English Culture I
A.Y. 2021/2022
Learning objectives
Focusing on the literary and non-literary works, films, discourses, art forms and cultural practices which contribute to inform the current British debate on national, social and cultural identity against the backdrop of the country's imperial past, and with a view to redefine the United Kingdom's role in Europe and globally, this course aims to enhance the students' critical knowledge and understanding of these themes, as well as of the enduring influence and attraction of British institutions, literature and culture on our current experience of contemporaneity.
These aims are pursued through the methodological and critical tools of cultural studies, which, in tune with the avowed educational and vocational objectives of our Master Degree Course, privilege multicultural and interdisciplinary exchanges and perspectives. These approaches are particularly rewarding in order to contextualize British cultural phenomena against the backdrop of a rich web of relations among culture(s), beliefs, literatures, genres, social and discursive practices and paradigms, and the production and consumption of cultural products. By fostering active participation from the students, the course aims to enhance their critical analytic 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 and identities, 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, applied to the current British context. Knowledge and understanding of the historical, political and social background, as well as of essential cultural paradigms, will be important elements of the programme. These include, but are not limited to: definitions and re-definitions of British national identity against the new multicultural and multi-ethnic social reality; Englishness, Britishness, exclusion and inclusion; London as urban space, and as literary and film imaginary; borders, immigration, diaspora and their representation in the British public sphere and in British literature, film, art, and music. Other themes, connected to specific courses, may include notions such as: empire, post-empire, Commonwealth, post-colonialism, and the relations with the former colonies; identity, alterity, difference, hybridity; "race", ethnicity, multiculturalism, and cosmopolitanism; the discourses and practices of dissent and resistance; power, ideology, hegemony and the ways they are reflected in British culture; politics, practices and representations of the body; alterity, speculative genres, science fiction.
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 use English 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.
These aims are pursued through the methodological and critical tools of cultural studies, which, in tune with the avowed educational and vocational objectives of our Master Degree Course, privilege multicultural and interdisciplinary exchanges and perspectives. These approaches are particularly rewarding in order to contextualize British cultural phenomena against the backdrop of a rich web of relations among culture(s), beliefs, literatures, genres, social and discursive practices and paradigms, and the production and consumption of cultural products. By fostering active participation from the students, the course aims to enhance their critical analytic 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 and identities, 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, applied to the current British context. Knowledge and understanding of the historical, political and social background, as well as of essential cultural paradigms, will be important elements of the programme. These include, but are not limited to: definitions and re-definitions of British national identity against the new multicultural and multi-ethnic social reality; Englishness, Britishness, exclusion and inclusion; London as urban space, and as literary and film imaginary; borders, immigration, diaspora and their representation in the British public sphere and in British literature, film, art, and music. Other themes, connected to specific courses, may include notions such as: empire, post-empire, Commonwealth, post-colonialism, and the relations with the former colonies; identity, alterity, difference, hybridity; "race", ethnicity, multiculturalism, and cosmopolitanism; the discourses and practices of dissent and resistance; power, ideology, hegemony and the ways they are reflected in British culture; politics, practices and representations of the body; alterity, speculative genres, science fiction.
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 use English 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 and learning objectives of the Master Degree Course by allowing students to select, contextualise, critically analyse, evaluate and discuss the thematic threads, the cultural practices, discourses, literary, visual and artistic productions of contemporary Britain showing an awareness of their historical, political, social and cultural backgrounds. The acquisition of these skills will be fostered by encouraging the students to engage in active participation and dialogue and by enabling them to draw comparisons and unravel the connections between the British context 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 different histories, ideologies, claims, cultural practices, and the way they offer thoughtful responses to central issues of the present. Through active participation and independent work, students will develop linguistic and argumentative 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.
Lesson period: Second semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
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
Second 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.
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
The programme is the same for attending and non-attending students.
Module 1 - Public Memory and Contested Histories in the UK. 1): Black British Voices Confronting the Present: Re-membering Slavery vs Abolition Commemorated.
The course will address interconnected aspects of the representation of memory. In particular, it will explore the ways in which different forms of agency and cultural expression interact, clash, and re-combine in order to restore dignity and voice to memories, histories and identities which have long been silenced. In the process, it will address the re-membering of cultural narratives in the literary imagination, art, and the cultural museum.
