Module Information

Module Identifier
EN20820
Module Title
Twentieth Century British Literature
Academic Year
2013/2014
Co-ordinator
Semester
Semester 2
Other Staff

Course Delivery

Delivery Type Delivery length / details
Lecture 20 x 1 hour
Seminars / Tutorials 10 x 1 hour weekly seminars
 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Assessment 1 x 2000 word essay.  33%
Semester Exam 3 Hours   2 question exam.  67%
Supplementary Assessment Resubmit or resit failed elements and/or make good any missing elements 

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

Demonstrate knowledge of a representative range of literary texts from the twentieth century.

Locate these texts in appropriate cultural and historical contexts.

Artiulate a detailed critical analysis of individual texts from the period that shows an understanding of their distinctive qualities.

Relate texts from the period either to each other or to a common theme.

Brief description


 
 The module offers students the opportunity to engage with the range and variety of twentieth-century writing. By focusing on texts from a range of genres, it seeks to give a sense of teh movement between the poles of realism and experimentation over the course of the period. There is a 'Text' and a 'Context' lecture on each of the texts. The introductory and concluding lectures discuss a range of adjacent texts and relevant contexts, as appropriate, usually without explicit reference to the set texts. The 'Context' lectures on each set text also discuss a range of adjacent texts and relevant contexts, but keyed explicitly to the set text in question.
 
 

Content

1. Introductory Lecture

SECTION A
2-3. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899-1900)
4-5. James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)
6-7. T.S. Eliot, Selected Poems (1917-1927)
8-9. Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (1927)

SECTION B
10-11. W.H. Auden, Selected Poems (1930s-1950s)
12-13. John Osborne, Look Back in Anger (1956)
14-15. Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners (1956)
16-17. Sylvia Plath, Ariel (1965)
18-19 Doris Lessing, The Good Terrorist (1985)

20. Concluding Lecture

Module Skills

Skills Type Skills details
Communication (Written) in essays and examination answers students are encouraged to express their ideas articulately and fluently (Oral) seminars are based on group discussion and brief student presentations
Improving own Learning and Performance Students are encouraged to take more personal initiative in the planning and conduct of their preparation for assignments than at Level 1, and to make use of a broader range of resources; formal feedback on essays and informal feedback on seminar participation helps students measure their improvement
Information Technology Substantial use is made of electronic text-databases (EEBO, LION), of electronic journals, and of Blackboard, and students are encouraged to familiarise themselves with these
Personal Development and Career planning Only insofar as the module covers key areas of literature in which students intending to teach English would need to demonstrate competence; or which might be related to future academic research
Problem solving In essays and examination answers: by formulating and putting into practice a critical approach appropriate to text and topic set
Research skills In preparation for seminars, essays, and exams: by investigation of literary texts, associated critical and scholarly writing, and the relationship of literary texts to historical an cultural contexts
Subject Specific Skills Close reading of literary texts; grasp of generic and intertextual relationships between texts; identification and analysis of appropriate historical and cultural contexts
Team work Informal group work in seminars

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 5