Giorgio.Mariani@uniroma1.it's picture

SPRING 2024: Students intending to take my Spring 2024 Anglo-American literature class, "Inventing America", are strongly encouraged to read at least half of James Fenimore Cooper's novel, The Deerslayer, before the start of the class (Monday, February 26). This is the first text we will discuss, and since we meet three times a week, we will cover at least half of the novel in the first week of classes.

 

The link to the Google Drive of the course will be available on this website, starting Monday, February 19. In the Google Drive, you will find a full description of the course, the timetable and the classrooms where classes will be held, as well as all the critical materials you will be asked to read.

 

 

TESI: A partire dall'1 novembre 2024 sarò in pensione, e purtroppo non posso accettare di supervisionare nuove tesi in aggiunta a quelle già assegnate per le sessioni di luglio e settembre 2024.

Course Code Year Course - Attendance Bulletin board
AMERICAN LITERATURE II-M 10589755 2023/2024


 

ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURE I-M 1047508 2023/2024

Ralph Waldo Emerson: A Seminar on the Major Essays, with Some Notes on His Lasting Influence

Giorgio Mariani

Tuesday, aula 101 (Marco Polo) 16-18

Wednesday, aula 103 (Marco Polo) 8-10

 

This course aims at analyzing in depth the major essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and at studying some examples of how his thought remains influential in American literature and culture to this day. The first part of the course will be devoted to a close reading of the essays, along with some criticism that will help us navigate through the many conceptual and rhetorical challenges these texts pose for the reader. In the second part, we will consider some examples of how “Emersonianism” has remained a vital force in American letters and culture. We will consider, in this vein, some of the poetry by Robert Frost and Wallace Stevens, as well as the celebrated novel Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson, and will conclude with a film by Terence Malick, arguably the most Emersonian filmmaker in the history of US cinema.


 

1.Primary texts

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature.

-----. “The American Scholar”.

-----. “The Divinity School Address”.

-----. “Self-Reliance”.

-----. “Circles”.

-----. “Experience”.

-----. “The Poet”.

-----. “Fate”.

 -----. “Montaigne”.

-----. “War”.

 

[All the above-mentioned texts can be found in Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature and Selected Essays 

Penguin Books, except for “War”, which can be found here: https://emersoncentral.com/texts/miscellanies /war/]. I kindly ask students to come to class with paper copies of the essays. If you really can’t help it, you can use an electronic device.

 

Robert Frost, “Mending Wall”, “For Once, Then, Something”, “Spring Pools”, “Mowing”, “Never Again 

Would Birds’ Songs Be the Same” [all these poems can be easily found on the Web]

Wallace Stevens, “The American Sublime”, “The Death of a Soldier” [also these two poems can be easily 

found on the Web]

Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping, Faber & Faber.

Terrence Malick, dir., The Thin Red Line, Fox Pictures.

 

2.Critical texts (these are not optional but obligatory readings. Exam questions will include questions on the critical texts as well)


 

Barbara L. Packer, Emerson's Fall: A New Interpretation of the Major Essays, Continuum.

Richard Poirier, A World Elsewhere. The Place of Style in American Literature, Chatto & Windus, pp. 3-92.

-----. Poetry and Pragmatism, Harvard UP, pp.  37-75, 129-168.

Kenneth Burke, “I, Eye, Ay: Emerson's Early Essay on Nature: Thoughts on the Machinery of

Transcendence”, The Sewanee Review, Autumn, 1966, Vol. 74, No. 4, pp. 875-895.

Joan Kirkby, “Is There Life After Art? The Metaphysics of Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping”, Tulsa 

Studies in Women's Literature, Spring, 1986, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 91-109.

Simon Critchley, “Afterword. Calm – on Terrence Malick”, in Things Merely Are. Philosophy in the Poetry of 

Wallace Stevens, Routledge, pp. 91-113.

