Early English Literature

British Literature: 20th Century I

MODULE TITLE: British Literature: 20th Century I AUTUMN 2010

NEPTUNE CODES: BTANN508/509; BTANL508/509

COURSE TYPE: Lectures and seminars

PROGRAMME: Full-time and part-time

CLASS HOURS: As advertised.

LINK TO COURSE HOMEPAGE:

TUTOR: Dr. Attila Dósa

CONTACT: Office: A/6 Room 1. Office Hours: as advertised on my door or by appointment. Phone: 46/565-111 x2285. E-mail: .

AIMS:

The course will introduce you to the development of English literature in the first half of the 20th century, with special attention to the great works of Modernism. You will learn about the important theories and critical terms of the period. You will read some critical essays, so you will have an opportunity to contrast practical criticism with theoretical approaches during the discussion of the particular works. Moreover, you will have an opportunity to develop and practise various skills and abilities, including:

-identifying and analysing an abstract problem;

-flexible and creative thinking;

-developing a complex argument;

-accuracy and clarity of expression in writing and speaking;

-textual analysis;

-computing skills;

-and general intellectual awareness.

ASSESSMENT:

The seminar grade will be based on:

-a mid-term and an end-term paper;

-your weekly worksheets and other written submissions;

-the occasional in-class test that is meant to check up on your reading and vocabulary;

-and finally your contribution to in-class discussion.

Please make sure you carefully acknowledge your sources in any written submission, as any attempts at plagiarism will be severely penalised.More than three missed classes may mean no signature; failure to pass any of the above assignments may mean a failure of this course.

You will find weekly Study Questionsin the Lecture Notes. These are questions and/or quotes that will help you identify and discuss the major issues we are going to deal with in the classroom. You will be expected to answer these questions and bring your work to the classroom as your answers will be checked regularly.

Below please find a list of the set texts as well as a bibliography of recommended readings. Moreover, you will be able to access and download most of the primary sources from the course homepage indicated above and in the Course Reader. It is strongly advised that you regularly visit the course homepage, where you will also find updated links to relevant articles, criticism, images, lecture notes on some occasion, and other sources. It will be taken for granted that you will have familiarised yourselves with the online material before you come to class. I recommend that you consult these sources when you revise the material for the two term papers. The online material as well as the secondary reading will be regarded as part of the course material.

SCHEDULE(lectures and seminars; for orientation only!):

WEEK 1

INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE. MODERNISM: DOUBTS AND DEFINITIONS

READING: pp. 2195-2204 from the Norton Anthology

WEEK 2

‘THE LETTER KILLETH…’

READINGS: Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles; ‘Hap’, ‘The Darkling Thrush’, ‘The Voice’, ‘During Wind and Rain’, ‘In Time of the “Breaking of Nations”’

WEEK 3

‘FICTITIOUS MORALS’.

READINGS: G. B. Shaw, Mrs Warren’s ProfessionOR Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

WEEK 4

‘THE HORROR! THE HORROR!’

READINGS: Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

WEEK 5

‘THINGS FALL APART’

READINGS: W. B. Yeats, ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’, ‘Adam’s Curse’, ‘No Second Troy’, ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’, ‘Easter 1916’, ‘The Second Coming’, ‘A Prayer for My Daughter’, ‘Sailing to Byzantium’

WEEK 6

PRESENTATIONS

WEEK 7

‘A SYMBOL OF SOMETHING’

READINGS: James Joyce, ‘Araby’, ‘Eveline’, ‘The Dead’ from Dubliners

WEEK 8

MID-TERM PAPER

WEEK 9

‘A MIND THINKING’

READINGS: Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway; ‘Modern Fiction’

WEEK 10

‘A HEAP OF BROKEN IMAGES’

READINGS: T. S. Eliot, The WasteLand; ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’

WEEK 11

‘…BUT THE SPIRIT GIVETH LIFE’

READING: E. M. Forster, A Room with a View

WEEK 12

REVISION

WEEK 13

END-TERM PAPER

WEEK 14

CONCLUSIONS AND EVALUATION

Topics FOR DISCUSSION

Symbols and allegories in Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Hardy’s agnosticism, fatalism and pessimism in Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Pessimism in Hardy’s poetry (‘Hap’, ‘The Darkling Thrush’…)
G.B. Shaw’s social criticism (Mrs Warren’s Profession)
Wilde’s paradoxes and his implied social criticism (The Importance of Being Earnest)
Symbols and allegories in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
Main characters and narrative structure in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
Nature and civilisation in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
Yeats’s political views (‘Easter 1916’)
Yeats’s vision of history (‘The Second Coming’)
Yeats’s love poetry (‘No Second Troy’, ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’…)
Realism and symbolism in Joyce’s short stories (‘Araby’, ‘Eveline’, ‘The Dead’)
Dublin as a model of human existence in Joyce’s fiction (‘Araby’, ‘Eveline’, ‘The Dead’)
Woolf’s theory of fiction (‘Modern Fiction’)
Characters and narrative technique in Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway
Eliot’s concept of literary tradition (‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’)
Religion, rites and rituals in Eliot’s The Waste Land
Eliot’s dramatic monologues (‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’)
Main characters and their relationships in Forster’s A Room with a View
Allusions to classical mythology in Forster’s A Room with a View

REQUIRED READINGS FOR THE END-TERM PAPER / kollokvium:

Poetry:

Thomas Hardy, ‘Hap’, ‘The Darkling Thrush’, ‘The Voice’, ‘During Wind and Rain’, ‘In Time of the “Breaking of Nations”’

W.B. Yeats, ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’, ‘Adam’s Curse’, ‘No Second Troy’, ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’, ‘Easter 1916’, ‘The Second Coming’, ‘A Prayer for My Daughter’, ‘Sailing to Byzantium’

T.S. Eliot, ‘The WasteLand’

Fiction:

Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

James Joyce, ‘Araby’, ‘Eveline’, ‘The Dead’

Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway

E.M. Forster, A Room with a View

Plays:

Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

G. B. Shaw, Mrs Warren’s Profession

Essays:

Virginia Woolf, ‘Modern Fiction’

T.S. Eliot, ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’

Course Books:

Abrams, M.H. et al. (eds.), The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 5th edn (New York: Norton, 1987)

Levenson, Michael (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Modernism (Cambridge: CUP, 1999)

LECTURE NOTES

COUSE READER