Course Materials
Introduction
Read the 📖 Historical Context (from The Norton Anthology of English Literature) to learn about the period.
In class, we compared two excerpts, one from 📖 George Eliot's Middlemarch and another from 📖 James Joyce's Ulysses.
We also read Thomas Hardy's poem 📖 "The Darkling Thrush" and Ezra Pound's 🔗 "In a Station of the Metro".
Poetry
May 5 - World War I Poets
- Rupert Brooke, 📖 "The Soldier"; Wilfred Owen, "Dulce et Decorum Est"
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Siegfried Sassoon, 🔗 "Glory of Women"
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Audio recordings of 🔈 "The Soldier" by Sophie Okonedo; 🔈 "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Kenneth Branagh; and 🔈 "Glory of Women" by anonymous
If you want to know more, watch the movie 📼 Benediction about Siegfried Sassoon.
Here are the slides I used in class. 📊 Slide Deck
May 12 - Diction
- Shira Wolosky, The Art of Poetry - 📄 "Individual Words"
- Henry Reed, 🔗 "The Naming of Parts", including 🔈 audio readings
- W. B. Yeats, 🔗 "The Lake Isle of Innisfree"
- Philip Larkin, 🔗 "This Be the Verse"
May 19 - Syntax
- Shira Wolosky, The Art of Poetry - 📄 "Syntax and the Poetic Line"
- W. B. Yeats, 📄 "Leda and the Swan" (also inside chapter 2). Listen to 🔈 a reading and another by 🔈 Jeremy Irons. Learn about 🔗 the myth.
- Seamus Heaney, 📄 "Digging". Read by 🔈 the author
- Ted Hughes, 🔗 "The Thought Fox". Read by 🔈 the author and an 📺 interview about it
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Dylan Thomas, 📄 "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night". Read by 🔈 the author, by 🔈 Michael Sheen, and my favorite, the great 🔈 Richard Burton
May 26 - Images
- Shira Wolosky, The Art of Poetry - 📄 "Images - Simile and Metaphor"
- T.S. Eliot, 🔗 "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" with readings by 🔈 Alec Guinness and 🔈 Anthony Hopkins. Check out the 🔗 comic book adaptation.
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William Shakespeare, 🔗 Speech: “To be, or not to be, that is the question” with readings by 🔈 Kenneth Branagh, 🔈 Richard Burton, 🔈 Lawrence Olivier, 🔈 David Tennant, and 🔈 Andrew "Hot Priest" Scott
June 2 - Voice
- Shira Wolosky, The Art of Poetry - 📄 "Poetic Voice"
- Philip Larkin, 📖 "Church Going", read by 🔈 the author
June 9 - Exam 1
Contents: Owen, Sassoon, Eliot, Larkin, Yeats, etc. + poetry material (Wolosky)
Fiction
June 16
- Terry Eagleton, How to Read Literature: 📄 "Narrative"
- Thomas Hardy, 📖 "On the Western Circuit" and watch the TV adaptation: 📼 "The Day After the Fair" (1986)
June 23 - São João
- Katherine Mansfield, 📖 "The Garden Party" and watch the TV adaptation 📼 PBS TV Adaptation (1973).
- ✏️ Assignment 1: "The Garden Party"
June 30 & July 7
- Terry Eagleton, How to Read Literature: 📄 "Character"
- James Joyce, 📄 "Araby" and "Eveline" (stories from Dubliners)
Read also this paper about one of the stories: 📄 Margot Norris, "The Perils of Eveline" and watch the 📼 The World of James Joyce Documentary for biographical context
Drama
July 14
- Samuel Beckett, 📖 Waiting for Godot
For contextualization, read this paper: 📄 The Theater of the Absurd.
Check out some productions of the play. There are a few full video easily available: - 📼 Waiting for Godot (2001, dir. Michael Lindsay-Hogg) - 📼 San Quentin Workshop 1988 version - 📼 Zero Mostel and Burgess Meredith 1961 version
July 21 - Exam 2
Contents: Hardy, Mansfield, Joyce, Beckett + fiction material (Eagleton)
July 21 & July 28 - Seminar Presentation
In 10 minutes, you will provide: a. brief biographical and historical context; b. a summary of the text and c. an analysis. The analysis consists of the selection one passage of the text to do a close reading of. Choose ONE concept from Wolosky and/or Eagleton to focus your analysis.
| Author | Title | Genre | Themes | Presenter (pairs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angela Carter | The Bloody Chamber | Story | Feminism and fairy tales | |
| Carol Ann Duffy | Mrs Midas | Poem | Myth and gender | |
| D. H. Lawrence | The Horse Dealer's Daughter | Story | Gender, class, desire | |
| D. H. Lawrence | The Rocking-Horse Winner | Story | Family, money, psychology | |
| George Orwell | Shooting an Elephant | Essay | Imperialism, power, performance | |
| Graham Greene | The Basement Room | Story | Childhood innocence and guilt | |
| Hanif Kureishi | My Son the Fanatic | Story | Immigration, religion, identity | |
| Kazuo Ishiguro | A Family Supper | Story | Ambiguity, family, cultural expectations | |
| Michael Longley | Ceasefire | Poem | Iliad and Northern Ireland | |
| Philip Larkin | MCMXIV | Poem | Nostalgia and war | |
| Seamus Heaney | Casualty | Poem | The Troubles; personal loss | |
| Seamus Heaney | Punishment | Poem | Gender, violence, history | |
| Wilfred Owen | Anthem for Doomed Youth | Poem | War vs. religious ritual | |
| Zadie Smith | The Waiter's Wife | Story | Marriage, performance, identity |