Admission requirements
Successful completion of the following courses (or equivalent):
Literature 1A
Literature 1B
Literature 2
Literature 3(A/B) or Literature 4(A/B)
For this course transitional provisions apply. If you have to retake this course, please check the 'More info'-tab or contact your study advisor.
Description
The first half of this course will give an overview of literature written in Great Britain and Ireland between ca. 1890 and 1940, the period of Modernism, noted for its international (European and transatlantic) dynamics. Keywords of this period are “subjectivity”, “epistemology”, “relativism” and “-ism”. Next to a focus on the formal and experimental aspects of Modernist texts, this literature will be studied in a larger context (such as developments in the fields of science and the arts, social and political developments such as World War I). We will study canonical Modernist writers such as W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, H.D., Virginia Woolf and Ezra Pound, as well as the importance of the various avant-garde manifestoes and magazines such as BLAST.
In the second half of the course the scope widens when we will study a selection of texts from the various literatures in English of the post-war period. We will study the work of authors like Salman Rushdie, Derek Walcott, J.M. Coetzee, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Ali Smith in relation to the great shifts taking place within late 20th-century literature (e.g. Postmodernism and Postcolonialism), but also in relation to the social, political and cultural changes after World War II (with themes such as ‘feminism’, ‘race’, ‘imperialism’, ‘migration and globalisation’).
Course objectives
This course will extend and deepen the power of students’ literary critical analysis through in-depth consideration of texts. Students will explore critical debates central to the literature of the Modern(ist) and contemporary periods. The course will also aim to extend the students’ skills in the reading of literary texts and the understanding of the relationship of a text to its cultural/social contexts. Students will be encouraged in class discussion to share analytical and critical views on the texts ascribed, and will focus research and writing skills in the writing of 5 written biweekly assignments and a final essay. This essay will be on a relevant subject of their own choice within the parameters of the course, and will further extend the students’ critical skills and their ability to produce good, clear writing.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar (Two-hour tutorial per week)
Research (Independent reading/study of primary and secondary literature)
Assessment method
Assessment
Essay of 3000-3500 words; one needs to have a sufficient mark (6.0 or higher) in order to pass.
5 written assignments.
Active classroom participation.
Attendance is compulsory. Missing more than two tutorials means that students will be excluded from the tutorials. Unauthorized absence also applies to being unprepared, not participating and/or not bringing the relevant course materials to class.
Weighing
Final essay: 60%; one needs to have a sufficient mark (6.0 or higher) in order to pass.
5 written assignments: 30%
Active classroom participation: 10%
The final mark for the course is established by determination of the weighted average combined with additional requirements. The additional requirements is a minimum of a 6.0 for the final essay.
Resit
If the final grade is below 5.5, students may only resit the final essay. Students may not resit the participation (10%) or written assignment component.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 9th or 10th edition, Volume II or Volume F: The Twentieth Century and After
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Penguin or Oxford world’s classics)
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (Penguin)
Flann O’ Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds
Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children;
Derek Walcott, Omeros;
Seamus Heaney, Seeing Things;
J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace;
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake;
Ali Smith, Autumn.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Registration À la carte education and Exchange
Information for those interested in taking this course in context of À la carte education (without taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.
For the registration of exchange students contact Humanities International Office.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal
Remarks
Not applicable