20th Century British Literature II
British Literature: 20th Century II
THIS COURSE DESCRIPTION CONTAINS IMPORTANT INFORMATION.
PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY AND KEEP IT FOR FURTHER REFERENCE
UNTIL THE END OF THE TERM.
MODULE CODES: BTAIT147 and BTAIT147a
COURSE TYPE: Seminars and Lectures PROGRAMME: Full-time SPRING 2008
CLASS HOURS: Wednesdays 14.00-14.50; Thursdays 12.00-12.50 in Room T/3 for seminars;
Thursdays 10.00-10.50 in Room C/1 308 for lectures
HOMEPAGE: mfi.uni-miskolc.hu/dosa/btait147.htm
TUTOR: Dr. Attila Dósa
OFFICE: A/6 Room 1. Office hours as advertised on my door or by appointment.
PHONE: 46/565-111 2285. E-MAIL: a_dosa@
AIMS: This module introduces you to the general development of British fiction, drama and poetry in the second half of the 20th century. The course aims to illustrate variety of thematic, stylistic and linguistic concerns of literature written in the British Isles after the war. Rather than giving a detailed analysis of the period, the course will encourage students to explore the period further and open up their own perspectives to other texts and art works. By the end of the course you will have gained knowledge of several important writers including Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney and John Osborne, and will be familiar with the major theoretical and critical terms of the period. You will get an insight into problems related to language and class consciousness, regional and national identities, and discriminations based on gender or racial origins in contemporary literature written in the British Isles. Moreover, you will have an opportunity to develop and practise various skills and abilities, including:
- identifying and analysing an abstract problem;
- flexible and creative thinking;
- developing a complex argument;
- accuracy and clarity of expression in writing and speaking;
- textual analysis;
- computing skills;
- and general intellectual awareness.
ASSESSMENT AND COURSE POLICY:
In the seminars, assessment will be based on:
- a mid-term and an end-term paper;
- your worksheets and other regular written submissions;
- the occasional in-class tests that are meant to check up on your reading and vocabulary;
- a five-minute presentation on an artist of your choice;
- and finally your participation and attendance.
More than three missed classes may result in denying your signature at the end of the course.
The worksheets will contain questions and/or quotes that will help you identify and discuss the major issues we are going to deal with in the classroom. You will be expected to fill them in and bring them to the classroom as they will be checked regularly.
In the lectures, assessment will be based on an examination (“kollokvium”) in the exam term. (More details will follow.) However, your signature will be subject to the following:
- at least two “pass” grades of several in-class tests, one of which will be given on 23 April
- regular attendance and participation.
You will find the list of weekly readings below. It is strongly advised that you regularly visit the course homepage, where you will find links to relevant articles, criticism, interviews, images and other sources. It will be taken for granted that you will have familiarised yourselves with the online material before you come to class. Please note that some of these online materials are password protected. If you forget your password, send me an e-mail at the address above. A course package of poems, essays and secondary reading is available in the departmental library for photocopying. Moreover, you can find below a list of books – most of which are available in the departmental library or in the central library. I recommend that you consult these sources when you revise the material for the two term papers. The online material as well as the secondary reading will be regarded as part of the course material. The biographies of the individual writers will be regarded as common knowledge.
