English Language and Literature (Year 2 for Three-year Students, curricula:
Language
Expert
for
Management
and
Tourism,
Languages,
Communications and Media)
GROUP A-K AND GROUP L-Z: PROFESSOR CRISTINA VALLARO
COURSE AIMS
The course plans to introduce the student to the world of Shakespeare and to guide
them, through the analysis of two works by William Shakespeare (Julius Caesar
and Antony and Cleopatra), in the study of the great dramatist and what are called
the Roman plays in their textual, structural and stagecraft aspects. The course will
then provide the student with the linguistic and cultural tools needed to examine an
Elizabethan drama in all its facets and develop their general knowledge of
Elizabethan theatre as a literary, social and cultural phenomenon.
COURSE CONTENT
The Roman dramas: dating, sources and their manipulation, printed texts of Julius
Caesar and Anthony and Cleopatra, textual analysis, analysis of the characters and
places. London and Rome, Elizabeth I and Julius Caesar, Elizabeth I and
Cleopatra, the figure of the tyrant. Analysis and commentary of the character of
Anthony: from his rise in Julius Caesar to his undoing in Anthony and Cleopatra.
The political scenario: analogies between Julius Caesar’s Rome and Elizabethan
England.
READING LIST
Compulsory texts:
W. SHAKESPEARE, Julius Caesar, ed. by D. Daniell, Third Series, The Arden Shakespeare, 1998 (or
later editions).
W. SHAKESPEARE, Antony and Cleopatra, ed. by J. Wilders, Third Series, The Arden Shakespeare,
1995 (or later editions).
G. MELCHIORI, Shakespeare, Laterza, Bari, 1994 [(or later editions), in particular the chapters:
Shakespeare e il mestiere del teatro, Il mito di Roma: Julius Caesar, Il Mondo classico,
Antony and Cleopatra].
C. VALLARO, ‘Julius Caesar’ e ‘Antony and Cleopatra’: momenti di storia romana in William
Shakespeare, EDUCatt, Milan, 2010.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, ed. by M.H. Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt, W.W.
Norton & Company, New York-London (2nd vol-8th ed.).
Recommended texts:
A. DICKSON, The Rough Guide to Shakespeare, Rough Guides, 2009 (2nd ed.).
L. INNOCENTI, Il teatro elisabettiano, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1994 (or later editions).
C. CORTI, Il Rinascimento, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1994.
For an overview of English literature, the student is advised to choose and consult a
history of English literature from among the following: Mario Praz (Sansoni), Paolo
Bertinetti (Einaudi) or Andrew Sanders (Clarendon Press, Oxford), all of which can be
consulted and obtained from major bookstores.
TEACHING METHOD
The semester course (Semester 1, Group A-K; Semester 2, Group L-Z) is made up of
three hours of lectures per week. A cycle of practical classes will be held to analyse and
translate the reading texts (poetry, prose and drama) as required for each year and each
curriculum by the Faculty regulations. Those readings, all contained in the Norton
Anthology (the list is published on both Blackboard and the lecturer’s webpage), are an
integral part of the programme and form part of the exam. In addition to the reading list
texts, the lecturer will indicate the hard-to-find texts and images in class which can be
downloaded from the lecturer’s webpage and Blackboard.
Classes will also include the screening of film transpositions of the two Shakespearian
dramas.
ASSESSMENT METHOD
Final written exam in the scheduled sessions. The exam comprises a translation and
linguistic and rhetorical analysis part on short passages taken from the course texts. In
addition, the students will be expected to have a good grasp of the key aspects of English
Renaissance civilisation and William Shakespeare and of all the texts, authors and cultural
landmarks studied in the practical classes.
NOTES
The students are expected to obtain the texts dealt with in the course (especially Julius
Caesar and Anthony and Cleopatra) 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.
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