SYLLABUS FOR E336 TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITISH LITERATURE
CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY, FALL 2003
*2023 Note. Most hyperlinks and procedural information have been removed from this archival version of the syllabus, leaving mainly the reading schedule.
COURSE INFORMATION. English 336. Mondays 7:00 – 9:50 p.m., Beckman 202. Office hours: Mon. 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Cyber Café. Email: e336_at_ajdrake.com. Catalog: “Examines the impact of modernism and post-modernism on Britain’s literary tradition.” Units (3).
REQUIRED TEXTS AT THE CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE
Abrams, M. H. et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 7th ed., Vol. 2C. New York: Norton, 2000. ISBN 0393975703.
Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. New York: Norton, 1986. ISBN: 0-393-31283-6.
Orwell, George. 1984. New York: Penguin, 1990 repr. ISBN: 0451524934. A Signet Classic.
COURSE RATIONALE AND IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES
FOCUS AND OBJECTIVES. We will study texts from around the beginning of the twentieth century through Chinua Achebe’s 1987 novel Anthills of the Savannah. Lectures will provide an understanding of the works’ historical context, structures, and themes, while classroom discussion will center on attention to key points in the texts. The purpose of a survey is to introduce a variety of texts within a given period or set of periods; it is not necessarily (or usually) to pursue a narrow theme or even to claim that a restricted set of ideas governs the period/s covered. Many, though not all, of our texts fall within the time frame of Modernism (roughly 1910 – 1930s), a period of intense experimentation in the arts, culture, social affairs, and even politics. We will, therefore, discuss relevant texts in the context of this period and its dynamic, at times unsettling, character.
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES. In class, there will be a mix of lectures, whole-class and smaller-group discussion, occasional quizzes, an essay, and a final exam. I encourage questions and comments—class sessions improve when students take an active part. Outside class, do the assigned readings before the relevant discussion dates, complete your journal sets as outlined below, and start planning and drafting your essay early. In literary studies, the aim is to read and discuss actively and thereby to develop your own voice in response to the texts you read. Insightful interpretation and the ability to make compelling connections are central goals. The essay, discussions, and journal-keeping should combine to help you work towards these goals.
QUESTIONS FOR JOURNALS AND DISCUSSION
*2023 Note. Visitors can download the following questions in PDF format: MODERN BRITISH LITERATURE.
SCHEDULE: WORKS DISCUSSED ON DATES INDICATED
WEEK 1
08/25. Intro to E336 and to C20 literature.
WEEK 2
09/01. Labor day holiday; no class.
WEEK 3
09/08. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness. A. E. Housman, Norton selections.
WEEK 4
09/15. Siegfried Sassoon, Norton selections. Wilfred Owen, Norton selections. W. B. Yeats, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”; “Easter 1916”; “The Second Coming”; “Sailing to Byzantium”; “Leda and the Swan”; “Byzantium”; “Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop”; “The Circus Animals’ Desertion”; “Under Ben Bulben.”
WEEK 5
09/22. Virginia Woolf. A Room of One’s Own.
WEEK 6
09/29. James Joyce. The Dead. (Film in class.)
WEEK 7
10/06. James Joyce. The Dead. (Discussion.)
WEEK 8
10/13. T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”; “Sweeney among the Nightingales”; “The Waste Land.”
WEEK 9
10/20. T. S. Eliot, “Tradition and the Individual Talent”; “The Metaphysical Poets.” Ezra Pound, selections from The Cantos.
WEEK 10
10/27. George Orwell. 1984. (Film in class.)
WEEK 11
11/03. Orwell. 1984. (Discussion.)
WEEK 12
11/10. Samuel Beckett. End Game. (Film in class.) [Paper rough draft due today.]
WEEK 13
11/17. Samuel Beckett. End Game. (Discussion.)
WEEK 14
11/24. Anthony Burgess. A Clockwork Orange. (Film in class.)
WEEK 15
12/01. Anthony Burgess. A Clockwork Orange. (Discussion.)
FINALS WEEK
12/08. Final Exam is on Monday, 7:00 – 9:30 p.m.