Advanced knowledge of English and American culture and language (European Level C1+).
Advanced linguistic and analytical skills. Advanced knowledge of rhetoric, literary forms and kinds.

AIMS. Concomitantly with Language classes and labs (conducted by a team of mother-tongue instructors), this course is designed to introduce students to the basic notions of stylistics and semantics and their place in theories of language and writing, literary criticism and translation.

LEARNING OUTCOMES. By the end of this course successful students should: reach an advanced level of language skills and competence (European Level C2); master a variety of formal approaches to language (verbal communication) and codified texts (verbal art) in specific terms of "style" and "meaning"; employ them in skillful practices of close reading and interlingual translation of literature.

Stylistics and Semantics in Theories of Language and Criticism, Literary Writing and Translation

Starting with some of the most authoritative statements in the fields of stylistics and semantics, from the debates of the early- and mid-twentieth century through the first decades of the present one, this course will address the place and nature of these branches of linguistic study and their contribution to literary theory, practice, and translation. Against or along with the claim "that the goal of stylistics - an objective account of form and meaning - is an impossible one", or the belief that "stylistic preferences reflect cognitive preferences" and that "form and content correlate", questions of "style" and "meaning" will be explored in different bodies of literary forms, kinds and writings in the Anglo-American and transatlantic tradition, from the seventeenth century through modern and post-modern times.

• 1.  (A) H. D. Adamson Linguistics and English Literature Cambridge U P, Cambridge, 2019 » Pagine/Capitoli: Selected chapters
• 2.  (C) Lesley Jeffries, Daniel McIntyre, Stylistics Cambridge U P, Cambridge, 2010 » Pagine/Capitoli: Selected chapters
• 3.  (C) Morton W. Bloomfield Stylistics and the Theory of Literature Johns Hopkins U P - New Literary History, Vol. 7, Baltimore, 1976 » Pagine/Capitoli: 271-311
• 4.  (C) William C. Dowling The Senses of the Text: Intensional Semantics and Literary Theory U of Nebraska P, Lincoln, 1999 » Pagine/Capitoli: Selected chapters
• 5.  (C) Erik Martiny, ed. A Companion to Poetic Genre Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, 2012 » Pagine/Capitoli: Selected chapters

In addition to the textbook (Adamson) selections of parts and chapters from additional theoretical essays, literary texts and related materials will be indicated and provided by the teacher at the beginning of the course.

• Lectures. In class-discussion and analytical sections run by the teacher and, alternately, by students as section-leaders. In class-presentations and structured focus groups. Translation labs and digital humanities training and practice.
  

• WRITTEN AND ORAL.
  Besides the written exams planned and scheduled in their Language classes and labs, students are expected to produce a short paper (an interlingual translation of a brief text along with a brief stylistic and semantic commentary, max. 800 words). The paper is due 3-4 days before the final exam. The final exam (oral) will be based on the submitted paper, which students are expected to illustrate and discuss, as well as on all the theoretical and critical readings related to the coursework.
  
  ASSESSMENT.
  Written exam (Writing -Test - Reading, 40/50%)
  Final paper and oral exam (50/60 %).
  

English

English