Modulo A

L. e L. Angloamericane / Corso di Lett. Inglese I anno

Parte “Storia letteraria”
Laurea Triennale
a.a. 2009/2010

L’esame orale riguarda lo studio di tutte le parti introduttive della Heath Anthology dal Periodo Coloniale al Contemporaneo.

L’elenco che segue intende fornire tracce utili per l’articolazione della materia durante il colloquio:

1.       Native American cultures before the conquest: illustrate the most significant features about the myths of the origin of the earth and compare with the Biblical genesis.

2.      What are Trickster Tales in Native American cultures?

3.      Capt. John Smith’s General Historie… (1624) attained the status of myth: in the 16^th century, it justified colonial conquest; in the 20^th century it became emblematic of Europe’s imposition of “otherness” on the Natives. Nevertheless, Smith’s narrative is not simply ethnocentric; it also points out that Native Americans were an organized society and a centuries-old culture. Illustrate how the story of Pocahontas can be re-presented in order to enhance the implications of America’s multiple beginnings.

4.      Map the cultural implications of the earliest European settings in the American colonies.

5.      Illustrate the features of the literatures of the European settlers in the American colonies.

6.      Describe the Puritan settlement; illustrate the doctrine of predestination; define the “chosen ones” or “elect”, and the practice of “self-questioning”.

7.      Significant socio-economic changes in the first half of the 18^th century contributed to the Revolution—illustrate.

8.      American colonists and the Enlightenment: describe the cultural features of the Great Awakening.

9.      Illustrate the conditions for women, Native Americans, and slaves in Colonial America.

10.   Describe the role of education in mid-18^th century Colonial America.

11.    The Revolution, The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution—illustrate.

12.   Describe differences among Americans in post-revolutionary society.

13.   Illustrate the main aspects of the question of slavery in the period between the Revolution and the Civil War.

14.   Describe the main cultural and artistic features of the American Renaissance, including citing its most prominent exponents.

15.   Why is Emerson considered the American philosopher par excellence?

16.   What characterizes “the woman question” in the mid-19^th century?

17.   Argue why the flourishing of narrative in the middle of the 19^th century witnesses the urge to define oneselves and to define America.

18.   There are significant differences between Hawthorne and Melville as well as striking similarities. They composed romances about the darker side of human experience and created symbols such as the scarlet letter and the white whale that stand for America. Illustrate.

19.   Narrative before the Civil War developed widely along the issue of slavery: describe the role of Harriet Beecher Stowe and that of Slave Narratives in culture and literature.

20.  Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson in different but equally innovative manners created what would be called a distinctively American poetic style. Illustrate the main characteristics of their poetic voices.

21.   Explain why the Chicago World Fair in 1893 well symbolizes the USA at the turn of the century.

22.  What was New York like in 1900?

23.  When did the railway join all the states together?

24.  What is the significance of the Frontier in the USA of the Nineteenth turning into the Twentieth century?

25.  Descrive society in the USA at the beginning of the Twentieth century.

26.  Publishing and writing in the USA from 1865 to 1910: bestsellers, copyright, readership, magazines, newspapers and journals.

27.  Realism in the USA: main writers and themes.

28.  Women and literature before and after the Civil War.

29.  Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance or New Negro Renaissance.

30.  Literary achievements of Native Americans 1865-1910.

31.   Literary achievements of Mexican Americans 1865-1910.

32.  Literary achievements of Asian Americans 1865-1910.

33.  The period between 1890 and World War I is also called Progressive Era and is characterized by calls for social justice by a growing working class population. Illustrate the features of so-called “muckraking” literature.

34.  Illustrate why the Armory Show exhibit in 1913 so markedly influenced the flourishing of Modernism in the USA.

35.  Describe the features of modernist experimentalism in the USA and list its main authors.

36.  What did Gertrude Stein mean by the phrase “lost generation”?

37.  How did the notion of the self alter during Modernism?

38.  What did W.E.B. Du Bois mean by “double consciousness”?

39.  The USA emerged from World War II as the most powerful nation in the world, but crucial civil rights issues were still unresolved and a quarter of a century later it was defeated by a small nation, Vietnam. Most literature in this period  expresses the fear of the Bomb, the agony of the Vietnam War and the exhilaration of the March on Washington. Name some exemplary authors of this period.

40.  The Beat Movement responded to the restrictive and conservative post-World War II culture by forcing on their readers the awareness of alternative cultures. Illustrate some examples.

41.   The influence of feminism on lateTwentieth century literature.

42.  Postmodernity and difference: the internationalization of American culture. Explain.

43.  Multiculturalism and American literature in the Contemporary period.

Si consiglia, a complemento della storia culturale, la lettura di alcuni testi esemplari dei momenti storici più salienti, ad esempio:

Native American Traditions: Talk Concerning the First Beginning (Zuni)

John Smith, Generall Historie (Pocahontas Introduction to the British Court in 1616)

Roger Williams, A Key Into the Language of America

Thomas Jefferson, Declaration

Phillis Wheatley, “On Being Brought from Africa to America”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar”

Emily Dickinson, “Tell All the Truth”

Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”

Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener; Moby-Dick, or, the Whale

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (“The Custom House” and “Chapter I”)

Henry David Thoreau, Resistance to Civil Government

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Chapter I)

W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (Chapter I)

Henry James, Daisy Miller: A Study

Martin Luther King, Jr. “I Have a Dream”

Wendy Rose, “If I Am Too Brown or Too White for You”

Joy Harjo, “She Had Some Horses”

Aurora Levins Morales, “Child of the Americas”