AJL14004 British Literature: 1890-1945

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2021
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 6 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Taught online.
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. Tomáš Kačer, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. Michael Matthew Kaylor, PhD. (lecturer)
Mgr. Kristína Melišová (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Michael Matthew Kaylor, PhD.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Supplier department: Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Timetable of Seminar Groups
AJL14004/01: Tue 10:00–11:40 G32, T. Kačer, M. Kaylor
AJL14004/02: Tue 12:00–13:40 G32, T. Kačer, M. Kaylor
Prerequisites (in Czech)
AJL01002 Practical English II && AJL04003 Intro. to Literary Studies II
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 25 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/25, only registered: 0/25, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/25
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 12 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
This course will engage and provide a comprehensive overview of the texts and contexts of the English Modernists, namely Henry James, Joseph Conrad, George Bernard Shaw, Lytton Strachey, Frederick Rolfe, A. J. A. Symons, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, T. E. Lawrence, W. B. Yeats, Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, Forrest Reid, D. H. Lawrence, W. H. Auden, and T. S. Eliot. Special attention will be paid to how various literary and visual forms are employed for biographical, political, social, cultural, and religious ends. This period is unique for its aspirations as much as its accomplishments, for its experimental and avant-garde tendencies, for its conception of the writer as endeavoring to, in Forster’s phrasing, ‘only connect’. Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to discuss the writing of others with sensitivity and appreciation; have an understanding of the contexts of English Modernism; and be familiar with the key writers and their texts.
Learning outcomes
After completing the course, a student will be able to:
- analyze a work of literature from the Modernist period;
- know distinctive features of Modernist writing and the culture fo British Modernism;
- distinguish representative writers of the British Modernism;
- discuss the role of historical events, scientific development and cultural changes in the Modernist period.
Syllabus
  • Week 1: Introduction, course policies, assessment criteria. Week 2: Read Henry James, “The Beast in the Jungle,” from The Better Sort (1903); Week 3: Read D. H. Lawrence, “The Prussian Officer,” from The Prussian Officer and Other Stories (1914); Week 4: Read Siegfried Sassoon, “Counter-Attack” and “Suicide in the Trenches,” both from Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918); Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et Decorum Est,” “Strange Meeting,” and “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” all from Poems (1920); T. E. Lawrence, from Seven Pillars of Wisdom (autobiography, 1926); Week 5: Read W. B. Yeats, “The Adoration of the Magi” (essay, 1897); “The Magi,” from Responsibilities and Other Poems (1914); “The Second Coming,” from Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921); and “Sailing to Byzantium,” from The Tower (1928); Week 6: Read Bertrand Russell, "A Free Man's Worship" (1903), and "Mysticism and Logic" (1917); Week 7: Read J. M. Synge, The Playboy of the Western World (1907); Week 8: Read E. M. Forster, A Room with a View (1908); Week 9: Read Lytton Strachey, “Florence Nightingale,” from Eminent Victorians (1918); Virginia Woolf, Flush: A Biography (1933); Week 10: Read A. J. A. Symons, The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography (1934); Week 11: Read Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1931)
Literature
  • The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 6th edn., vol. 2 (New York: Norton, 1993)
  • Willison, Ian, Warwick Gould and Warren Chernaik, eds. Modernist Writers and the Marketplace. Basingstoke & London: Macmillan, 1996.
  • Feldman, Jessica. Gender on the Divide: The Dandy in Modernist Literature. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989.
  • Batchelor, John. The Edwardian Novel. london: Dockworth, 1986.
  • Keating, Peter. The Haunted Study: A Social History of the English Novel 1875-1914.
  • Leavis, Q. D. Fiction and the Reading Public. London: Chatto & Windus, 1932.
  • Miller, Jane Eldridge. Rebel Women: Feminism, Modernism and the Edwardian Novel. London: Virago, 1994.
  • Hall, Lesley. A. Hidden Anxieties: Male Sexuality 1900-1950. Cambridge: Polity Press. 1991.
Teaching methods
One 2-hour seminar per week.
Assessment methods
All materials covered are provided in the ELF system as Adobe Acrobat PDF files. To augment and deepen our discussion of the English Modernists, students will be expected to write two in-class essays on the covered readings without prior announcement (2-3 handwritten pages, 45 minutes). It should have a well-crafted thesis, should be scholarly in tone, and should endeavor to support all claims textually. There will be a 1-hour final exam. Final grades will be divided in the following proportions: 30% for attendance and class participation; 30% for the essay; 40% for the exam.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
Teacher's information
https://elf.phil.muni.cz/elf2/course/view.php?id=2505
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2022, Spring 2023.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2021, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2021/AJL14004