Summary
English Language and Literature (Year 1, Three-year Course; curriculum:
Foreign Languages and Literature)
Professor Cristina Vallaro; Professor Arturo Cattaneo
English Language and Literature (Semester Course for Arts and Philosophy
Students)
Professor Cristina Vallaro
English Language Practical Classes (Year 1, Three-year Course students)
Dr. Lucia Arnò; Dr. Catherine Bell; Dr. Laura Belloni; Dr. Paola Biancolini; Dr.
Nara Carlini; Dr. Anthony Farrugia; Dr. Laura Ferrario; Dr. Alison Frrell; Dr.
Stephen Liti Mutunga; Dr. Caterina Pavesi; Dr. Jane Pollard; Dr. Michela Porro;
Dr. Paul Prostitis; Dr. Stefania Riglione; Dr. Giovanna Taglialatela; Dr. Luisa
Tracogna; Dr. Mimi Watts; Dr. Tobias Willis
English Language and Literature (Year 1, Three-year Course; curriculum:
Foreign Languages and Literature)
PROFESSOR CRISTINA VALLARO; PROFESSOR ARTURO CATTANEO
SEMESTER 1: Professor Arturo Cattaneo
COURSE AIMS
The course sets out to develop the student’s basic knowledge of English poetry and
prose through the analysis of particularly significant texts of the English literary
tradition from the Renaissance to the 18th century. The textual analysis will
incorporate both the technical aspects (metre, forms, structures, language,
rhetorical figures and themes) and their historical evolution, also in relation to the
great European cultural trends.
COURSE CONTENT
Poetry as a literary genre (see Blackboard and the lecturer’s webpage for the
relative reading list): basic principles of poetry metrics, forms and structures, the
language of poetry, rhetorical figures and themes. Definition of the idea of
Renaissance and Humanism. Rediscovery of classic antiquity. The diffusion of
printing. The role of the classics and rhetoric in the formation of modern man.
International characteristics of the Renaissance. The peculiarities of the English
Renaissance. The legacy of Petrarch in England: the form of the sonnet in Wyatt
and Surrey. The cult of the lady and passionate love in Western poetry. Convention
and biography in the Elizabethan songbooks: Edmund Spenser and Sir Philip
Sidney. The invention of the modern in poetry: the songbook of Shakespeare.
Ambiguity of love, act and word in the sonnets of Shakespeare. The poetry of John
Donne: loving passion and philosophic reflection. New science and religion in the
Songs and Sonnets of John Donne. Civil and religious poetry in 17 th-century
England. Andrew Marvell and John Milton: the theme of carpe diem and the
Christian epic poem. Neoclassical equilibrium and satire in the 18 th century:
Alexander Pope.
The birth of modern English prose (this part of the course will be carried out
directly on the course texts, the list of which is given on Blackboard and on
lecturer’s webpage): from the first accounts of travel in the Americas (Thomas
Hariot) to philosophical prose (Francis Bacon, John Locke), to the inception of the
novel (Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Richardson), up to the birth of
journalism and essay writing in the early 18 th century (Joseph Addison, Richard
Steele).
READING LIST
Basic reading list for the three-year programme:
AA.VV, The Norton Anthology of English Literature, ed. by Stephen Greenblatt, Norton &
Company, New York and London, vol. I, 8th edition (recommended, but any other edition will
be worthwhile).
A. CATTANEO, A Short History of English Literature, Mondadori, 2011.
The novels dealt with in the Practical Classes (see “Teaching Method” below):
J. AUSTEN, Pride and Prejudice (Ed. Oxford Classics, or any other complete edition in the English
language).
N. HORNBY, High Fidelity, Penguin, London.
TEACHING METHOD
This is a semester course made up of three hours of lectures per week. To support the
Special Subject course, a series of practical classes on the analysis and translation of the
course texts (poetry, prose and drama) not dealt with in the Special Subject part will be held
by Dr. Cristina Vallaro. Photocopies of the hard-to-find texts and images will be handed out
in class and published on Blackboard and the lecturer’s webpage.
ASSESSMENT METHOD
Final oral exams to qualify for which the student will take a written exam on the topics
dealt with in the first semester.
NB: the written test will verify the student’s knowledge of the notions and concepts
presented in class (found in A. Cattaneo, A Short History of English Literature) and the
course texts and requires the student to translate short excerpts of the texts in question.
