The revision of the genre of detective fiction in contemporary English literature
Educational Objectives: The course aims at analyzing the development of the literary genre of the detective fiction from its origins to the contemporary period within English literature through primary texts and criticism by representative authors.
The course aims at analyzing the characteristics of the literary genre of the detective fiction and their rereading and transformation in the contemporary English literature.
Bibliography:
Primary Texts (to be read in English, in any edition):
- E. A. Poe, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “The Gold Bug”, “The Purloined Letter”
- A. C. Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet”
- P. Ackroyd, Hawksmoor.
Critical Texts (the parts indicated)
- D. Carpi, L’ansia della scrittura. Parola e silenzio nella narrativa inglese contemporanea, Napoli, Liguori, 1995. (Introduction and chapter on Peter Ackroyd)
S. Tani, The Doomed Detective, Carbondale, Edwardsville, Southern Illinois University Press, 1984.
P. Childs, Modernism, London, Routledge, 2000.
Manuals: As regards the literary and cultural context spanning from the Victorian to contemporary age, students are free to choose among the following handbooks:
- D. Daiches, Storia della Letteratura Inglese, Milano, Garzanti, 1999.
- D. Daiches, A Critical History of English Literature, London, Secker & Warburg, 1960.
- P. Bertinetti, a cura di, Storia della Letteratura Inglese, Torino, Einaudi, 2000.
- A. Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2004
REQUIREMENTS
Primary texts are to be read in English.
Students unable to attend lectures are required to get in touch with the teachers before preparing for the exam.
oral exam
