“English Literature and Imperialism: Otherness, contamination and miscegenation”
The course aims at exploring, through analyses of selected texts, orientalist stereotypes in the relationship with colonial “otherness”, the fear of the alien, and the horror of contamination in English Imperialist literature.
Primary texts:
- R. Kipling, racconti scelti da Plain Tales from the Hills (1888)
- A. Conan Doyle, racconti scelti da The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
- J. Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899)
Critical works:
- Stephen Arata Fictions of Loss in the Victorian Fin de Siecle, Cambridge, CUP, 1996 (Introduzione, cap 6, cap 7)
- Edward Said, Orientalism, London, Penguin, 2003 (cap. 1)
- Chinua Achebe, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness” in Hopes and Impediments. Selected Essays (1965-1987), London, Heinemann, 1988, (pp. 1-13)
- S. Albertazzi, Lo sguardo dell’Altro, Roma, Carocci, 2000, (pp. 23-45)
A list of further references and readings will be given at the beginning of the course.
Reference texts and dictionaries:
A reference text for the study of literary and historical period (1830-2007) and of selected authors will be chosen among:
- D. Daiches, A Critical History of English Literature, vol. 3 (available also in Italian translation, Storia della letteratura inglese, ed. Garzanti, 1998)
- M. Praz, Storia della letteratura inglese, Sansoni, (latest edition)
- A. Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature, Clarendon Press, 1996
The following dictionaries are recommended for text reading and correct pronunciation: Collins Cobuilt, English Language Dictionary, Collins, 2001; F. Picchi, Grande dizionario Inglese/Italiano, Italiano/Inglese, Hoepli, 1999; A. Marchese, Dizionario di retorica e stilistica, Mondadori, 2002; J.C. Wells, Longman Pronouncing Dictionary, Collins, 2001.
Requirements:
Primary texts are to be read in English.
Students unable to attend lectures are required to get in touch with the teacher in order to gather proper information on the course.
oral exam
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