Introductory description

EN2J7-30 Modern World Literature

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

TERM 1

1. Introduction: Modernity, Manifestoes and the Module
   Unit I (1789-1848): Enlightenment, Revolution, Romanticism
2. Johann von Goethe, Faust Part 1, trans. David Luke (*Oxford World's Classics)
3. Olaudah Equiano, Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, African (Dover Thrift)
4. William Blake, "Auguries of Innocence"; Percy Shelley, "Ode to the West Wind" and "The Mask of Anarchy"; Alexander Pushkin, "The Bronze Horseman" [handout]
5. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein [1818 Text] (Nortol Critical Editions)

Unit II (1848-1914): Modernity, Captial, Empire
7. Charles Baudelaire, "I. Beauty, Fashion and Happiness," "II. Manners and Modes," "III. An Artist, Man of the World, Man of Crowds and Child," "IV. Modernity," "IX. The Dandy," from "The Painter of Modern Life"; "The Swan" from Fleurs du Mal; "The Eyes of the Poor," "Lost Halo," "Bash the Poor!" from Paris Spleen; Arthur Rimbaud, "The Drunken Boat" [handout]
8. Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House (four major plays, Oxford World's Classics)
9. Natsume Soseki, Kokoro trans. Meredith McKinney (Penguin Classics)
10. Joeseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (Penguin Popular or Penguin Classics)

TERM 2
Unit III (1914-1945): Modernisms and World War

1. Rabindranath Tagore, Home and the World (Penguin Classics)
2. Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis, trans. Samuel Beckett [handout]; T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (Dover Thrift)
3. Katharine Anne Porter, Pale Horse, Pale Rider (Penguin Classics) (covering title story only)
4. Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage and Her Children, trans. John Willett (Methuen)

Unit IV (1945-1989): Cold War, Decolonisation & the Long Boom
7. Samuel Beckett, Endgame (Faber)
8. Clarice Lispector, The Hour of the Star (Penguin)
9. Aimé Césaire, Notebook of a return to the Native Land; Frank O'Hara, "Ode: Salute to the French Negro Poets" and "The Day Lady Died"; Elizabeth Bishop, "Questions of Travel"; Kamau Brathwaite", "Letter Sycorax" [handout]
10. Michelle Cliff, No Telephone to Heaven (Penguin)

TERM 3
Unit V (1990-present): Contemporary World Literatures

1. Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis (Vintage)
   2-3. A work of contemporary world literature chosen by MWL tutors for their individual seminars; group presentations of these works to the module take place during the final session of the year

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• By the end of the module students should be able to: discuss a work of literature in relation to questions of modernity, the dynamics of innovation and tradition, and the role of social, cultural, and international formations in shaping the context of literary production.
• position themselves within theoretical debates over the definition of modernity
• analyse intellectual movements and genres (e.g., Romanticism, naturalism, modernism, absurdism, etc.) in relation to the pressures of the modern world-system
• situate those intellectual movements and the development of genres in a comparative, global context
• demonstrate an ability to produce comparative close analyses of texts from different historical/literary/geopolitical contexts
• show some knowledge of recent debates around comparativism in literary studies
• participate in discussions and exercises regarding the role of literature in relation to other media, questions of institutional authority and contemporary cultural debates.

Indicative reading list

Reading lists can be found in Talis

Subject specific skills

No subject specific skills defined for this module.

Transferable skills

No transferable skills defined for this module.