LECTURES SCHEDULE
WEEK 1:14 February Introduction
WEEK 2: 21 February ANTI-UTOPIA
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four; Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
WEEK 3: 28 February FANTASY
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
WEEK 4: 6 March “ANGRY YOUNG MEN” DRAMA
John Osborne, Look Back in Anger
WEEK 5: 13 March “ANGRY YOUNG MEN” FICTION
Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim; Alan Sillitoe: ‘The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner’
WEEK 6: 20 March THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot; Harold Pinter, The Birthday Party
WEEK 7: 27 March SCOTTISH FICTION I
Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
WEEK 8: 3 April THE ALLEGORICAL NOVEL
William Golding, Lord of the Flies
WEEK 9: 9 April POST-MODERN DRAMA
Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
WEEK 10: 17 April POST-MODERN FICTION
John Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman
WEEK 11: 23 April END-TERM TEST
WEEK 12: No class (holiday)
WEEK 13: 8 May MAGIC REALISM
Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children
WEEK 14: 15 May SCOTTISH FICTION II
Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting
SEMINARS SCHEDULE
WEEK 1: 13 and 14 February Introduction
WEEK 2: 20 and 21 February The gentility principle…
Reading: Philip Larkin, ‘An Arundel Tomb’, ‘Aubade’, ‘Church Going’, ‘Days’, ‘Wants’, ‘High Windows’, ‘I Remember, I Remember’, ‘This Be the Verse’, ‘The Whitsun Weddings’
Criticism: Andrew Motion, ‘The Poems’ (from the course reader)
István D. Rácz, Költők és maszkok, pp. 13-43; 45-92
István D. Rácz, A szép majdnem igaz (relevant passages)
WEEK 3: 27 and 28 February The gentility principle… (Continued)
WEEK 4: 5 and 6 March …and beyond
Reading: Ted Hughes, ‘The Thought-Fox’, ‘The Horses’, ‘Crow Hill’, ‘Hawk Roosting’, ‘Thrushes’, ‘Theology’, ‘Wodwo’, Apple Tragedy’, ‘Bride and Groom Lie Hidden for Three Days’, ‘Rain’, ‘February 17th’, ‘Life is Trying to be Life’
Essays: Ted Hughes, The Burnt Fox, Poetry and Violence (from the course reader)
Criticism: István D. Rácz, Költők és maszkok, pp. 116-45
Ann Skea: ‘Ted Hughes: An Introduction’ (from the course reader; also available online, please find the link at the course homepage)
WEEK 5: 12 and 13 March …and beyond (Continued)
WEEK 6: 19 and 20 March MID-TERM PAPER
WEEK 7: 26 and 27 March Meeting
Presentations on living artists, musicians, writers, filmmakers, etc., of your choice.
WEEK 8: 2 and 3 April Meeting (continued)
WEEK 9: 8 and 9 April ‘Intimate revenge’
Reading: Seamus Heaney, ‘Digging’, ‘Anahorish’, ‘Broagh’, ‘The Tollund Man’, ‘Strange Fruit’, ‘Punishment’, ‘Exposure’, ‘Funeral Rites’ ‘Casualty’, ‘The Harvest Bow’
Essay: Seamus Heaney, Crediting Poetry (Nobel Lecture, December 7, 1995), from the course reader but also available online
Criticism: Anthony Purdy, ‘The Bog Body as Mnemotope’ (in the course reader)
WEEK 10: 16 and 17 April Seamus Heaney (continued)
WEEK 11: 22 and 23 April Poetry from Northern Ireland
Reading: Derek Mahon, ‘A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford’, ‘The Apotheosis of Tins’
Tom Paulin, ‘Settlers’, ‘Under the Eyes’
Paul Muldoon, ‘Why Brownlee Left’, ‘Cuba’, ‘Quoof’, ‘Anseo’
Criticism: Neil Corcoran, ‘The Poetry of Northern Ireland’ (course reader)
Neil Corcoran, ‘In Ireland or Someplace’ (course reader)
Robert Potts, ‘The Poet at Play’ (course reader and online article)
WEEK 12: 30 April for the Wednesday group and no class (holiday) for the Thursday group Barbarians
Reading: Tony Harrison, ‘On Not Being Milton’, ‘The Rhubarbarians’, ‘The Ballad of Babelabour’, ‘Timer’, ‘Book Ends’, ‘Long Distance’, ‘Turns’
Douglas Dunn, ‘Men of Terry Street’, ‘A Removal from Terry Street, ‘On Roofs of Terry Street’, ‘The Come-on’, ‘Glasgow Schoolboys, Running Backwards’, ‘St Kilda’s Parliament: 1879-1979’
Criticism: notes from Tony Harrison, Selected Poems (course reader)
Attila Dósa: Politika és poétika – Interjú Douglas Dunn-nal (available in the course reader as well as an online article, published in: Nagyvilág, 1999/9-10)
WEEK 13: 7 and 8 May END-TERM PAPER
WEEK 14: 14 and 15 May CONCLUSIONS AND EVALUATION
Topics for discussion in the seminars:
Please note that the following list is for orientation only, and we will not necessarily cover all topics in the seminars.