This first section investigates the opposing ways in which the dramatic and enduring legacies of Atlantic slavery have been represented by Black British writers, artists, activists and intellectuals, on the one hand, and in the commemorative literature produced by politicians, the media and publications by national agencies, on the other, with a focus on the 2007 celebrations of the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade in the British Empire (1807). Building on powerful literary works by black British writers such as Jackie Kay and David Dabydeen, and on the spate of official pamphlets and exhibitions stressing the unique and self-celebrated role of the UK in fostering abolitionism, the course will address issues concerning the memorialisation of trauma through a critical discussion of the connections between slavery, colonialism and enduring forms of institutional disadvantage and racism. Further thought will be devoted to the issue of "cancel culture" with reference to the celebration of the UK imperial and colonial history, and to a discussion of how contested histories should (or should not) be remembered.
Module 2 - Public Memory and Contested Histories in the UK. 2): Contemporary British History through a Black British Lens: Narratives, Policies, Practices, Representations.
Module 2, which is centred on Black British representations of current race relations in the UK, focuses on some compelling attempts to enrol non-fiction, history writing, storytelling, and other forms of cultural production in order to resist and countermand the increasingly aggressive nationalist (and fundamentally "whitely") provisions and language of politicians and the media (and the simplistic and polarized affective scenarios that their discourse and endorsed imaginaries aims to create). After a brief introduction to Black British representations of Black presence and contributions in the history of the UK, this section will address the emerging field of Black British history-writing, the role of Black British artists and musicians, multicultural museums. At the core of this section, however, is an analysis of the works of the British rapper and intellectual of Scottish-Jamaican descent Akala (Kingslee James McLean Daley), with a focus on his powerful and insightful memoir, addressing issues of race and class, "Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire" (2018).
Module 1 - Public Memory and Contested Histories in the UK. 1): Black British Voices Confronting the Present: Re-membering Slavery vs Abolition Commemorated.
The course will address interconnected aspects of the representation of memory. In particular, it will explore the ways in which different forms of agency and cultural expression interact, clash, and re-combine in order to restore dignity and voice to memories, histories and identities which have long been silenced. In the process, it will address the re-membering of cultural narratives in the literary imagination, art, and the cultural museum.
This first section investigates the opposing ways in which the dramatic and enduring legacies of Atlantic slavery have been represented by Black British writers, artists, activists and intellectuals, on the one hand, and in the commemorative literature produced by politicians, the media and publications by national agencies, on the other, with a focus on the 2007 celebrations of the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade in the British Empire (1807). Building on powerful literary works by black British writers such as Jackie Kay and David Dabydeen, and on the spate of official pamphlets and exhibitions stressing the unique and self-celebrated role of the UK in fostering abolitionism, the course will address issues concerning the memorialisation of trauma through a critical discussion of the connections between slavery, colonialism and enduring forms of institutional disadvantage and racism. Further thought will be devoted to the issue of "cancel culture" with reference to the celebration of the UK imperial and colonial history, and to a discussion of how contested histories should (or should not) be remembered.
Module 2 - Public Memory and Contested Histories in the UK. 2): Contemporary British History through a Black British Lens: Narratives, Policies, Practices, Representations.
Module 2, which is centred on Black British representations of current race relations in the UK, focuses on some compelling attempts to enrol non-fiction, history writing, storytelling, and other forms of cultural production in order to resist and countermand the increasingly aggressive nationalist (and fundamentally "whitely") provisions and language of politicians and the media (and the simplistic and polarized affective scenarios that their discourse and endorsed imaginaries aims to create). After a brief introduction to Black British representations of Black presence and contributions in the history of the UK, this section will address the emerging field of Black British history-writing, the role of Black British artists and musicians, multicultural museums. At the core of this section, however, is an analysis of the works of the British rapper and intellectual of Scottish-Jamaican descent Akala (Kingslee James McLean Daley), with a focus on his powerful and insightful memoir, addressing issues of race and class, "Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire" (2018).
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.
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
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 -
Books:
· Jackie Kay, The Lamplighter, Bloodaxe Books, 2008. [Play]
Compulsory Essays [6 essays]:
· Lidia De Michelis, "Introduzione. Catene di memoria: per non dimenticare la schiavitù e la tratta", Culture 2008, pp. 11-28.
· Geoffrey Cubitt, "Lines of resistance: evoking and configuring the theme of resistance in museum displays in Britain around the bicentenary of 1807", museum and society, 8:3 (2010), pp. 143-164.
· Albert Boime, "Turner's Slave Ship: The Victims of Empire", Turner's Studies, 10.1 (1990), pp. 34-42.
· Angelica Pesarini, Carla Panico, "From Colston to Montanelli: public memory and counter-monuments in the era of Black Lives Matter", FROM THE EUROPEAN SOUTH 9 (2021), pp. 99-113. https://www.fesjournal.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/FES9_8.Pesarini_Panico.pdf
Plus, 1 essay on "The Lamplighter" to be chosen between:
· Lidia De Michelis, "Echi di voci perdute: The Lamplighter di Jackie Kay", Afriche e Orienti, 3-4 (2009), pp. 80-87.
