Anglophone Cultures Ii

A.Y. 2021/2022
6
Max ECTS
40
Overall hours
SSD
L-LIN/10
Language
English
Learning objectives
Focusing on the literary and non-literary works, films, discourses, art forms and cultural products and practices of the Anglophone countries which are taken as case studies in the syllabus, this course aims to contextualize them against the complex political and cultural histories of these countries, rooted in the fraught, divisive experiences of colonization, empire, decolonization and globalized contemporaneity. The course aims to provide the students with an inter- and cross-cultural awareness, as well as to enhance their critical knowledge and understanding of these themes, which are increasingly relevant to our current experience of the global, with its claims and alterities, and enduring inequalities. These aims are pursued through the methodological and critical tools of cultural studies, which, combined here with postcolonial theory, and in tune with the avowed educational and vocational objectives of our Master Degree Course, privilege multicultural and interdisciplinary exchanges and perspectives. By fostering active participation from the students, and providing opportunities for advancing spoken English skills, the course sets out to enhance the students' critical- analytical skills, their ability to make independent judgements and organize their own work and study projects, and encourages an advanced ability to recognize differences and make thoughtful connections among divergent forms, genres, practices, identities and cultures, in line with the overall mission of Lingue e Culture per la Comunicazione e la Cooperazione Internazionale.

Objectives include:
- Knowledge and understanding - Students will gain knowledge and critical understanding of a range of cultural practices, productions (visual art, films, writing, performances), and literary genres and texts in English, relevant to the main themes of the course, which they will approach through the lens of selected Cultural Studies practices and theories. Selected theoretical paradigms and current debates in Postcolonial Theory, as well as the contested legacies of colonisation and decolonisation, and their impact on non-Western paths to globalisation will be also important elements of the course.
- Applying knowledge and understanding - Students will have the opportunity to apply their acquired knowledge and understanding to in-depth close reading and critical analysis of cultural productions and literary texts; to improving their ability to retrieve, select, synthesise, compare, evaluate and organize relevant information and materials; to debating and discussing relevant texts and issues in the class and in groups and producing oral and written work in English, and PowerPoint presentations, consistent with the topics of the course.
- Making judgements - Students will acquire the following skills relevant to making informed and autonomous judgements: by acquiring and developing comprehensive analytical and critical attitudes towards a diversity of cultural productions and literary texts, they will be better equipped to embrace and transfer intercultural and plural perspectives of analysis. The ability to draw comparisons and establish connections between the various contexts under scrutiny, and the habit to experiment with a diversity of approaches to selected issues consistent with the course will also be major assets in developing judgements skills.
· Communication skills - The course will enable students to enhance their ability to discuss selected topics, present their own work to an audience of peers and engage the audience in fruitful debates, use IT technology to support both academic study, research and networking.
Expected learning outcomes
Acquired knowledge and skills will match the multicultural mission of the Master Degree Course by allowing students to select, contextualise, critically analyse, evaluate and discuss the thematic threads, the cultural practices, discourses and productions of selected English-speaking countries showing an awareness of their historical, political, social and cultural backgrounds. This will be done from a variety of perspectives and using the methodological approaches of Cultural Studies and Postcolonial Theory.
The acquisition of these skills will enable the students to draw comparisons and unravel the connections between a given Anglophone context, analysed in both its local and global dimensions, and their own culture and experiences, according to a cross-cultural perspective which, in line with the overall objectives of Lingue e Culture per la Comunicazione e la Cooperazione Internazionale, will enhance their ability to compare and assess different histories, ideologies, claims, cultural practices, and the way they offer thoughtful responses to the main issues of the present. Through active participation and independent work, students will develop skills which will help them undertake further study with a higher degree of intellectual curiosity, autonomy, and ability to discriminate, transfer the acquired skills to related fields of analysis and apply multiple methodologies and a consistent intercultural approach to their dissertation and post-graduate research.
Single course

This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.

Course syllabus and organization

Single session

Lesson period
First semester
The course will be delivered in presence (synchronically broadcast in streaming via MS Teams) and exams procedures will include written assignments and activities in addition to an oral test. Variations will be always fine-tuned to the University's official directions and, further details will be provided when available.
Should it be necessary to shift to emergency teaching due to Covid-19, all lectures would be delivered online. Most of them will be synchronous, in line with the official time-table, and will be accessed through the Microsoft TEAMS platform. Occasionally, and as an exception, asynchronous lessons (video-recordings, audio/video ppt) will be made available on TEAMS and on the ARIEL website of the course. Other teaching materials and suggestions will be provided through the ARIEL platform. Online lessons would be particularly designed to facilitate the achievement of learning objectives. They may be followed by online discussions and interactions. Active involvement will be encouraged.
Testing has been redesigned so as to be equally accurate and effective in the case of classroom teaching and remote teaching (see the official programme).
These temporary provisions are meant not to interfere with the achievement of the intended learning objectives and acquired skills which define this course.
Programmes and teaching materials are the same in the case of classroom and remote teaching.
Information, announces and further changes will be published on TEAMS and on the ARIEl website of the course.
Course syllabus
Module 1 - "Memory, Confession, Justice and Restorative Storytelling in Post-Apartheid South Africa: From the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to Marikana".