N.B. For further information students are requested to read the ‘Norme per l’esame’
(Exam Rules) published on Blackboard and the lecturer’s webpage.
NOTES
Attending students must comply with the conduct called for by the Università Cattolica
Code of Ethics, accepted at the time of their enrolment and which they are required to read
(the Code is available online).
The course is for Foreign Languages and Literature students of the Faculty of Language
Sciences and Foreign Literature.
It is also open to the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy students whose curriculum
comprises a one-year course in English Language and Literature (in Semester 1 while in
Semester 2 said students will attend the course held by Professor Cristina Vallaro).
Students must obtain the course reading list texts before classes commence (in particular
The Norton Anthology).
Further information can be found on the lecturer's webpage
http://www2.unicatt.it/unicattolica/docenti/index.html or on the Faculty notice board.
at
NOTES
Students who must sit the English Language and Literature 1 are informed that:
–All students must read, learn and comply with the University Cattolica Code of Ethics;
– The exam is split into two parts: written exam for Semester 1 and oral exam for Semester
2;
– The above exams serve to assess the knowledge and skills acquired by the student at the
end of the first year of the First-level Degree course;
– The knowledge assessment will take account of the following factors: that the student has
studied all parts of the course; that they understand the meaning and exact pronunciation
of the words contained in the course texts; that they know the historical, cultural and
literary context of the authors studied in the course and the key aspects of English
civilization from the Middle Ages to the early 18th century;
– Skills will be assessed based on the student’s ability to demonstrate their understanding of
the historical and cultural moments, the authors and the relative texts indicated in the
course; to translate the course texts into correct Italian; to refer to the linguistic abilities
acquired in the first year of the course; and to analyse the content, rhetoric and style of the
course texts;
–The final assessment for Languages and Literature students will include the preparation of
a paper that addresses in-depth one of the themes dealt with in class. The paper will be
assessed for correct spelling and morphosyntax, coherence and cohesion, completeness of
content and the adequacy of the references;
– Additional information on the exam can be found in the ‘Norme per l’esame’ (Exam
Rules) file published on Blackboard and the lecturer’s webpage.
SEMESTER 2: Professor Cristina Vallaro
COURSE AIMS
The course introduces the student to the Elizabethan world by studying two leading
cultural figures of late 16th-century England: William Shakespeare and Queen
Elizabeth I. The student will study Elizabethan theatre and Romeo and Juliet to
learn about not only one of Shakespeare’s major works, but also the world of the
theatre and the influence of Italian culture on 16th-century English literature. The
Progresses of Elizabeth I will inform the class about a great personage of English
history, the English Court and the importance of symbols and allegories in the
portraiture of the period.
COURSE CONTENT
William Shakespeare and Elizabethan theatre. Romeo and Juliet by William
Shakespeare: dating, sources, printed texts. The work’s structure and time scale.
Textual analysis of Romeo and Juliet, the characters and the places. London and
Verona. The influence of Petrarch’s work. Kenilworth and Elvetham: dating,
context, text analysis, characters and places.
READING LIST
W. SHAKESPEARE, Romeo and Juliet, ed. by Jill L. Levenson, The Oxford Shakespeare,
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008.
C. VALLARO, Queen Elizabeth I on Progress, Vita e Pensiero, Milan, 2011.
G. MELCHIORI, Shakespeare, Laterza, Bari, 1994 (or later editions), in particular the following
chapters: Shakespeare e il mestiere del teatro, La tragedia lirica: ‘Romeo and Juliet’.
Recommended reading:
L. INNOCENTI, Il teatro elisabettiano, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1994.
B. CRYSTAL, Shakespeare on Toast: Getting a Taste for the Bard, Icon Books, London, 2009.
S. DORAN, Queen Elizabeth I, British Library Historic Lives, British Library Publishing
Division, London, 2003.
TEACHING METHOD
This is a semester course of 3 hours of lectures per week. The course integrates a series
of practical classes held by the lecturer on the reading, translation and commenting of the
course reading list texts. The reading list will be supplemented with texts and images found
on the lecturer’s webpage and Blackboard.
The students will be shown film adaptations of the course texts.
