AJ14004 British Literature: 1890-1945

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2021
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 2 credit(s) (plus 2 credits for an exam). Recommended Type of Completion: zk (examination). Other types of completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. Tomáš Kačer, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. Michael Matthew Kaylor, PhD. (lecturer)
Mgr. Kristína Melišová (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. PhDr. Jana Chamonikolasová, Ph.D.
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
AJ14004/01: Tue 10:00–11:40 G32, T. Kačer, M. Kaylor
AJ14004/02: Tue 12:00–13:40 G32, T. Kačer, M. Kaylor
Prerequisites (in Czech)
AJ01002 Practical English II && AJ04003 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: 1/25, 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 various texts and contexts of the Modernist movement, namely those of Henry James, D. H. Lawrence, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, T. E. Lawrence, W. B. Yeats, J. M. Synge, E. M. Forster, Lytton Strachey, Virginia Woolf, A. J. A. Symons, Aldous Huxley, and James Joyce. 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 endeavouring 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.
Syllabus
  • Week 1: Introduction, course policies, assessment criteria. Week 2: Read Henry James, “The Beast in the Jungle,” from The Better Sort (1903); and “The Figure in the Carpet,” from Embarrassments (1896). Week 3: Read D. H. Lawrence, “The Prussian Officer,” and "Odour of Chrysanthemums" 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, passages from Seven Pillars of Wisdom (autobiography, 1926). Week 5: Read J. M. Synge, Playboy of the Western World (1907). Week 6: 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 7: Read James Joyce, “Araby,” from Dubliners (1914); and “Telemachus,” from Ulysses (1922). Week 8: Read E. M. Forster, A Room with a View (1908). Week 9: No class. Week 10: Read Joseph Conrad, “Preface to ‘The Narcissus’” (1897); Virginia Woolf, “Modern Fiction” (1921); and Eric Gill, “Composition of Time and Space,” from Essay on Typography (1931). Week 11: Read A. J. A. Symons, The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography (1934). Week 12: Read Lytton Strachey, “Florence Nightingale,” from Eminent Victorians (1918); and Virginia Woolf, Flush: A Biography (1933). Week 13: Read Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1931).
Literature
  • Batchelor, John. The Edwardian Novel. london: Dockworth, 1986.
  • 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.
  • Miller, Jane Eldridge. Rebel Women: Feminism, Modernism and the Edwardian Novel. London: Virago, 1994.
  • The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 6th edn., vol. 2 (New York: Norton, 1993)
  • Leavis, Q. D. Fiction and the Reading Public. London: Chatto & Windus, 1932.
  • Keating, Peter. The Haunted Study: A Social History of the English Novel 1875-1914.
  • 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: 10% for attendance and class participation; 30% for each essay; 30% 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 Autumn 1999, Autumn 2000, Autumn 2001, Autumn 2002, Spring 2003, Spring 2004, Spring 2005, Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020.
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