· Petra Tournay-Theodotou, "Love Letter to My Ancestors:" Representing Traumatic Memory in Jackie Kay's "The Lamplighter"", Atlantis, Vol. 36, No. 2 (December 2014), pp. 161-182.
Plus, 1 essay to be chosen between:
· Itala Vivan, "Il bicentenario britannico del 2007 e i magazzini della memoria postcoloniale", Culture 2008, pp. 41-54.
· Luigi Bruti Liberati, Cap. I: "Amazing Grace contro La Marseillaise. L'abolizione della tratta degli schiavi e le guerre francesi, 1785-1815", e "Appendice (Storiografia, Letteratura, Filmografia)", in Storia dell'Impero Britannico, Milano, Bompiani, marzo 2022.
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 -
Monograph:
· Akala, Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire, London, Two Roads, 2018.
1 essay to be chosen among the following ones:
· Justin A. Williams, "Rapping Postcoloniality: Akala's "The Thieves Banquet" and Neocolonial Critique, Popular Music and Society, 40:1, 2017, pp. 89-101.
· Marco Canani, " Shakespeare in the "Gangsta's Paradise". Akala and the empowering potential
of the Bard's poetry", AltreModernità, 11 (2017), pp. 123-139. https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/AMonline/article/view/9182/8682
· Remi Joseph-Salisbury, Laura Connelly, and Peninah Wangari-Jones, "'The UK is not innocent': Black Lives Matter, Policing and Abolition in the UK", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, July 2020, 12 pp., https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343254658_The_UK_is_not_innocent_Black_Lives_Matter_policing_and_abolition_in_the_UK
· 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.
***
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READINGS:
· Runnymede Trust, " The Changing Shape of Cultural Activism: Legislating Statues in the Context of the Black Lives Matter Movement", by Sadia Habib, Chloe Peacock, Ruth Ramsden-Karelse and Meghan Tinsley, June 2021, https://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/projects/CoDE%20Briefings/Runnymede%20CoDE%20Cultural%20Activism%2C%20Statues%20v1.pdf
· Saima Nasar, " Remembering Edward Colston: histories of slavery, memory, and black globality", Women's History Review, 2020, VOL. 29, NO. 7, pp. 1218-1225.
· Branscome E., "Colston's Travels, or Should We Talk About Statues?", ARENA Journal of Architectural Research, 6 (1), 2021; DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/ajar.261
· HM Government, Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, 1807-2007, http://www.antislavery.ac.uk/items/show/994
· Gioia Angeletti, "The Plantation Owner is Never Wearing a Kilt": Historical Memory and True Tales in Jackie Kay's The Lamplighter", in Within and Without Empire: Scotland Across the (Post)colonial Borderline, Edited by Carla Sassi and Theo van Heijnsbergen, Cambridge Scholars' Publishing, 2013, pp. 214-228.
· Jennifer Anne Carvill, "Uncomfortable Truths: British museums and the legacies of slavery in the bicentenary year, 2007", Federation of International Human Rights Museums, online, 24 pp., https://images.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/2021-02/FIHRM-Carvill%20British%20Museums%20and%20the%20legacies%20of%20Slavery.pdf
· Claire Alexander, "Breaking black: the death of ethnic and racial studies in Britain", Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2018, Vol. 41, No. 6, 1034-1054
· Samuel Hollinshead, " Knowledge is Power: How Akala can be used as a Site of Memory for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade", 16 pp., https://www.academia.edu/12041886/Knowledge_is_Power_How_Akala_can_be_used_as_a_Site_of_Memory_for_the_Trans-Atlantic_Slave_Trade
· Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Reflecting on the past and looking to the future: The 2007 Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade in the British Empire, http://equiano.soham.org.uk/documents/slavery-reflecting-past-looking-future.pdf
On the history of the British Empire, from an Anglocentric perspective:
· Luigi Bruti Liberati, Storia dell'Impero Britannico, Milano, Bompiani, marzo 2022
*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 -
Books:
· Jackie Kay, The Lamplighter, Bloodaxe Books, 2008. [Play]
Compulsory Essays [6 essays]:
· Lidia De Michelis, "Introduzione. Catene di memoria: per non dimenticare la schiavitù e la tratta", Culture 2008, pp. 11-28.
· Geoffrey Cubitt, "Lines of resistance: evoking and configuring the theme of resistance in museum displays in Britain around the bicentenary of 1807", museum and society, 8:3 (2010), pp. 143-164.
· Albert Boime, "Turner's Slave Ship: The Victims of Empire", Turner's Studies, 10.1 (1990), pp. 34-42.
