English 364: Modern British Novel--The Modernist Moment
Required Texts:
Joseph Conrad, The Secret
Agent ( Oxford)
Lord Jim (Penguin)
Ford Madox Ford, The
Good Soldier (Oxford)
E. M. Forster, Howards
End (Random House)
A Passage to India
(HBJ)
D. H. Lawrence, Sons
and Lovers (Random House)
Women in Love ( Oxford)
Virginia Woolf, Between
the Acts (HBJ)
To The Lighthouse
(HBJ)
Recommended Texts:
Joseph Conrad, Under
Western Eyes (Penguin)
Nostromo (Penguin)
E. M. Forster, Maurice
(Norton)
A Room with a View
(Penguin)
James Joyce, Dubliners
(Viking)
A Portrait of the Artist
as a Young Man (Penguin)
Ulysses (Vintage)
D. H. Lawrence, Lady
Chatterley's Lover (Viking)
The Rainbow (Oxford)
Virginia Woolf, Mrs.
Dalloway (HBJ)
Orlando (HBJ)
Course Objectives:
The "High Modernist" tradition
of the British novel flourished in the first half of the twentieth century.
We will be reading the work of the great canonical writers of this movement
in greater depth than is common in a "survey course." The course will be
run on the English model: a core of novels we all read in common will be
supplemented by deeper sojourns into the work of one or two of these writers
in the research paper and oral presentations. Each student will explore
two (of three) contextual frames for understanding modernism: oeuvre
-- the writer's work as an intertextual body of novels; the writer as
critic-- the writer's non- fiction essays, literary criticism, letters,
and journals which address the process and purpose of modernist writing;
and critical reception-- the variety of critical approaches used
to illuminate the novels, or the history of their reception. This course,
therefore, essentially takes an aesthetic rather than a cultural approach
to the modern novel. I've devised a syllabus which simultaneously develops
research skills and mastery of content. Since this is a small class, you'll
have both the responsibility and the opportunity to shape our inquiry significantly.
Bring your education and interests to bear on the texts and ideas we'll
discuss this term. I will serve as a resource and guide, but it's your
class to shape and energize.
We will read the novels in
roughly chronological order, to allow us to address the development of
an individual writer's style and the reception of novels by critics and
other modernist writers, and to identify common themes and stylistic innovations
in the progression of British modernism.
Your grade will be assessed
as follows:
Class participation:
including two discussion introductions on assigned topics, attendance,
quality of participation in class discussion, and level of preparation
for class (20%)
Writing:
one 5-7 page paper
with annotated bibliography (a concrete development of the ideas in one
of your discussion introductions) (20%)
prospectus and draft
for research paper (20%)
final research paper
(12-15 pages) (40%)
Reading Schedule:
Jan 24 Introduction: Syllabus review, logistics, and an in -class essay in two parts: 1. What skills do you want to develop in this class? What are your strengths and weaknesses as a student? 2. What are you special literary interests? How does the subject-matter of this course engage with what you already know? What would you like to explore intellectually this semester in relation to the topic?
29 Conrad, Lord Jim
(1900)
31 Lord Jim
Feb. 5 Lord Jim Discussion
Introduction______________ _________________
7 Forster, Howards End
(1910)
Discussion Introduction______________
_________________
12 Howards End Discussion
Introduction______________ _________________
14 Howards End
19 Lawrence, Sons
and Lovers (1913)
21 Sons and Lovers
Discussion Introduction______________ _________________
26 Sons and Lovers
28 Ford, The Good Soldier
(1915)
Discussion Introduction______________
_________________
March 3 The Good
Soldier
5 Short Paper due
on Conrad, Forster, Lawrence, or Ford; Discussion of prospectus
12 Conrad, The Secret
Agent (1907)
14 The Secret Agent Discussion
Introduction______________ _________________
prospectus due
Spring Break
26 The Secret Agent
28 Woolf, To The Lighthouse
(1927)
Discussion Introduction______________
_________________
April 2 To The Lighthouse
4 To The Lighthouse
Discussion Introduction______________
_________________
April 9 Lawrence, Women
in Love (1917)
11 Women in Love
Discussion Introduction______________ _________________
draft due; schedule conferences
16 Women in Love
18 Forster, A Passage
to India (1924)
Discussion Introduction______________
_________________
23 A Passage to India
25 Woolf, Between the
Acts (1941)
Discussion Introduction______________
_________________
30 Between the Acts
May 2 Defining Modernism;
class evaluations
Monday, May 6 Final research paper due by 4pm in my office