106-002 Modern Literature

Note

Credit Points

HECS Band

Coordinator

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

This subject focuses upon representative examples of 20th century fiction, poetry and drama, providing an introduction to some of the thematic and formal innovations identified with modernist and postmodernist writing and the critical debates that have surrounded them. The set texts will be read in the light of recent innovations in literary criticism and critical theory, so that students who successfully complete this subject should have a background of relevant knowledge and methodologies on which to base further studies in English and cultural studies.

Assessment

Class participation, and written work totalling 4000 words.

Prescribed Texts

Except where specified, any edition of the following texts is acceptable:

• S Beckett, Happy Days.
• B Brecht, Mother Courage.
• D De Lillo & M Osteen (ed), White Noise: Text and Criticism. Viking-Penguin, 1998.
• T S Eliot, Selected Poems.
• P Jones, Imagist Poetry.
• D H Lawrence, The Fox, The Captain's Doll, The Ladybird. Penguin, 1995.
• J Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea.
• L Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author. Heinemann.
• V Woolf, Mrs Dalloway.
• L Anderson, Big Science. Warner Music (NB this is a CD).
• N Shange, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. Methuen.
• Recommended Reading: M H Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms. (7th ed) Hbj College, 1998.
• T Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction. (2nd ed) University of Minnesota Press.
• M Ryan, Literary Theory: A Practical Introduction. Blackwell, 1998.