· Angelica Pesarini, Carla Panico, "From Colston to Montanelli: public memory and counter-monuments in the era of Black Lives Matter", FROM THE EUROPEAN SOUTH 9 (2021), pp. 99-113. https://www.fesjournal.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/FES9_8.Pesarini_Panico.pdf
Plus, 1 essay on "The Lamplighter" to be chosen between:
· Lidia De Michelis, "Echi di voci perdute: The Lamplighter di Jackie Kay", Afriche e Orienti, 3-4 (2009), pp. 80-87.
· Petra Tournay-Theodotou, "Love Letter to My Ancestors:" Representing Traumatic Memory in Jackie Kay's "The Lamplighter"", Atlantis, Vol. 36, No. 2 (December 2014), pp. 161-182.
Plus, 1 essay to be chosen between:
· Itala Vivan, "Il bicentenario britannico del 2007 e i magazzini della memoria postcoloniale", Culture 2008, pp. 41-54.
· Luigi Bruti Liberati, Cap. I: "Amazing Grace contro La Marseillaise. L'abolizione della tratta degli schiavi e le guerre francesi, 1785-1815", e "Appendice (Storiografia, Letteratura, Filmografia)", in Storia dell'Impero Britannico, Milano, Bompiani, marzo 2022.
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 -
Monograph:
· Akala, Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire, London, Two Roads, 2018.
1 essay to be chosen among the following ones:
· Justin A. Williams, "Rapping Postcoloniality: Akala's "The Thieves Banquet" and Neocolonial Critique, Popular Music and Society, 40:1, 2017, pp. 89-101.
· Marco Canani, " Shakespeare in the "Gangsta's Paradise". Akala and the empowering potential
of the Bard's poetry", AltreModernità, 11 (2017), pp. 123-139. https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/AMonline/article/view/9182/8682
· Remi Joseph-Salisbury, Laura Connelly, and Peninah Wangari-Jones, "'The UK is not innocent': Black Lives Matter, Policing and Abolition in the UK", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, July 2020, 12 pp., https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343254658_The_UK_is_not_innocent_Black_Lives_Matter_policing_and_abolition_in_the_UK
· 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.
***
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READINGS:
· Runnymede Trust, " The Changing Shape of Cultural Activism: Legislating Statues in the Context of the Black Lives Matter Movement", by Sadia Habib, Chloe Peacock, Ruth Ramsden-Karelse and Meghan Tinsley, June 2021, https://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/projects/CoDE%20Briefings/Runnymede%20CoDE%20Cultural%20Activism%2C%20Statues%20v1.pdf
· Saima Nasar, " Remembering Edward Colston: histories of slavery, memory, and black globality", Women's History Review, 2020, VOL. 29, NO. 7, pp. 1218-1225.
· Branscome E., "Colston's Travels, or Should We Talk About Statues?", ARENA Journal of Architectural Research, 6 (1), 2021; DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/ajar.261
· HM Government, Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, 1807-2007, http://www.antislavery.ac.uk/items/show/994
· Gioia Angeletti, "The Plantation Owner is Never Wearing a Kilt": Historical Memory and True Tales in Jackie Kay's The Lamplighter", in Within and Without Empire: Scotland Across the (Post)colonial Borderline, Edited by Carla Sassi and Theo van Heijnsbergen, Cambridge Scholars' Publishing, 2013, pp. 214-228.
· Jennifer Anne Carvill, "Uncomfortable Truths: British museums and the legacies of slavery in the bicentenary year, 2007", Federation of International Human Rights Museums, online, 24 pp., https://images.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/2021-02/FIHRM-Carvill%20British%20Museums%20and%20the%20legacies%20of%20Slavery.pdf
· Claire Alexander, "Breaking black: the death of ethnic and racial studies in Britain", Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2018, Vol. 41, No. 6, 1034-1054
· Samuel Hollinshead, " Knowledge is Power: How Akala can be used as a Site of Memory for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade", 16 pp., https://www.academia.edu/12041886/Knowledge_is_Power_How_Akala_can_be_used_as_a_Site_of_Memory_for_the_Trans-Atlantic_Slave_Trade
· Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Reflecting on the past and looking to the future: The 2007 Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade in the British Empire, http://equiano.soham.org.uk/documents/slavery-reflecting-past-looking-future.pdf
On the history of the British Empire, from an Anglocentric perspective:
· Luigi Bruti Liberati, Storia dell'Impero Britannico, Milano, Bompiani, marzo 2022
Assessment methods and Criteria
Testing and evaluation:
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://ldemichelisci1e2lin.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 lecturer 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.
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://ldemichelisci1e2lin.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 lecturer 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