 

All the above-mentioned critical materials will be included in an E-Reader available, pending the instructor’s approval, on the course Google Drive:

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/0AKF189wbYviJUk9PVA

 

3.History of American Literature

 

Richard Gray, A Brief History of American Literature, Wiley-Blackwell, Chapters 2 and 4.

 

4.Course requirements: Even though I will not waste time taking attendance, I hope you will be coming to class regularly. The final written exam for “studenti frequentanti” will take place on the last day of class and will include questions on both Emerson’s essays, the critical material, and the history of American literature manual (Richard Gray’s A Brief History of American Literature, chapters 2 and 4). Gray’s book, like the other critical materials, will be made available on the course’s Google Drive. Students are obviously responsible for purchasing or in any case procuring the primary texts.

 

5.The paper: Your paper should explore the ways in which a specific essay of Emerson’s (or more than a single essay of Emerson’s) can be said to reverberate in the work of any writer, playwright or film director who was influenced by his thinking. Also acceptable is a variation on this format, which would consist in exploring how Emerson’s work may be read in conjunction with the work of someone else, even when this other author may have not known Emerson’s work. While choosing writers from the United States is perhaps the most logical choice, I will also accept papers written on writers from other countries. Once you have chosen your topic, please remember that, a) you must write an academic essay with a proper thesis, topic sentences, a nicely crafted introduction and a proper conclusion, etc. Whether you are a seasoned essay-writer or relatively inexperienced at paper writing, you must read the document “How to Write a Paper”, on the Google drive of the course. Following the instructions provided in that document will prevent you from making several, especially “technical”, mistakes. The paper must be between 10000 and 12000 characters, spaces included, counting footnotes, bibliography, title page. It cannot be much shorter, and it cannot be much longer than this. The paper must have a title page, with an original title that clearly references the theme you have chosen to investigate. The title page will also include your name, email address, and student number, as well as the character count (spaces included) of your essay. The paper must be written following the MLA style (9th edition). Instructions can be found here: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_style_int...

Papers that do not follow the MLA style, or use it improperly, will be returned and will not be graded until the paper has been properly edited. If, after being returned for editing, the paper continues to show bibliographic errors, your essay will be marked down by one grade, or more. 

 

The paper must be handed in by no later than January 15, 2023. Students who will not be attending classes will have to hand in the paper at least ONE WEEK before the scheduled exam date.


 

Syllabus

 

October

 

T 3    Introduction, 

W   4    Nature 

 

T 10    Nature

W 11    Nature 

 

T17    “The American Scholar” 

W18    “The Divinity School Address”

 

T 24    “Self Reliance” 

W 25    “Circles” 

 

T 31    “Experience”     

 

November

 

T 7    “Experience” 

W 8    “The Poet”      

 

T 14    “Fate” 

W 14    “Montaigne” 

 

T 21    “War” 

W 22    Robert Frost, “Mending Wall”, “For Once, Then, Something”, “Spring Pools” 

 

T28    Robert Frost, “Mowing”, “Never Again Would Birds’ Songs Be the Same”

W 29    Wallace Stevens “The American Sublime”, “The Death of a Soldier”

 

December

 

T 5     Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping 

W 6    Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping

 

T 12     The Thin Red Line (screening)

W 13    The Thin Red Line (screening, second part)

 