1. Fear of death, ageing and oblivion in Larkin’s work (‘Aubade’, ‘The Old Fools’, ‘This Be the Verse’, etc.)
2. Larkin’s attempts at optimism (‘An Arundel Tomb’, ‘At Grass’, ‘Church Going’, ‘The Whitsun Weddings’, etc.)
3. Perceptions of time in the poetry of Larkin (‘Days’, ‘Wants’, etc.)
4. Fatalism in Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
5. Problems of identity in Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
6. Interpretations of violence in Ted Hughes (‘Poetry and Violence’, ‘Hawk Roosting’, ‘Thrushes’)
7. Nature, animals and landscape in the work of Ted Hughes (‘The Burnt Fox’, ‘The Thought-Fox’, ‘The Jaguar’, ‘The Horses’, ‘Thistles’, ‘Rain’, etc.)
8. Heaney’s bog poems (‘The Tollund Man’, ‘Strange Fruit’, ‘Punishment’)
9. Heaney’s place name poems (‘Anahorish’, ‘Broagh’, ‘Mossbawn’)
10. Representations of sectarian violence in Heaney’s work (‘Punishment’, ‘A Constable Calls’, ‘Funeral Rites’, ‘Casualty’)
11. The notion of inner emigration in Heaney’s poetry (‘Exposure’ and ‘Crediting Poetry’)
12. Heaney’s perception of the political function of poetry (‘Digging’, ‘Crediting Poetry’, ‘The Harvest Bow’)
13. Mahon’s spokesmanship on behalf of the victims of violence (‘A Disused Shed…’, ‘The Apotheosis of Tins’)
14. Reflections on the state of Northern Ireland in Tom Paulin’s work (‘In the Lost Province’, ‘Settlers’, ‘Under the Eyes’)
15. Perception and diction in the work of Paul Muldoon (‘Quoof’, ‘Anseo’)
16. Reflections on Northern Irish sectarianism (‘Cuba’, ‘Anseo’)
17. Tony Harrison’s elegies (‘Book Ends’, ‘Turns’, ‘Timer’, ‘Long Distance’, v.)
18. Language, class and identity in Harrison’s poems (‘On Not Being Milton’, ‘The Rhubarbarians’, ‘The Ballad of Babelabour’, ‘Self-justification’, v.)
list of required readings for the “kollokvium”
Poetry:
You must be familiar with the following poems:
Philip Larkin, ‘An Arundel Tomb’, ‘Aubade’, ‘Church Going’, ‘This Be the Verse’, ‘The Whitsun Weddings’
Ted Hughes, ‘The Thought-Fox’, ‘ ‘Hawk Roosting’, ‘Thrushes’, ‘February 17th’, ‘Life is Trying to be Life’
Seamus Heaney, ‘Digging’, ‘Anahorish’, ‘Broagh’, ‘The Tollund Man’, ‘Strange Fruit’, ‘Punishment’, ‘Exposure’, ‘Funeral Rites’ ‘Casualty’, ‘The Harvest Bow’
Derek Mahon, ‘A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford’
Tom Paulin, ‘Settlers’
Paul Muldoon, ‘Why Brownlee Left’, ‘Cuba’
Tony Harrison, ‘On Not Being Milton’, ‘The Rhubarbarians’, ‘The Ballad of Babelabour’
Douglas Dunn, ‘A Removal from Terry Street, ‘The Come-on’, ‘Glasgow Schoolboys, Running Backwards’, ‘St Kilda’s Parliament: 1879-1979’
Fiction:
You must be familiar with the plot and characters in all the novels but you will be required to read THREE of the following novels:
Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim
John Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman
William Golding, Lord of the Flies
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children
Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting
AND a short story: Alan Sillitoe: ‘The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner’
Drama:
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot OR Harold Pinter, The Birthday Party
John Osborne, Look Back in Anger
Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
essays:
Ted Hughes, ‘The Burnt Fox’ AND ‘Poetry and Violence’
Seamus Heaney, Crediting Poetry
Course Books:
Use these books to revise material for the end-term paper and the “kollokvium”:
Bényei, Tamás, Az ártatlan ország: Az angol regény 1945 után (Debrecen: Kossuth Egyetemi Kiadó, 2003) (Available in the departmental library and you can order this book in the University Bookshop.)
