Ateneo - UPO

GENDER; BODY; AND SEXUALITY IN BRITISH LITERATURE AND CULTURE SINCE 1890.

All the material for the module will be available on the DIR platform.
The following bibliography is provided as a list of suggested further critical reading.
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Natalie Marena Nobitz, History's Queer Stories: Retrieving and Navigating Homosexuality in British Fiction About the Second World War , Transcript 2018

Martin – Piggford, a cura di, Queer Forster, Chicago UP 1997

Leila Kamali, The Cultural Memory of Africa in African American and Black British Fiction, 1970-2000: Specters of the Shore, Palgrave 2016

Rosemary Johnsen, Contemporary Feminist Historical Crime Fiction , Palgrave 2006

* Acquire an awareness of the cultural and historical implications of the keywords in the module title.
* Learn to read literary texts according to a clear thematic focus.
* Learn the difference between author and narrator in order to discuss narrative and ideological strategies in relation to the chosen keywords and themes.
* Learn how to write clearly and correctly, answering in a focused way to specific questions about the narrator's strategies in relation to the themes of gender, body and sexuality in the selected short stories, avoiding generalizations

English level B1. Sufficient skill in written Italian or English with grammatical correctness: punctuation, syntax, paragraph structure, spelling, register.

The module will be delivered exclusively via distance learning, with all materials available on the DIR platform (video-recorded lectures, PowerPoint presentations, a handout containing the texts of the short stories to be studied, and self-assessment exercises). There will be 4 hours of face-to-face teaching (2 hours at the start of the semester and 2 hours before the first examination session). Individual or group sessions may be requested or offered to assess students’ understanding and suggest corrective measures in the run-up to the written exam.

It is strongly recommended that the students attend the first face-to-face session at the start of the term: the structure of the module and how it will be delivered via distance learning will be explained in detail. This program is designed to be consistent with Goals 4, 5, 16) of the UNESCO 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Quality Education, Reducing Gender Gap; Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions). Students with disabilities, Specific Learning Difficulties (SLD) or Special Educational Needs (SEN) may request specific services and resources designed for them by contacting the relevant office or visiting the dedicated page on the University website: https://uniupo.it/it/servizi/servizi-studentesse-e-studenti-condizione-di-disabilità-e-dsa. Students with disabilities, SLDs or SEN, once they have made contact with the University staff, may contact the lecturer responsible for the course regarding the arrangements for examinations and teaching-related matters.

Ongoing online assessment on the introduction to the narrative voice and narrative techniques: a minimum of 6 correct answers is required to pass. Ongoing quiz comprising 10 questions on the historical and cultural section: a minimum of 5 correct answers is required to pass. A final written exam (in Italian or English) with two questions: the first will concern the issues and focal keywords of the module as regards one of the short stories (500 words); the second will evaluate the ability to comment in detail a passage of a short story (200 words). The written answers will be assessed both as to their form and content: both must be sufficient.

The module offers a cultural-historical introduction to terms and notions, such as body, gender, sex and sexuality in the period examined in the module. 7 short stories written between the 1890s and the 2000's will be commented and discussed. An introductory part of the module (with self-assessment exercises and an interim test) will focus on the question of the narrator (and narrative voice) in order to analyze the short stories from a broad cultural and ideological standpoint. INTEGRATION OF THE GENDER DIMENSION The gender dimension is at the heart of the module's content, intersecting with other terms such as body and sexuality (but also race, class and religion).

- To develop a basic ability to analyse a literary text from both a thematic and ideological perspective and a formal (narratological) one.
- Be able to navigate the themes covered in the module, paying attention to their historical development and socio-cultural complexity
- Improve one’s ability to read literary texts in English, paying attention to both form and content
- Demonstrate proficiency in writing short responses to clear, targeted questions designed to assess comprehension of a text.