After a methodological introduction and a brief overview of South African history, the first section of the course will focus on the politics, ethics, discourse and culture of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and its role in the healing of past atrocities and the tentative construction of a reconciled South Africa. Against the backcloth of the country's oppressive racist past and its still controversial and problematic present, the syllabus will then address the role of public discourses, national debates, artwork representations and, more generally, cultural politics in mediating new versions of public memory and a shareable, though still divisive and provisional, national narrative and cultural identity. The course will also address sensitive policies and issues more immediately affecting the present, such as, among others, public memorialization, intra-African immigration and xenophobia, industrial relations and social unease.

Module 2 - "Re-Membering and Representing South Africa's Traumatic Past through Narrative and the Arts: Violent Memories and the Ethics of Representation".

The second part of the course will focus on, and provide an analysis of Achmat Dangor's novel Bitter Fruit, a novel addressing the antinomies of the TRC, the divisive debate which accompanied it and its terrible fallout on common people's lives, which simultaneously maps out the painful negotiations implied in South Africa's unparalleled collective effort to re-network the national community along non-racist, non-discriminatory lines in the aftermath of apartheid. The inhuman practices of apartheid, and the ethical issues accompanying individual choices and responsibilities in challenging its infamous ideology and practices from the perspective of a white South African author, will also be approached through an analysis of J.M.Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians.
Prerequisites for admission
Students are expected to have a good command of English, as lectures, films, texts and debates will be in that language. Lectures by guest speakers may be in Italian. Students from other Universities or Degree Courses who do not have a background in Cultural Studies may read: Roberto Pedretti, Dalla Lambretta allo skateboard, 2.0, Milano, Unicopli 2020 (or, in English, Gary Hall, Clare Birchall, eds., New Cultural Studies: Adventures in Theory, University of Georgia Press, 2006).
Teaching methods
The lectures will mainly rely on whole-class teaching (including internet usage, online material and articles, films, slides, talks by guest speakers moderated by the course lecturers, discussion sessions with the participation of the students). Group work and students' autonomous productions and commentary on essays and additional material will be highly encouraged and actively pursued.
Lectures will be delivered in presence and, synchronically, in streaming through the Microsoft TEAMS platform. Occasionally, and as an exception, asynchronous lessons (video-recordings, audio/video ppt) may be made available. Other teaching materials and suggestions will be provided through the ARIEL platform of the course. Lectures will be particularly designed to facilitate the achievement of learning objectives. They may be followed by online discussions and interactions. Active involvement will be encouraged.
Teaching Resources
Reading list:

The reading list is the same for attending and non-attending students.

*Most of the essays are available freely through the internet or the University Library online periodicals division. (Don't forget to log in!). This does not apply to novels and monographs

Module 1 -

Compulsory essays:

· Posel, Deborah, "History as Confession: The Case of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission", Public Culture, vol. 20, n. 1, 2008, pp. 119-141.

· Grant Farred, "The black intellectual's work is never done: a critique of the discourse of reconciliation in South Africa", Postcolonial Studies, 7: 1, 2004, 113 — 123

· Goodman, Tanya, Setting the Stage: A Cultural Approach to the South African Truth & Reconciliation Commission, in «Yale Journal of Sociology», III (2003), pp. 77-92.


Plus 1 essay to be chosen from the following list:

· Itala Vivan, "Cultural Memory in Post-Apartheid South Africa through Old and New Museums", in Cities in Flux: Metropolitan Spaces in Literary and Visual Texts - Festschrift in Honour of Prof. em. Dr. Therese Steffen. Schweizerische Afrikastudien / Études Africaines Suisse, vol. 12, eds. Olivier Moreillon, Alan Muller and Lindy Stiebel. Vienna, LIT Verlag, 2017, pp. 123-143.

· Verdoolaege, Anneliese, "Dealing with a traumatic past: the victim hearings of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and their reconciliation discourse", in Critical Discourse Studies, VI (2009), n. 4, pp. 297-309.

· Bick, Tenley, ""Horror histories: apartheid and the abject body in the work of Jane Alexander", African Art, dec. 2010, pp. 1-14.

· Charmaine Mceachern (1998): "Mapping the Memories: Politics, Place and Identity in the District Six Museum, Cape Town, Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, 4:3, 499-521.

· Richard Drayton, Rhodes Must Not Fall? Statues, Postcolonial 'Heritage' and Temporality", Third Text, 33:4-5, 2019, 651-666.