Bradbury, Malcolm, The Modern British Novel (London: Penguin, 1993) (Available in the departmental library)
D. Rácz, István, A szép majdnem igaz: Philip Larkin költészete (Debrecen: Kossuth Egyetemi Kiadó, 1999) (You can order this book in the University Bookshop.)
D. Rácz, István, A másik ország: Az angol költészet 1945 után (Debrecen: Kossuth Egyetemi Kiadó, 2006) (Order your copy in the University Bookshop.)
Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the Absurd. 1961. Harmondsworth, 1968. (Available in the departmental library)
Ford, Boris (ed.), The Pelican Guide to English Literature. Vol. 8: The Present (London: Penguin, 1983) (Available in the departmental library and in the main library: KLM C140.174.)
Morrison, Blake and Andrew Motion (eds.), The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry (London: Penguin, 1990) (Available in the departmental library in 4 copies.)
RECOMMENDED READING:
Blamires, H., Twentieth-Century English Literature (London: Macmillan, 1991) AIT
Bleiman, B. (ed.), Five Modern Poets (London: Longman) AIT
Daiches, David, ‘Twentieth-Century Poetry’ (pp. 1122-51); ‘The Twentieth-Century Novel’ (pp. 1152-78), in A Critical History of English Literature, Vol. II: The Restoration to the Present Day (London: Mandarin Paperbacks, 1996) AIT
D. Rácz, István, Költők és maszkok: Identitáskereső versek az 1945 utáni brit költészetben (Debrecen: Kossuth Egyetemi Kiadó, 1996) AIT; KLM C137.107, C137.108
Fallon, F. and Derek Mahon (eds.), The Penguin Book of Contemporary Irish Poetry (London: Penguin, 1990) AIT
Gray, Martin, A Dictionary of Literary Terms (London: Longman, 1992) AIT
Hayward, J. (ed.), The Penguin Book of English Verse (London: Penguin, 1956) AIT
Heaney, Seamus, New Selected Poems 1966-1987 (London: Faber, 1990) AIT
Hughes, Ted, New Selected Poems 1957-1994 (London: Faber, 1995) AIT
Lucie-Smith, E. (ed.), British Poetry Since 1945 (London: Penguin, 1985) AIT
Newton, K.M. (ed.), Twentieth-Century Literary Theory: A Reader (London: Macmillan, 1997) AIT
Ormsby, Frank (ed.), Poets from the North of Ireland, (The Blackstaff Press, 1990) AIT
Rácz, István and Bókay, Antal (eds), Modern sorsok és késő modern poétikák: Tanulmányok Sylvia Plathról és Ted Hughesról (Budapest: Janus/Gondolat, 2002) KLM
Further Reading:
Introduction to Contemporary Literature
Báti, László and Kristó-Nagy István (eds), Az angol irodalom a huszadik században (Bp.: Gondolat, 1970) 2 kötet KLM C33.239, C33.240
Bradbury, Malcolm, The Modern British Novel (London: Penguin, 2001) AIT
Day, Gary and Brian Docherty (eds), British Poetry from the 1950s to the 1990s: Politics and Art (London: Macmillan, 1997) AIT
Dodsworth, Martin (ed.), The Twentieth Century (London: Penguin, 1994) AIT, KLM C140.162
Ford, Boris (ed.), The New Pelican Guide to English Literature, Vol. 8.: From Orwell to Naipaul (London: Penguin, 1995) AIT, KLM C140.174
Gregson, Ian, Contemporary Poetry and Postmodernism: Dialogue and Estrangement (London: Macmillan, 1996) AIT
Kermode, Frank, History and Value (Oxford: Clarendon, 1990) MIT
Kiberd, Declan, Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation (London: Vintage, 1996) AIT
Kocztur, Gizella (ed.), An Anthology of Criticism Concerning the History of Modern British and American Drama (Bp.: Tankvk., 1992) KLM 026.989, 026.990, 026.991, 026.988, 026.992, 026.996
Massa, Ann and Alistair Stead (eds), Forked Tongues?: Comparing Twentieth-century British and American Literature (London: Longman, 1994) AIT
