Modern Literature

Objective

This course aims to examine Western literary works, from the middle of the nineteenth century through the Second World War. Students will be introduced to the cultural and artistic aspects of modernism and its manifestations in fiction and playwriting.  

Outcomes

• Knowledge and Comprehension
• Discuss  the characteristics and movements of the modern novel & drama as related to the political, social and cultural background of England in the modern age.
• Skills
• Analyze representative texts of modern novels and theatre, employing literary critical theory and modern schools of drama.
• Present critical views toward literary wors effectively in speech and/or in writing
• Values
• Demonstrate self-discipline, ethical standards and academic integrity in performing assigned tasks.

Content

• Introduction to the Modern period 
• Modernism as an artistic movement 
• Modernism in Fiction and drama

• New literary techniques in fiction writing (E.g., Stream of Consciousness) 
• Features of Modern Drama (Realism, Naturalism, Impressionism, Symbolism)

Two works from each respective genre are going to be studied thoroughly. 

• Fiction:

Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (1925)

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899)

Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1915)

• Drama:

Henry Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879)

George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara (1905) or Pygmalion (1913)

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (1895)

Textbook

• Moran, J. (2021). Modernists and the Theatre: The Drama of WB Yeats, Ezra Pound, DH Lawrence, James Joyce, TS Eliot and Virginia Woolf. Bloomsbury Publishing
• Sherry, V. (Ed.). (2017). The Cambridge history of modernism. Cambridge University Press

Course ID: ENGL 401