• The course will focus on key works of American literature from the second half of the 19th century, analyzing specific texts by Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, Stephen Crane, and Henry James.
• We will tackle a variety of texts belonging to different genres: novels, novellas, poems, and short stories. These American voices offer us a glimpse into the complexities of 19th-century America, spanning the decades that saw the country entering and exiting the Civil War and facing its multilayered legacies.
• Through the analysis of these texts and the historical, cultural, and artistic contexts within which they were created, several issues will be dealt with: the long shadows of the Civil War; slavery, race dynamics, and black identity in 19th-century America; death and religion; the relation between individual and communal identity; the cultural relationship between the US and Europe; and finally, the development of US identity.
• We will tackle a variety of texts belonging to different genres: novels, novellas, poems, and short stories. These American voices offer us a glimpse into the complexities of 19th-century America, spanning the decades that saw the country entering and exiting the Civil War and facing its multilayered legacies.
• Through the analysis of these texts and the historical, cultural, and artistic contexts within which they were created, several issues will be dealt with: the long shadows of the Civil War; slavery, race dynamics, and black identity in 19th-century America; death and religion; the relation between individual and communal identity; the cultural relationship between the US and Europe; and finally, the development of US identity.
- Teacher: GIACOMO TRAINA