In the year when the centennial of the beginning of the First World War is celebrated (1914-18) this course aims at guiding students to understand how English poetry - most of which still relied on Victorian clichès - was deeply changed by the experience of a new and terrible way of fighting. New weapons such as gas, flame-throwers, tanks, aeroplanes and submarines were first and massively used in the five years of the war. All this couldn't but strongly influence the perception of and the attitudes to warfare and, especially, to death by war, both on the home front and - much more profoundly - on the battle front. British soldiers fought on the Continent and had to undergo, among others, the disastrous experience of the battle of the Somme (1916) which cost the British Army some 420,000 casualties. Among the thousands of British volunteers and conscripts there were also some who had written poetry before enlisting, others who started writing poetry during the war itself; some survived the event, a few became conscientious objectors, many died killed in action. Their general attitude towards the war, though, revealed to be quite different from what the official propaganda wanted it to be: no more ‘heroes', no more ‘glory' or ‘charge of the light brigade', but disfigured bodies left in the mud of the Flanders trenches, unburied corpses on barbed wire, gas-stifled and burnt soldiers, destroyed countryside and towns, shell-shocked and mutilated survivors. All this while the home front suffered from the ‘war economy', and underwent profound social changes.
The course will be a guide at reading and interpreting both men's and women's war poetry, focusing especially (but not exclusively) on the poetry of Edwar Thomas, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg, and on some female production.
The course will be held in English.

1) The impact of the new warfare on Edwardian culture

2) The situation of English poetry before the First World War
3) Presentation of the major poets who wrote when in the army
4) The trenches, the war front and male poetry
5) New attitudes towards the war and military propaganda
6) The home front, social changes and female poetry
7) Linguistic and stylistic analysis of some poems from the anthologies.

Visual documents will also be introduced and commented upon.

See below what enlisted in Part B) of the set readings section.

a) Conoscenze e capacità di comprensione: Gli studenti acquisiscono i principali concetti connessi all'analisi del testo poetico e allo specifico momento storico.
b) Conoscenze e capacità di comprensione applicate: Sanno applicare i concetti acquisiti alla descrizione e all'analisi delle poesie. Sanno individuare i vali livelli analitici.
c) Autonomia di giudizio: Gli studenti sanno giudicare singoli testi poetici attraverso l'applicazione di metodologie analitiche anche per la rilevanza di fenomeni stilistici.
d) Abilità comunicative: Gli studenti sono stimolati a interagire durante le attività in classe e a presentare loro letture testuali in lingua inglese ad alto livello e con linguaggio specialistico adeguato.
e) Capacità di apprendere: Sanno trasferire le competenze metodologiche ad altri oggetti poetici e ad altri tipi testuali.

Modalità didattiche

Lectures and seminars. During classes students will be asked to present their own reading of some poems (these activities will also be evaluated).

The course will be held in English.

Obblighi

Students are warmly invited to attend lessons and the correlated activities.

Testi di studio

Part A)

Primary Texts*
A selection of poems from the following anthologies**:
C. Reilly (ed.), Scars upon My Heart, London, Virago Press, 2006 (1981).
G. Walter (ed.), The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry, Penguin, 2006 (or other editions).

**The list of the poems presented and discussed during classes will be published at the end of the course on prof. Mullini "Materiale didattico" web page.

Secondary Texts*
P. Fussel, The Great War and Modern Memory, Oxford, OUP, 2000 (1975).#
R. Stevenson, Literature & the Great War, Oxford, OUP, 2013.#
J. Montefiore, "‘Shining Pins and wailing shells': Women Poets and the Great War", in D. Goldman (ed.), Women and World War 1, Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1993, 51-72.
R. Mullini, Killed in Action. Saggi sulla poesia di Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg ed Edward Thomas, Bologna, Ponte Nuovo, 1977.
R. Mullini, "Nobody asked what the women thought": la poesia femminile inglese della I Guerra Mondiale, in L'opera del silenzio, a cura di D. De Agostini e P. Montano, Fasano, Schena, 1999 (= Peregre), 177-198.

*There's at least a copy of each text in Urbino universities libraries.

# Chapters to be read will be specified during lessons and the relative information posted on the web (prof. Mullini's 'Materiale didattico').

NB: The First World War Digital Archive of the University of Oxford can be very profitably searched for texts, images, biographies... (http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/)

Part B)

Students are also asked to read the following texts***:

Novels, plays and basic history of English Literature:

J. Austen, Pride and Prejudice
S. Beckett, Waiting for Godot OR Endgame
P. Bertinetti, English Literature. A Short History, Torino, Einaudi, 2010
D. Defoe, Robinson Crusoe OR Moll Flanders
C. Dickens, Hard Times
E.M. Forster, A Room with a View OR A Passage to India
J. Joyce, Dubliners
C. Marlowe, Doctor Faustus

W. Shakespeare, King Lear

W. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

"Poetic Forms and Literary Terminology", in The Norton Anthology of English Literature (at the end of volume 1 OR of volume 2)

Poems (from any anthology):

• G. Chaucer, "General Prologue", from The Canterbury Tales (ll. 1-271; 447-530; 671-860. Try and read at least ll. 1-42 in Middle English; the rest in Modern English)
• T. Wyatt, "My Galley"
• W. Shakespeare, Sonnets 18, 19, 55

• J. Donne, "The Sunne Rising"; "Sonnet X" from Holy Sonnets
• J. Milton, Paradise Lost, Book ll. 1-338; 522-675; 700-737; 752-798)
• A. Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress"
• W. Blake, "London", from Songs of Experience
• W. Wordswoth, "Tintern Abbey", from Lyrical Ballads.
• S.T. Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (Parts 1-4), from Lyrical Ballads.
• J. Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn"
• R. Browning, "My Last Duchess"
• T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
• S. Heaney, "Digging"

*** Part B must be studied only by those students who have no CFU for English Literature in their previous 'triennale' course. Students who acquired only 10 CFU will read less than what is listed in B. They are asked to get in touch with Professor Mullini in order to define individual assignments.

