Module Identifier EN20820  
Module Title TWENTIETH CENTURY BRITISH LITERATURE  
Academic Year 2007/2008  
Co-ordinator Dr Natasha Alden  
Semester Semester 2  
Other staff Dr William G Slocombe, Mr Michael J Smith, Katharine E Wright, Dr Luke A Thurston, Professor Peter T Barry, Dr Tiffany S Atkinson  
Course delivery Lecture   20 x 1 hour  
  Seminars / Tutorials   10 x 1 hour  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Assessment 1 x 2000 word essay.  33%
Semester Exam3 Hours 2 question exam.  67%
Supplementary Assessment Resubmit or resit failed elements and/or make good any missing elements.  100%

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

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  
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  
Team work Informal group work in seminars  
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  
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  

Reading Lists

Books
** Should Be Purchased
Auden, W.H Selected Poems (1930s-1950s)
Conrad, Joseph (1899-1900) Heart of Darkness
Eliot, T.S Selected Poems (1919-1927)
Joyce, James (1916) A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Lessing, Doris (1985) The Good Terrorist
Osborne, John (1956) Look Back in Anger
Plath, Sylvia (1965) Ariel
Selvon, Sam (1956) The Lonely Londoners
Woolf, Virginia (1927) Mrs Dalloway
** Recommended Background
(1980, c1977.) Aesthetics and politics /Ernst Bloch ... [et al.]; afterword by Fredric Jameson ; translation editor, Ronald Taylor. Verso 0860917223
(1990.) Literature in the modern world :critical essays and documents /edited by Dennis Walder. Oxford University Press in association with the Open University 0198710372
(1999.) The Cambridge companion to modernism /edited by Michael Levenson. Cambridge University Press 052149866X
Barker, Francis, et.al. (1979) The Sociology of Literature: Vol 1: The Politics of Modernism. University of Essex
Bell, Daniel. (1976.) The cultural contradictions of capitalism /Daniel Bell. Heinemann 0435820672
Benjamin, A (ed) (1990) The Problems of Modernity Routledge
Bergonzi, Bernard. (1986.) The myth of modernism and twentieth century literature /Bernard Bergonzi. Harvester Press 0710810024
Berman, Marshall. (1983.) All that is solid melts into air :the experience of modernity /Marshall Berman. Verso 0860917851
Bowlby, Rachel. (1988.) Virginia Woolf : feminist destinations /Rachel Bowlby. Blackwell 0631151915
Bradbury, Malcolm and McFarlane, James (eds) (1976) Modernism: 1890-1930 Penguin
Collier, Peter and Davies, Judy (eds) (1990.) Modernism and the European Unconscious St. Martin's Press 031204223X
Danson Brown, Richard and Gupta, Suman (2005) Aestheticism & Modernism Open University Press
Fokkema, D.W (1987) Modernist Conjectures C Hurst
Foster, Hal (ed) (1983.) The Anti-aesthetic :essays on postmodern culture Bay Press 0941920011
Fuller, Peter. (1983.) Aesthetics after Modernism. Writers and Readers 0863160441
Huyssen, Andreas (1988, c1986.) After the great divide :modernism, mass culture, postmodernism /Andreas Huyssen. Macmillan 0333455339
Josipovici, Gabriel (1977.) The lessons of modernism, and other essays /Gabriel Josipovici. Macmillan 0333214404
Lunn, Eugene. (c1982, 1985 pri) Marxism and modernism :an historical study of Luk acs, Brecht, Benjamin and Adorno /Eugene Lunn. Verso 0860918246
Mendelson, E (1981) Early Auden Faber
Morretti, Franco (1983) Signs Taken For Wonders Verso
Reiss, Timothy J. (1982.) The discourse of modernism /Timothy J. Reiss. Cornell University Press 0801414644
Ross, Andrew (1986.) The failure of modernism :symptoms of American poetry /Andrew Ross. Columbia University Press 023106330X
Spender, Stephen (1963.) The struggle of the modern /by Stephen Spender. University of California Press
Stead, C. K. (1986.) Pound, Yeats, Eliot and the modernist movement /C.K. Stead. Macmillan 0333374576
Svarny, Erik (1988) 'The men of 1914' :T.S. Eliot and early modernism /Erik Svarny. Open University Press 0335150780
White, Allon. (1981.) The uses of obscurity :the fiction of early modernism /of Allon White. Routledge & Kegan Paul 0710007515
Williams, Raymond (1961.) Culture and society 1780-1950 /Raymond Williams. Penguin Books 0140205209
Williams, Raymond (1989(1993 print) The politics of modernism :against the new conformists /by Raymond Williams; edited and introduced by Tony Pinkney. Verso 0860919552

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 5