English 280: Modern British Literature
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English 280: Modern British Literature
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TEXTS
Please try to obtain the editions listed below, so that we can all work with the same texts and pagination. If you have a problem obtaining any of these texts, please let me know.
The Longman Anthology of British Literature; Volume 2C: The Twentieth Century, 2nd Edition (LABL)
The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories, ed. Malcolm Bradbury (MBSS)
SYLLABUS
There is no paper syllabus for ENGL 280; this is the official syllabus. This is a provisional syllabus; changes will be discussed and announced in class. We may decide we need to spend more time on some things and less on others. You are responsible for learning of and responding to syllabus changes during the semester. I will expect you to have the works read by the first day they are listed on the syllabus.
Wednesday, August 24--Introduction to course
Friday, August 26--Introduction to course, "Modernism"
LABL, "The Twentieth Century," pp. 1990 - 2014; and Thomas Hardy, poems (LABL 2154 - 2166)
Monday, August 29
Joseph Conrad, "Preface to The Nigger of the Narcissus" and Heart of Darkness (LABL 2015 - 2058)
Wednesday, August 31
Conrad, Heart of Darkness (LABL 2058 - 2081)
Friday, September 2
Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Monday, September 5
Finish Heart of Darkness and begin "The Great War: Confronting the Modern" (Read LABL 2167 - 2183, especially "Vorticist Manifesto" and Marinetti's "Futurist Manifesto" [Handout])
The Great War
Wednesday, September 7
"The Great War: Confronting the Modern" (LABL 2167 - 2195)
Friday, September 9
World War I Poetry (LABL 2183 - 2195) and Robert Graves, "Goodbye to All That," LABL 2216 - 2232
Monday, September 12
W. B. Yeats (LABL 2242 - 2249)
Wednesday, September 14
W. B. Yeats (LABL 2249 - 2270
Friday, September 16
W. B. Yeats (LABL 2249 - 2270)
Monday, September 19
James Joyce, "Araby," "Eveline," and "Clay" (LABL 2270 - 2284)
Wednesday, September 21
James Joyce, "The Dead" (LABL 2284 - 2311)
Friday, September 23
James Joyce, "The
Dead" (LABL 2284 - 2311)
Monday, September 26
Work in class on Paper 1; rough draft workshop
Wednesday, September 28
Modernist Classics
Friday, September 30
T. S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "Gerontion" (LABL 2344 - 2356)
**Paper One Due
Monday, October 3
T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land (LABL 2356 - 2369)
Wednesday, October 5
T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land and "Burnt Norton" (LABL 2370 - 2374)
Friday, October 7
Introduction to Virginia Woolf (LABL 2380 - 2382); Excerpt from A Room of One's Own (LABL 2486-2520); and Diary entries for 16 August 1922 and 6 September 1922 (LABL 2539 - 2540)
Monday, October 10
Wednesday, October 12
Virginia Woolf, Diary entries from 19 June 1923 to end, and letter to Gerald Brennan (LABL 2540 - 2549) and begin Mrs. Dalloway (LABL 2386 - 2408)
Friday, October 14
Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway -- Read to the end
Monday, October 17
Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
Wednesday, October 19
Friday, October 21
Monday, October 24
Wednesday, October 26
Graham Greene, "A Chance for Mr. Lever" (LABL 2687 - 2697) and George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant" (LABL 2747 - 2751)
Friday, October 28
Monday, October 31
Wednesday, November 2
Friday, November 4
Angela Carter, "Flesh and the Mirror" (MBSS 362 - 368) and Ian McEwan, "Psychopolis" (MBSS 341 - 361)
Monday, November 7
Salman Rushdie, "The Prophet's Hair" (MBSS 389 - 399) and "Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella of Spain Consummate Their Relationship" (LABL 2752 - 2757)
**Paper Two Due
Wednesday, November 9
Friday, November 11
Monday, November 14
Wednesday, November 16
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, from "Decolonizing the Mind" (LABL 2912 - 2916), Nadine Gordimer, "What Were You Dreaming?" (LABL 2917 - 2922), and Derek Walcott (LABL 2949-2958)
Friday, November 18
Monday, November 21
Wednesday, November
22 and Friday, November 24
THANKSGIVING BREAK
Monday, November 28
Wednesday, November 30
Fay Weldon, "Weekend" (MBSS 309 - 325) and Emma Tennant, "Philomela" (MBSS 407 - 413)
Friday, December 2
Angela Carter, "The Tiger's Bride" and "The Company of Wolves" (Handouts)
Monday, December 5
J. G. Ballard, "Memories of the Space Age" (MBSS 234-261)
**Final
Paper Due by 5:00 pm on Thursday, December 8, 2005
COURSE OBJECTIVES AND CLASS FORMAT
This course will acquaint you with modern British literature (with a focus on fiction and poetry) from approximately 1900 to the present. In covering such a large span of time, we will try to hold our discussions together by focusing on some central questions about what our sense of "modernity" is, what strategies writers have used in 20th century England and Ireland to respond to the changes they sense occurring in their time and in their countries, and what terms such as "modernism" and "postmodernism" might mean.
We will also work on developing reading, writing, and critical thinking skills through discussion, papers, and in-class writings.
Although at times I will present background information in class, I do expect most of our time to be spent in class discussion; therefore, participation is essential and will be part of your grade. Of course, I expect you to keep up with the reading and to prepare for class. Class attendance in a literature class is essential for a good grade, and I expect you to attend class regularly. MORE THAN SIX UNEXCUSED ABSENCES WILL RESULT IN AN F GRADE IN ENGLISH 280.
ASSIGNMENTS
Papers: (1) two short
papers (approximately 5-7 pages), either exploring historical or
cultural elements related to the literature we are reading or focusing
on your own interpretation of a character, critical problem, crucial
passage, or a comparison of various readings; (2) a final essay,
approximately 10-12 pages in length, incorporating researched sources
to support an argument about one or more of the works we've read; and
(3) a short reaction
paper on one author or work, which you will present to the class
orally, on a reading assignment to be selected from a schedule
I will hand out and then post online early in the semester. I will
also periodically assign in-class writing at the beginning of the class
to focus our discussion for the day.
English 280 is a W2
course, so we will spend extra time on the essays, discussing essay
writing strategies, research techniques, citation and documentation,
and other relevant topics. Your grades for essays will include
participation in draft workshops and work on revising essays.
Evaluation:
Paper 1 (September 30) -- 20%
Paper 2 (October 31) -- 25%
Paper 3 (December 6) -- 30%
Reaction Paper -- 15%
Class Participation (including in-class writing) -- 10%
**There will be no final exam for this class**
An important part of my job is making sure that you know how to use sources carefully and correctly in academic writing and that you understand the University's policies concerning plagiarism, which I define as the unacknowledged use, either intentional or unintentional, of material first expressed by another person. We'll discuss proper methods of documentation during the semester, but if, at any time, you have questions about plagiarism problems in this or any other class, please come and ask me about them.