McHugh, Heather, Broken English: Poetry and Partiality (Hanover: Wesleyan Univ. Pr.; London: Univ. Pr. of New England, 1993) AIT
Pálffy, István, Az új angol dráma, mint a "valóság drámája" (Bp.: Akad. K., 1978) KLM A19.105
Pálffy, István, English Drama in the 20th Century (Bp.: Nemz. Tankvk., 1993) KLM 034.366, D91.773, D91.774, D91.774,7,8,9,80
Trócsányi, Miklós, Szöveggyűjtemény a XIX-XX. századi angol irodalomból (Bp.: Tankvk., 1992) KLM 026.782,3,4,5,6
Williams, Linda R. (ed.), The Twentieth Century: A Guide to Literature from 1900 to the Present Day (London: Bloomsbury, 1992) AIT
Seamus Heaney
Heaney, Seamus, New Selected Poems, 1966-1987 (London: Faber, 1987) AIT
Tandori, Dezsõ (ed. and trans.), Seamus Heaney versei (Bp.: Európa, 1980) KLM C63.070
Ted Hughes
Hughes, Ted, Selected Poems, 1957-1981 (London: Faber, 1982) AIT
Hughes, Ted, New Selected Poems, 1957-1994 (London: Faber, 1995) AIT
Hughes, Ted, Varjú: A Varjú életéből és dalaiból (Bp.: Orpheusz, 1997) KLM C136.941
Hughes, Ted (ed.), Sylvia Plath's Selected Poems (London: Faber, 1985) AIT
D. Rácz, István and Bókay, Antal (eds), Modern sorsok és késő modern poétikák: Tanulmányok Sylvia Plathról és Ted Hughesról (Budapest: Janus/Gondolat, 2002) KLM
Philip Larkin
Swarbrick, Andrew, Out of Reach: The Poetry of Philip Larkin (Basingstoke; London: Macmillan, 1995) AIT
John Osborne
Osborne, John, Look Back in Anger (London: Faber, 1996) AIT
Reference
Allison, Alexander W. (ed.), The Norton Anthology of Poetry (New York: Norton, 1983) AIT, KLM Olvasóterem BT10 C140.662, KLM C140.659, C140.660, C140.661
Burgess, Anthony, English Literature: A Survey for Students (Harlow: Longman, 1998) KLM C143.051
Carter, Ronald and John McRae, The Penguin Guide to English Literature: Britain and Ireland (London: Penguin, 1996) KLM C139.637
Coote, Stephen, The Penguin Short History of English Literature (London: Penguin, 1993) AIT, KLM C139.645
Drabble, Margaret (ed.), The Oxford Companion to English Literature (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Pr., 1995) MIT
Holman, C. Hugh and William Harmon, A Handbook to Literature (New York: Macmillan, 1986) AIT
Martin, Stephen, English Literature: A Student Guide (London: Longman, 1994) AIT
Montgomery, Martin, Ways of Reading: Advanced Reading Skills for Students of English Literature (London: Routledge, 2002) AIT
Ousby, Ian, The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1995) AIT
Ricks, Christopher, The Force of Poetry (Oxford: Clarendon, 2002) AIT
Rogers, Pat (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Pr., 1994) KLM D100.112
Sanders, Andrew, The Short Oxford History of English Literature (Oxford: Clarendon, 1996) KLM C143.306
Shaw, Valerie, The Short Story, a Critical Introduction (London: Longman, 1994) AIT
Shepherd, Simon and Peter Womack, English Drama: A Cultural History (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996) AIT
Szenczi, Miklós et al., Az angol irodalom története (Bp.: Gondolat, 1972) KLM C108.151, C40.435
Thornley, G. C. and Gwyneth Roberts, An Outline of English Literature (Essex: Longman, 1997) KLM C143.307
KEY: AIT (Angol Irodalom Tanszéki Könyvtár), FTT (Filozófiatörténeti Tanszéki Könyvtár), KLM (Központi Egyetemi Könyvtár, Levéltár és Múzeum), MIT (Magyar Irodalomtudományi Tanszéki Könyvtár)
Dr Attila Dósa
Last updated: 27/01/2008
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