· David Mario Matsinhe, "Africa's Fear of Itself: the ideology of Makwerekwere in South Africa", Third World Quarterly, 32:2, 2011, 295-313.

Plus all the slides and files made available on the Ariel website of the course (http://ldemichelisci1e2lin.ariel.ctu.unimi.it)
Students will be invited to participate actively in the analysis through workshop activities, presentations on essays and films, and debates.

Module 2 -

Novels:

· Achmat Dangor, Bitter Fruit, Kwela Books, HarperCollins 2004 (Cape Town, 2001).

· J.M Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians, Secker & Warburg, 1980.


Plus 2 essays to be chosen among the following ones (1 for each novel):


BITTER FRUIT:

· Shane Graham, "Remembering to Forget: Monumental vs. Peripatetic Archiving in Achmat Dangor's Bitter Fruit", Safundi, 9:1, 2009, 39-52

· Aghogho Akpome, "Ominous Inevitabilities: Reflecting on South Africa's Post-Transition Aporia in Achmat Dangor's Bitter Fruit", Africa Spectrum, 2/2013: 3-24.

WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS:

· Susanna Zinato, "The Gorgon's Head: On Narration, Torture, and Truth-Seeking in J. M.
Coetzee's Waiting for The Barbarians and in the South African Trc's History-Writing and Restorative Undertaking", Iperstoria - Testi Letterature Linguaggi www.iperstoria.it, Issue 13 - Spring/Summer 2019, 127-141.

· Maria Boletsi, "Barbaric Encounters: Rethinking Barbarism in C.P. Cavafy's and J.M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians", Comparative Literature Studies, vol. 44, 1-2, 2007, pp. 67-96.

· Stephen Craps, "J. M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians and the ethics of testimony". English Studies, 88(1), 59-66.

· Robert Spencer, "J.M Coetzee and Colonial Violence", Interventions, 10.2, 2010, 173-187.

· Shadi Neimneh, "Imperial Nationalism in J. M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians", Arab World English Journal, vol. 16, n. 1.3, 2015, pp. 30-49.


· Plus all the slides and files made available on the Ariel website of the course (http://ldemichelisca1e2lin.ariel.ctu.unimi.it)

*Most of the essays are available freely through the internet or the University Library online periodicals division. (Don't forget to log in!).
Students will be invited to participate actively in the analysis through workshop activities, presentations and debates.


General information about the Course
The syllabus will include two modules of 20 hours/3 credits each, and will be complemented by audio-visual educational material, films, and lectures by guest speakers. Active participation will be encouraged.

Further suggestions and material will be provided on the ARIEL website of the course when classes start. Lectures and the final exam will be in English.

ARIEL WEBSITE:
http://ldemichelisca1e2lin.ariel.ctu.unimi.it
Assessment methods and Criteria
The final exam will consist of a critical and detailed oral discussion on all the texts, files and other material included in the programme. Students are to take the exam in English, and are required to demonstrate their full knowledge of the texts and the syllabus, and to be able to contextualise, analyse, evaluate and discuss them critically in the light of the analytical tools and cultural studies approach developed during the course. Building on the information and bibliography provided during the course, they must be able to show a sufficient awareness of the historical and cultural background of the United Kingdom, along the perspectives discussed in the syllabus.

Students will have the opportunity, if they wish, to take at least 1 mid-term written assignment (a short essay to be written at home), and/or to take part in other learning activities or group works agreed with their lecturer. The results of the test will be published on the ARIEL website of the course (http://ldemichelisca1e2lin.ariel.ctu.unimi.it). Passing this test and taking part in the activities will allow the students to concentrate on a shorter programme (to be defined at the beginning of the course) for their final oral exam. Detailed information about the precise contents and formats of the test will be provided at the beginning of the course and published on the Microsoft TEAMS and the Ariel website of the course.
Students are free not to take this test and discuss the whole programme in their final oral exam.
For the students who will choose to take the written test, the mark of the final exam (in a scale of 30) will be a combination of the marks obtained in the written test, the evaluation of their active participation in the course (plus, on a voluntary basis, their autonomous productions), and the result of the final oral discussion.
Excellence will be awarded in the final exam to students who will show deep understanding of the methodological approach, will adopt originality of presentation, and will be able to contextualize and critically connect events, texts, and cultural practices, analyzed in both their local and global dimensions, according to a cross-cultural perspective.

Prerequisites and testing are the same as for attending and non-attending students.

It is no longer possible to earn ONLY 3 CREDITS by taking the exam on a single module of the course.

Students are welcome to refer to their lecturers for questions and further comment about the contents and programme of the course during office hours through TEAMS or by email. This applies also to foreign students in need of individual advice.
L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE - University credits: 6
Lessons: 40 hours
Professor: De Michelis Lidia Anna