T 19    The Thin Red Line – discussion 

W 20     FINAL IN-CLASS EXAM

LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO-AMERICANE 1026812 2023/2024
IN-DEPTH COURSE IN ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURES 10588718 2023/2024
Anglo-American Literature III-M 1047488 2023/2024
IN-DEPTH COURSE IN ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURES II 10589181 2023/2024
ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURES - ADVANCED COURSE 10589164 2023/2024
ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURE - ADVANCED COURSE 10588755 2023/2024
LETTERATURA E CULTURA ANGLO-AMERICANA 10606728 2022/2023
AMERICAN LITERATURE II-M 10589755 2022/2023
IN-DEPTH COURSE IN ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURES 10588718 2022/2023
IN-DEPTH COURSE IN ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURES II 10589181 2022/2023
LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO-AMERICANE III 1032148 2021/2022
ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURE I-M 1047508 2021/2022
LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO-AMERICANE 1026812 2021/2022
ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURE - ADVANCED COURSE 10588755 2021/2022
Anglo-American Literature III-M 1047488 2021/2022
LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO-AMERICANE III 1032148 2020/2021
ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURE I-M 1047508 2020/2021
LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO-AMERICANE 1026812 2020/2021
ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURE - ADVANCED COURSE 10588755 2020/2021
Anglo-American Literature III-M 1047488 2020/2021
ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURE I-M 1047508 2019/2020
AMERICAN LITERATURE II-M 10589755 2019/2020
LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO-AMERICANE III 1032148 2019/2020
IN-DEPTH COURSE IN ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURES 10588718 2019/2020
ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURES - ADVANCED COURSE 10589164 2019/2020
Anglo-American Literature III-M 1047488 2019/2020
IN-DEPTH COURSE IN ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURES II 10589181 2019/2020
ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURE - ADVANCED COURSE 10588755 2019/2020
LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO-AMERICANE 1026812 2019/2020
Anglo-American Literature II-M 1047478 2018/2019
ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURE - ADVANCED COURSE 10588755 2018/2019
Anglo-American Literature III-M 1047488 2018/2019
Anglo-American Literature III-M 1047488 2018/2019
LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO AMERICANE II 1026079 2018/2019
ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURE I-M 1047508 2018/2019
LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO-AMERICANE I 1025806 2018/2019
LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO-AMERICANE I 1025807 2018/2019
LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO-AMERICANE 1026812 2018/2019
IN-DEPTH COURSE IN ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURES II 10589181 2018/2019
Anglo-American Literature II-M 1047478 2018/2019
Anglo-American Literature I-M 1047473 2017/2018
Anglo-American Literature II-M 1047478 2017/2018
Anglo-American Literature III-M 1047488 2017/2018
CROSS ATLANTIC: 20TH-CENTURY ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE B 1047575 2017/2018
CROSS ATLANTIC: 20TH-CENTURY ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE B 1047575 2017/2018
ENGLISH AND ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURE I-M 1055066 2017/2018
LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO-AMERICANE I 1025806 2017/2018
LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO-AMERICANE II 1025809 2017/2018
LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO-AMERICANE I 1025807 2017/2018
LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO AMERICANE II 1026079 2017/2018
LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO-AMERICANE 1026812 2017/2018
Anglo-American Literature III-M 1047488 2016/2017
Anglo-American Literature II-M 1047478 2016/2017
LINGUE E LETTERATURE ANGLO-AMERICANE III 1032148 2016/2017
Anglo-American Literature I-M 1047473 2016/2017

Nel secondo semestre (dunque a partire da lunedì 26 febbraio) ricevo il martedì mattina dalle ore 10 alle 12. E' comunque consigliabile prenotarsi per il ricevimento via email, perché può accadere che per causa di forza maggiore (riunioni di commissioni o di dipartimento, ecc.) debba cancellare il ricevimento o spostarlo in orario diverso. Sono comunque disponibile a ricevere online in orario diverso da quello di martedì, pur preferendo parlare alle personein presenza.

Curriculum

Giorgio Mariani è Professore Ordinario di Lingue e Letterature Anglo-Americane presso la Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell'Università "Sapienza" di Roma. E' stato presidente della I.A.S.A. (International American Studies Association) dal 2011 al 2015. Fa parte della redazione di "Acoma" (fascia A) ed è stato Editor-in-Chief di "RIAS. The Review of International American Studies" (fascia A), dal 2015 al 2022. I suoi principali interessi di ricerca riguardano la letteratura statunitense dell'Ottocento, i rapporti tra guerra e letteratura moderna, la letteratura indiano-americana contemporanea, la teoria della letteratura. Oltre ai volumi elencati più sotto, ha pubblicato saggi e articoli in numerose riviste italiane ed estere, tra cui, "American Literary History", "Leviathan", "Studies in American Ficition", "Nuova Corrente", "Fictions", "FIAR-Focus on Inter-American Research", "Stephen Crane Studies", "RIAS-The Review of International American Studies", "RSA Journal", "Zapruder", "A.I.O.N.", "Arcipelago", "Studi Americani", "Letterature d'America" e "Ácoma". Con Dontella Izzo dirige la collana di Studi Americani della Casa Editrice Sapienza, e con Donatella Izzo e Mauro Pala la collana "Le Balene" (La Scuola di Pitagora).