Modalità di
accertamento

Oral exams in English

 

Disabilità e DSA

Le studentesse e gli studenti che hanno registrato la certificazione di disabilità o la certificazione di DSA presso l'Ufficio Inclusione e diritto allo studio, possono chiedere di utilizzare le mappe concettuali (per parole chiave) durante la prova di esame.

A tal fine, è necessario inviare le mappe, due settimane prima dell’appello di esame, alla o al docente del corso, che ne verificherà la coerenza con le indicazioni delle linee guida di ateneo e potrà chiederne la modifica.

Modalità didattiche

Lectures and seminars. During classes students will be asked to present their own reading of some poems (these activities will also be evaluated).

The course will be held in English.

Testi di studio

Part A)

Primary Texts*

A selection of poems from the following anthologies**:
C. Reilly (ed.), Scars upon My Heart, London, Virago Press, 2006 (1981).
G. Walter (ed.), The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry, Penguin, 2006 (or other editions).

**The list of the poems presented and discussed during classes will be published at the end of the course on prof. Mullini "Materiale didattico" web page.

Secondary Texts*
P. Fussel, The Great War and Modern Memory, Oxford, OUP, 2000 (1975).#
R. Stevenson, Literature & the Great War, Oxford, OUP, 2013.#
J. Montefiore, "‘Shining Pins and wailing shells': Women Poets and the Great War", in D. Goldman (ed.), Women and World War 1, Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1993, 51-72.
R. Mullini, Killed in Action. Saggi sulla poesia di Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg ed Edward Thomas, Bologna, Ponte Nuovo, 1977.
R. Mullini, "Nobody asked what the women thought": la poesia femminile inglese della I Guerra Mondiale, in L'opera del silenzio, a cura di D. De Agostini e P. Montano, Fasano, Schena, 1999 (= Peregre), 177-198.

*There's at least a copy of each text in Urbino universities libraries.

# Chapters to be read will be specified during lessons and the relative information posted on the web (prof. Mullini's 'Materiale didattico').

NB: The First World War Digital Archive of the University of Oxford can be very profitably searched for texts, images, biographies... (http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/)

Part B)

Students are also asked to read the following texts***:

Novels, plays and basic history of English Literature:

J. Austen, Pride and Prejudice
S. Beckett, Waiting for Godot OR Endgame
P. Bertinetti, English Literature. A Short History, Torino, Einaudi, 2010
D. Defoe, Robinson Crusoe OR Moll Flanders
C. Dickens, Hard Times
E.M. Forster, A Room with a View OR A Passage to India
J. Joyce, Dubliners
C. Marlowe, Doctor Faustus

W. Shakespeare, King Lear

W. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

"Poetic Forms and Literary Terminology", in The Norton Anthology of English Literature (at the end of volume 1 OR of volume 2)

Poems (from any anthology):

• G. Chaucer, "General Prologue", from The Canterbury Tales (ll. 1-271; 447-530; 671-860. Try and read at least ll. 1-42 in Middle English; the rest in Modern English)
• T. Wyatt, "My Galley"
• W. Shakespeare, Sonnets 18, 19, 55

• J. Donne, "The Sunne Rising"; "Sonnet X" from Holy Sonnets
• J. Milton, Paradise Lost, Book ll. 1-338; 522-675; 700-737; 752-798)
• A. Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress"
• W. Blake, "London", from Songs of Experience
• W. Wordswoth, "Tintern Abbey", from Lyrical Ballads.
• S.T. Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (Parts 1-4), from Lyrical Ballads.
• J. Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn"
• R. Browning, "My Last Duchess"
• T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
• S. Heaney, "Digging"

*** Part B must be studied only by those students who have no CFU for English Literature in their previous 'triennale' course. Students who sat only for one exam will read less than what is listed in B). They are asked to get in touch with Professor Mullini in order to define individual assignments.

Modalità di
accertamento

Oral exams (in English)

 

Disabilità e DSA

Le studentesse e gli studenti che hanno registrato la certificazione di disabilità o la certificazione di DSA presso l'Ufficio Inclusione e diritto allo studio, possono chiedere di utilizzare le mappe concettuali (per parole chiave) durante la prova di esame.

A tal fine, è necessario inviare le mappe, due settimane prima dell’appello di esame, alla o al docente del corso, che ne verificherà la coerenza con le indicazioni delle linee guida di ateneo e potrà chiederne la modifica.

Non attending students are invited to get in touch with Professor Mullini either by phone (during office hours), or by email (but also to check possible further information posted on the web).
 All students are invited to look up additional information and material which will be made available during the course at professor Mullini's School website (http://www.uniurb.it/lingue/matdid/mullini/), "Materiale didattico".
When students e-mail professor Mullini, they are kindly requested to use their university address if they want to receive an answer.