ASSESSMENT METHOD
Final oral exam at the end of the course in the scheduled exam sessions. In addition to
knowledge of the themes dealt with by the authors and the historical-cultural periods
studied, the exam will require the student to translate and perform a linguistic, rhetorical and
stylistic analysis of the course texts. Foreign Languages and Literature students and annual
Arts and Philosophy students must first pass the written exam on the subjects studied in
Semester 1 to qualify for the oral exam. Foreign Languages and Literature students are
reminded that they can only take the English Language and Literature I exam after they have
passed the intermediate written and oral English Language exams called for by the Faculty’s
study plan. Arts and Philosophy students must first pass the English Language exam called
for by their study plan to qualify for the English Language and Literature 1 exam. The
student can complete their final assessment by writing a paper on one of the themes studied
in class. The paper should meet the criteria set out in the “Norme per l’esame” (Exam Rules)
file published on the lecturer’s webpage and Blackboard course page.
Additional information on the exam assessment process can be found on the lecturer’s
webpage and Blackboard.
NOTES
The students must comply with the University’s Code of Ethics.
The reading list texts, especially the Norton Anthology, must be obtained before classes
commence.
Further information can be found on the lecturer's webpage
http://www2.unicatt.it/unicattolica/docenti/index.html or on the Faculty notice board.
English Language and Literature (Semester Course for Arts and Philosophy
Students)
PROFESSOR CRISTINA VALLARO
SEMESTER TWO: Professor Cristina Vallaro
COURSE AIMS
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The course will study two leading cultural figures of late 16th-century England,
William Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I, to introduce the student to the
Elizabethan world. A study of Elizabethan theatre and Romeo and Juliet will not
only enable the student to learn about one of Shakespeare’s major works, but also
the world of the theatre and the influence of Italian culture on 16th-century English
literature.
The class will study the Progresses of Elizabeth I to learn about a great personage
of English history, the English Court and the importance of symbols and allegories
in the portraiture of the period.
COURSE CONTENT
William Shakespeare and Elizabethan drama. Romeo and Juliet by William
Shakespeare: dating, sources, printed texts. The work’s structure and time scale.
Textual analysis of Romeo and Juliet, the characters and the places. London and
Verona. The influence of Petrarch’s work. Kenilworth and Elvetham: dating,
context, textual analysis, characters and places.
READING LIST
W. SHAKESPEARE, Romeo and Juliet, ed. by Jill L. Levenson, The Oxford Shakespeare, Oxford
University Press, Oxford, 2008.
C. VALLARO, Queen Elizabeth I on Progress, Vita e Pensiero, Milan, 2011.
G. MELCHIORI, Shakespeare, Laterza, Bari, 1994 (or later editions), in particular the chapters:
Shakespeare e il mestiere del teatro, La tragedia lirica: ‘Romeo and Juliet’.
Recommended reading:
L. INNOCENTI, Il teatro elisabettiano, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1994.
B. CRYSTAL, Shakespeare on Toast: Getting a Taste for the Bard, Icon Books, London, 2009.
S. DORAN, Queen Elizabeth I, British Library Historic Lives, British Library Publishing Division,
London, 2003.
TEACHING METHOD
This is a semester course of 3 hours of lectures per week. The course includes a series of
practical classes held by the lecturer on the reading, translation and commenting of the
course reading list texts. The reading list will be supplemented with the texts and images
found on the lecturer’s webpage and Blackboard.
In addition, the students will be shown film adaptations of the course texts.
ASSESSMENT METHOD
Final oral exam at the end of the course in the scheduled exam sessions. The English
Language and Literature 1 exam will test the student’s knowledge of the themes dealt with
by the authors and the relative historical-cultural periods and will require them to translate
and analyse the linguistic, rhetorical and stylistic features of the course texts.
The student can complete their final assessment by writing a paper on one of the themes
studied in class. The paper will be marked according to the criteria set out in the “Norme per
l’esame” (Exam Rules) file published on the lecturer’s webpage and Blackboard course
page.
Arts and Philosophy students taking the semester course must first pass the English
Language test called for by the study plan to qualify for the English Language and Literature
1 exam.
Additional information on the exam assessment procedure can be found on the lecturer’s
webpage and Blackboard.
NOTES
The students must comply with the University’s Code of Ethics.
The reading list texts, especially the Norton Anthology, must be obtained before classes
commence.
Further information can be found on the lecturer's webpage at
http://www2.unicatt.it/unicattolica/docenti/index.html or on the notice board of the
Department of Language Sciences and Foreign Literature. Students are invited to check the
lecturer’s webpage regularly, especially during holiday periods, for any updates and/or
changes.
