Syllabus
Content:This is the third and final semester of the English Literature core course. It focuses on the major developments of 20th and 21st century fiction and poetry although, where relevant, drama is also mentioned. While the series of lectures will provide a general social and cultural context for the variety of rapid developments within these genres, the seminars will focus on individual works (listed below) encouraging students to develop critical close-reading techniques as well as to explore broader moral, philosophical and aesthetic issues. While the texts selected reflect the cultural plurality of 20th century British literature, they at the same time "speak to each other" in a number of ways. In the close critical discussions students will be encouraged to discover some recurrent concerns within this diversity (of texts) as well as use their knowledge of previous developments within individual genres.
Texts:
Fiction - Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness - D. H. Lawrence - Sons and Lovers - Virginia Woolf - Mrs. Dalloway - James Joyce - "Eveline" - Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange - John Fowles - The French Lieutenant’s Woman- Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day
- Zadie Smith - White Teeth
- Ian McEwan- Atonement
Drama
- Samuel Beckett - Waiting for Godot
- John Osborne - Look Back in Anger
Poetry - T. S. Eliot - "The Hollow Men"- W. B. Yeats - "The Second Coming"- W. H. Auden - "Musée des Beaux Arts"- Philip Larkin - "Church Going"- Seamus Heaney - "Punishment"
- Craig Raine - "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home"
- Carol Anne Duffy - "Valentine"
- Benjamin Zephaniah - "Dis Poetry"
Annotation
The aim of the course is to introduce students to the cultural plurality of British literature of the 20th and 21st centuries as well as to develop the ability to analyze, interpret and evaluate texts. The chief focus will be put on major watersheds of 20th century British literature, esp. on the dynamic development of the novel.