Principali pubblicazioni:

Herman Melville. Guida alla lettura di Moby-Dick, Carocci, Roma 2022.
Waging War on War. Peacefighting inAmerican Literature, University of Illinois Press, Urbana 2015
Leggere Melville, Carocci, Roma 2013.
La penna e il tamburo: gli indiani d'America e la letteratura degli Stati Uniti, ombre corte, Verona 2003.
Post-tribal Epics: The Native American Novel between Tradition and Modernity, Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston (N.Y.) 1996.
Allegorie impossibili: storia e strategie della critica melvilliana, Bulzoni, Roma 1993.
Spectacular Narratives: Representations of Class and War in Stephen Crane and the American 1890s, New York, Peter Lang 1992.

Volumi Curati:

S. Antonelli e G. Mariani, Il Novecento americano: le culture letterarie, Carocci, Roma 2009.
D. Izzo, G. Mariani, P. Zaccaria (a cura di), American Solitudes: Individual, National, Transnational. Proceedings of the XVIII International AISNA Conference, Bari October 5-8 2005, ed. by (Roma, Carocci, 2007).
D. Izzo e G. Mariani (a cura di), America at Large. Americanistica transnazionale e nuova comparatistica, Shake, Milano 2004.
S. Di Loreto, G. Mariani, C. Martinez, A. Scannavini e I. Tattoni (a cura di), Emerson at 200. Proceedings of the International Bicentennial Conference, Aracne, Roma 2004.
Sherman Alexie, Il powwow della fine del mondo, traduzione, note e postfazione, Quattro venti, Urbino 2003.
Le parole e le armi: saggi su guerra e violenza nella cultura e letteratura degli Stati Uniti d'America, Marcos y Marcos, Milano 1999.
Stephen Crane, Il mostro, traduzione a fronte, introduzione, note e cura, Marsilio, Venezia 1997.
Stephen Crane, Il segno rosso del coraggio, traduzione e introduzione, Newton Compton, Roma 1993.
Charles Bukowski, Los Angeles 462-0614, traduzione e introduzione, Savelli, Roma 1982.
Carolyn Cassady, Cuore di Beat, traduzione e introduzione (con Paola Ludovici), Savelli Roma 1980.

Fascicoli di riviste curate:

"Gli Stati Uniti e le guerre del nuovo millennio." Numero monografico di «Ácoma. Rivista Internazionale di Studi Nordamericani», n.s. 11, Autunno 2016.
Oceanamerica(s) . «RIAS. The Review of International American Studies», 8, Spring-Summer 2015.
Narrazioni della distruzione: Scrivere la Seconda Guerra mondiale . «Fictions», XII (2014).
S. Di Loreto e G. Mariani (a cura di), "Glocal Melville". Numero monografico di «Ácoma. Rivista Internazionale di Studi Nordamericani», 41, Autunno-Inverno 2011.
D. Fiorentino e G. Mariani (eds.), Religion and Secularization in the United States of America . Sezione monografica di «RSA Journal», 17-18, 2006-07.
"Anti-Americanismi". Sezione monografica di «Ácoma. Rivista Internazionale di Studi Nordamericani», 33, Inverno 2007.

