FROM THE ROMANCE TO THE NOVEL: THE GOTHIC
The course aims at analyzing the beginning and the development of gothic genre in English literary and critical texts of the XVIII and XIX century.
The course aims at analyzing the characteristics of the gothic genre in its main characteristics in the context of the evolution of the English novel.
Bibliography:
Primary Texts (to be read in English, in any edition):
H. Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, 1764
M. Lewis, The Monk, 1796
A. Radcliffe, The Italian, 1797
M. Shelley, Frankenstein, 1818
C. Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer, 1820
J. Hogg, Private Memories and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, 1824
Critical Texts
- M. Billi, Il gotico inglese, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1986
- D. Carpi, “Il soprannaturale nel dramma elisabettiano-giacobiano e nel romanzo gotico: tra metafisico e sociale”, in D. Carpi, Sintomi di Modernità (cap 7), Bologna, Editrice Compositori, 1990.
-R. Jackson, Fantasy. The Literature of Subversion, London, New York, Methuen, 1981
- T. Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”
- S. Freud, “The Uncanny”
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.
REQUIREMENTS
Primary texts are to be read in English.
Further bibliographical references will be indicated during the lessons.
Students unable to attend lectures are required to get in touch with the teachers before preparing for the exam.
The lessons will be partly held in English.
oral exam
