Advanced knowledge of British literature, culture, and language. General theoretical background.

Designed to introduce and apply the functions of theory and criticism to the close reading of twentieth-century British poetry in the wake of Modernism; develop textual analytical skills in relation to different approaches and different poetic genres and sub-genres; distinguish different levels of textual interaction (descriptive and appreciative; cognitive and interpretive, practical and didactic); foster critical thinking and original writing; invite compatible reflections on teaching techniques and methods.
Students will have acquired: an advanced understanding of theoretical and methodological approaches to poetry; knowledge of the British poetical tradition after Modernism; textual analytical skills, from close reading to contextual interpretation; ability in developing and applying ideas and techniques within a research and a teaching context; critical thinking and effective strategies for original writing.

"After Modernism: Theory, Poetry, and Poetics"

6 ECTS/CFU
Starting with some of the most authoritative statements in the field of poetry and poetics in the early twentieth century (T. S. Eliot's essays in a Modernist transatlantic context), this course will trace the development of different poetical traditions, in the wake of Modernism and in the aftermath of World War II. Movements and counter-movements, cultural continuities and discontinuities will be exemplified by specific authors and works of different decades and schools, nationalities and affiliations, literary genres and genders: from the reaction to Modernist poetics between the Wars through the neo-Romantic, confessional and post-confessional modes of the mid and late twentieth century. Poets will include, among others, T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden, Edith Sitwell and Stevie Smith, Philip Larkin and Elizabeth Jennings, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, Seamus Heaney and Eavan Boland, Gillian Clarke and Carol Ann Duffy.

9 ECTS/CFU
In addition to the main 6 ECTS/CFU syllabus, full coursework includes additional literary and critical readings related to the Romantic/anti-Romantic debate within Modernism, tracing the emergence of the movement (from precursors such as Hopkins and Yeats to T. S. Eliot, Joyce, and D. H. Lawrence) backwards to Imagism (Hulme, Pound, Edwards) and fin de siècle decadence.

• 1.  (A) Eagleton, Terry How to Read a Poem Blackwell, Oxford, 2007

A mandatory set of primary texts (poems and prose works in English by the writers included in the syllabus, from T. S. Eliot to Carol Ann Duffy) and of secondary texts (related theoretical and critical essays, from the Russian Formalists to the U.S. Cultural critics) will be indicated and provided by the teacher at the beginning of the course.
9 ECTS/CFU
In addition to the materials for the 6 ECTS/CFU syllabus, further literary, critical, and theoretical texts related to the emergence of Modernism and Imagism will be provided by the teacher.

• 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.
  

• Written and oral.
  Students are expected to produce a short paper (4-5 double spaced pages, 2000/2500 words approximately) consisting in a close reading of a poem. The paper is due a week 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 literary and critical readings related to the coursework.

English

English