English Language Practical Classes (Year 1, Three-year Course students)
DR. LUCIA ARNÒ; DR. CATHERINE BELL; DR. LAURA BELLONI; DR. PAOLA BIANCOLINI; DR.
NARA CARLINI; DR. ANTHONY FARRUGIA; DR. LAURA FERRARIO; DR. ALISON FRRELL; DR.
STEPHEN LITI MUTUNGA; DR. CATERINA PAVESI; DR. JANE POLLARD; DR. MICHELA PORRO;
DR. PAUL PROSTITIS; DR. STEFANIA RIGLIONE; DR. GIOVANNA TAGLIALATELA; DR. LUISA
TRACOGNA; DR. MIMI WATTS; DR. TOBIAS WILLIS
COURSE AIMS
The student will learn and/or consolidate the basic grammatical and lexical
structures of the English language, developing the four linguistic abilities of
reading, writing, spoken communication and listening with a focus on the basic
skills of phonetics and phonology.
COURSE CONTENT
The course is designed as follows:
– Study and acquisition of English grammar and vocabulary;
– Learning of the IPA;
– Introduction to translation into English, focusing on contrastive grammar;
– Oral reception and production drills;
– Exercises on phonetics and phonology;
– Dictation.
The student will also be able to attend guided study units in the multimedia lab,
using online software and applications designed specifically for learning English.
READING LIST
The student is advised to buy a monolingual and a bilingual dictionary that will support
them throughout their study cycle.
Recommended dictionaries
Bilingual:
Il Sansoni Italiano-Inglese, Sansoni, 2010, 5th edition.
Grande Dizionario Hoepli Inglese con CD-ROM, Hoepli, 2007.
Il Dizionario Inglese Italiano Ragazzini, Zanichelli, 2012.
Monolingual:
Advanced Dictionary, Collins Cobuild, 2008, 6th ed.
Advanced Learners Dictionary, Cambridge, 2010, 3rd ed.
Advanced Learners Dictionary, Oxford, 2010, 8th ed.
English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, Macmillan, 2007, 2nd ed.
Basic manuals
P. DUMMETT-J. HUGHES-H. STEPHENSON, Life-Upper Intermediate (Student Book e Workbook), Heinle,
2011.
M. VINCE, Language Practice for First, Macmillan. 5th edition with key.
Recommended reading for the recovery course and and for non-attending students:
H. DOWNES-J. ROCK, New English Practice, Cedam, 2012, new ed.
Additional materials will be indicated during the course.
TEACHING METHOD
Lectures and guided language learning in the multimedia lab.
ASSESSMENT METHOD
Final written and oral exams (called intermediate tests). The written exam will test the
student’s knowledge of grammar through different kinds of exercises: written
comprehension, free writing, short translation from Italian into English, IPA recognition,
and dictation.
The oral exam will require the student to discuss the written and audio content on the
English-speaking civilizations of the textbook Life and to take an IPA-word recognition
quizz. The oral will test the student’s ability to understand, communicate and interact in
face-to-face situations, so they will need to demonstrate correct use of phonetics and
phonology, communicative fluency, grammatical accuracy, good vocabulary and the ability
to interact.
NOTES
The first-year courses are tailored to each student’s degree specialization in order to
avoid any overlaps in basic curricular materials as much as possible. Those degree
programmes wth the most students will be split into different levels, which means a different
learning pace for each curriculum and not a different syllabus. In fact, the programme is the
same for all curricula.
Each student will be assigned to the course that best suits their level according to a
placement test, which the student will take before the courses commence. The list of groups
split by curriculum and level will be posted on the notice board of the Morozzo della Rocca
campus. The student must stick to the course assigned to ensure consistency of both
numbers and levels.
One-year and two-year course students: Students choosing a one-year or two-year
course of English will take the same English Language Workshop 2 course for the first year
held by Dr. Anna Caldirola of the Primary Education Sciences Course. In their second year,
the two-year course students will attend 4 hours of the J1 course held by Dr. Alison Fottrell.
Students that still need to sit their English Language written and/or oral exam must
attend the semester recovery course.
Further information can be found on the lecturer's webpage at
http://docenti.unicatt.it/web/searchByName.do?language=ENG, or on the Faculty notice
board.