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HU Credits:
4
Degree/Cycle:
1st degree (Bachelor)
Responsible Department:
english
Semester:
Yearly
Teaching Languages:
English
Campus:
Mt. Scopus
Course/Module Coordinator:
Louise Bethlehem
Coordinator Office Hours:
Tues 16:15-17:15
Teaching Staff:
Dr. Louise Bethlehem
Course/Module description:
The course consists of one, semester-long 2-hour weekly discussion of texts representative of major trends in twentieth-century English modernism. These trends are examined through a close analysis of the texts in relation to their historical, cultural and theoretical contexts.
Course/Module aims:
1. To understand Modernism as a formal literary movement through examining its major authors and manifestos.
2. To expose students to the specificity of Modernist literary aesthetics.
3. To explore subsidiary movements within Modernism such as Imagism.
4. To discuss how World War 1 (The Great War) is reflected in Modernist literature. To compare the Imagists to the War Poets.
5. To discuss the work of leading modernists: Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot and the late modernists J.M. Coetzee and Michael Ondaatje, among others.
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
1. To identify the characteristics of Modernism as a formal literary movement through examining its inception in the early twentieth century.
2. To be capable of categorizing and explicating poetic, stylistic and aesthetic strategies associated with Modernism
3. To categorize Imagism as a subsidiary movement within Modernist poetry
4. To demonstrate familiarity with selected writings of major Modernists writing in English in the early twentieth-century: including W.B. Yeats, Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, and T.S. Eliot.
5. To evaluate critically social and political factors that influence Modernist literary practice, including the impact of WW1.
Attendance requirements(%):
100. No more than two unexcused absences.
Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:
Formal lecture. Students are required to contribute content in the form of opening questions for exploration or closing summary statements (co-facilitation requirement), and to complete occasional short oral assignments.
Course/Module Content:
Schedule of Readings
First Semester
TOPIC 1: Introduction: Modernity, Modernization, Modernism
Meeting 1 Matthew Arnold “Dover Beach,” (class-handout)
2. Cusp Time
Meeting 2 William Butler Yeats “The Second Coming,” (class hand-out), “Easter 1916”
TOPIC 2: INTO THE HEART OF DARKNESS
3. Joseph Conrad: “To Make You See”--Modernism’s Night Blindness
Meeting 3 “An Outpost of Progress”
Meeting 4 Heart of Darkness
Meeting 5 Heart of Darkness, continued; Chinua Achebe, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" (M)
TOPIC 3: Imagism: Facing the Vortex
Meeting 6 Imagist Manifesto, Selection of poetry posted on course site and Jonathan Culler “The Poetics of the Lyric” (M) (extracts).
Meeting 7 Imagism and Intertexuality: Icarus Trail
TOPIC 4: Poetry and Prose of the Great War
Meeting 8 William Butler Yeats “On Being Asked For a War Poem” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_being_asked_for_a_War_Poem, Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen, popular and women’s poetry of the Great War.
Meeting 9 Siegfried Sassoon “Finished with the War: A Soldier’s Declaration”, selection of poetry by Siegfried Sassoon and Isaac Rosenberg.
TOPIC 6.T.S. Eliot: Rhythmical Grumbles
Meeting 10-11 “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
Meeting 12-13 “The Waste Land” (extracts).
Meeting 14. T.S. Eliot and Langston Hughes (Hughes poems on Moodle).
Second Semester
TOPIC 7. Virginia Woolf: Women, Ordinary Life and Elegy
Meeting 1 Quiz and Coverage Exam
Woolf's manifesto.
Meeting 2. Woolf's Manifesto.
Meetings 3-4_To the Lighthouse_ Contexts and Analysis
Meeting 5: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: Feminists read Woolf.
Meeting 6-8 : Twentieth Century Women Poets: Elizabeth Bishop, Adrienne Rich, Nikki Giovanni.
Topic 8: Other Modernisms and Modernism’s Others
Meeting 9-11 War and Empire
Michael Ondaatje _The English Patient_
Meetings 12-13 Modernisms of the Periphery.
J.M. Coetzee's _Waiting for the Barbarians_.
Meeting 14: Summary and Revision.
Required Reading:
Course Texts:
_The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Major Authors, Volume 2_ (Ninth Edition), and a selection of texts available on Moodle.
J.M. Coetzee 1980 _Waiting for the Barbarians_ Any edition.
Michael Ondaatje 1992 _The English Patient_ Any Edition
Additional Reading Material:
Select Additional
Bibliography:
1. _The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-Century Literatures in English_ – Section 1: Chapters 1&2 (Moodle).
2. "Bergsonism: "Time out of Mind," in _A Concise Companion to Modernism_, edited by David Bradshaw (Blackwell, 2003), pp. 95-115 (Moodle)
3. "Preface to _The Nigger of the Narcissus_" by Joseph Conrad (Moodle)
4. Chinua Achebe, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" (Moodle)
Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 50 %
Presentation 0 %
Participation in Tutorials 10 %
Project work 40 %
Assignments 0 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %
Additional information:
1. A compulsory reading assignment is attached to this course: Coverage quiz on Virginia Woolf _To the Lighthouse_ (10% of grade, under "participation in tutorials" above). Students must pass this assignment in order to participate in the final exam.
2. Reading the required texts and the assigned home-study material in advance for each class is compulsory.
3. Students are required to show competence in bringing the material assigned for preparation to bear on class discussion. Active participation in class discussion is required. Students should be able to provide an oral summary of previous class if asked.
4.Students must complete one term paper of approx. 1500 words on a topic assigned by the teacher.
5. A final exam will be given in this course.
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