, providing an emblematic case study of the complexity of Italy’s image in the English culture of the early modern period. - Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile
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