Cultura e scrittura in lingua inglese

Objectives and contents
As of 2017, the new syllabus of the course concentrates on five great works of Anglophone literature from the early 1700s to the mid-1900s, treated chronologically.
The goals of the course are to increase students’ comprehension of written and spoken English on the level of high culture and civilization, to improve their own writing, and to introduce them to major writers, works, themes, and topics in modern English-language literature.

Didactic approach and evaluation
There is one two-hour lecture period each week, sometimes with the printed lecture provided, on Wednesday morning, 8:30-10:15. The discussion section is held on Thursday morning, 8:30-10:15 or 10:30-12:15. Students are expected to attend both sessions, but must attend the Wednesday session. The Thursday session is devoted to further discussion of course materials and English composition, and individual meetings with students in preparation for writing the major academic paper. An initial in-class writing assignment is required for diagnostic and documentary purposes.
The revised syllabus as of 2017 consists of readings, lectures, and discussions of five classic modern English books, four novels and an educational-philosophical treatise. The texts are listed below and students must get and use these editions. The exposition of ideas, themes, and issues in these books will be chronological and students will be expected to master each one of them and to write a major paper on a topic relating to one or more of them, to be determined in meetings and communications with Prof. Aeschliman. The paper will be a minimum of 10 pages (2500 words). The completed paper will also be presented personally by the student, who will be examined orally by the instructor and another colleague. The requirements for the course are: regular attendance; in-class writing assignment; acquisition, reading, and comprehension of all course materials; academic paper (75%); oral defense of paper (25%). No student will be allowed to present the paper without having completed the in-class writing assignment. The professor will be on campus at least Wednesday and Thursday of each week, and at other times by appointment.

Required class texts (these editions)
Swift, Jonathan, Gulliver’s Travels. Oxford World’s Classics Edition edited by Ian Higgins.
Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein. Ignatius Critical Edition edited by Joseph Pearce.
Dickens, Charles, A Tale of Two Cities. Ignatius Critical Edition edited by M.D. Aeschliman.
Huxley, Aldous, Brave New World. Harper Perennial Edition.
Lewis, C.S., The Abolition of Man. Any complete English edition.