Inglese

Giorgio Mariani is Full Professor of American Literature at the Sapienza University of Rome, Faculty of Letters and Philosophy. He was President of the International American Studies Association (I.A.S.A.), from 2011 to 2015. He is on the editorial board of «Ácoma. Rivista Internazionale di Studi Nordamericani» (fascia A), and was the Editor-in-Chief of «RIAS. The Review of International American Studies» (fascia A) from 2015 to 2022. His work has concentrated on nineteenth-century American writers (Emerson, Melville, Stephen Crane, and others); on contemporary American Indian literature; on literary theory; on the literary and cinematic representation of war. He has published, edited, and co-edited several volumes, listed below. iHis essays and reviews have appeared in many journals, including «American Literary History, «Studies in American Fiction», «Fictions», «RIAS», «RSA Journal», «Stephen Crane Studies», «Nuova Corrente», «Zapruder», «Leviathan», «Letterature d'America», «A.I.O.N. », «Acoma», «Studi Americani». With Donatella Izzo he edits the American Studies series of the Sapienza UP, and with Donatella Izzo and Mauro Pala he edits the series "Le Balene" published by La Scuola di Pitagora.

Books:

Herman Melville. Guida alla lettura di Moby-Dick, Carocci, Roma 2022.
Waging War on War. Peacefighting in American Literature, University of Illinois Press, Urbana 2015
Leggere Melville, Carocci, Roma 2013.
La penna e il tamburo: gli indiani d'America e la letteratura degli Stati Uniti, ombre corte, Verona 2003.
Post-tribal Epics: The Native American Novel between Tradition and Modernity, Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston (N.Y.) 1996.
Allegorie impossibili: storia e strategie della critica melvilliana, Bulzoni, Roma 1993.
Spectacular Narratives: Representations of Class and War in Stephen Crane and the American 1890s, New York, Peter Lang 1992.

Books edited:

S. Antonelli e G. Mariani, Il Novecento americano: le culture letterarie, Carocci, Roma 2009.
D. Izzo, G. Mariani, P. Zaccaria (a cura di), American Solitudes: Individual, National, Transnational. Proceedings of the XVIII International AISNA Conference, Bari October 5-8 2005, ed. by (Roma, Carocci, 2007).
D. Izzo e G. Mariani (a cura di), America at Large. Americanistica transnazionale e nuova comparatistica, Shake, Milano 2004.
S. Di Loreto, G. Mariani, C. Martinez, A. Scannavini e I. Tattoni (a cura di), Emerson at 200. Proceedings of the International Bicentennial Conference, Aracne, Roma 2004.
Sherman Alexie, Il powwow della fine del mondo, traduzione, note e postfazione, Quattro venti, Urbino 2003.
Le parole e le armi: saggi su guerra e violenza nella cultura e letteratura degli Stati Uniti d'America, Marcos y Marcos, Milano 1999.
Stephen Crane, Il mostro, traduzione a fronte, introduzione, note e cura, Marsilio, Venezia 1997.
Stephen Crane, Il segno rosso del coraggio, traduzione e introduzione, Newton Compton, Roma 1993.
Charles Bukowski, Los Angeles 462-0614, traduzione e introduzione, Savelli, Roma 1982.
Carolyn Cassady, Cuore di Beat, traduzione e introduzione (con Paola Ludovici), Savelli Roma 1980.
S. Antonelli e G. Mariani, Il Novecento americano: le culture letterarie, Carocci, Roma 2009.

Special issues of journals edited:

"Gli Stati Uniti e le guerre del nuovo millennio." Numero monografico di «Ácoma. Rivista Internazionale di Studi Nordamericani», n.s. 11, Autunno 2016.
Oceanamerica(s) . «RIAS. The Review of International American Studies», 8, Spring-Summer 2015.
Narrazioni della distruzione: Scrivere la Seconda Guerra mondiale . «Fictions», XII (2014).
S. Di Loreto e G. Mariani (a cura di), "Glocal Melville". Numero monografico di «Ácoma. Rivista Internazionale di Studi Nordamericani», 41, Autunno-Inverno 2011.
D. Fiorentino e G. Mariani (eds.), Religion and Secularization in the United States of America . Sezione monografica di «RSA Journal», 17-18, 2006-07.
"Anti-Americanismi". Sezione monografica di «Ácoma. Rivista Internazionale di Studi Nordamericani», 33, Inverno 2007.