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COURSE DESCRIPTION
Nature of the Course
This is not intended to be a survey of twentieth century English literature. The purpose of this course is to look in some detail at two major literary movements that came to dominate twentieth century English literature – modernism and postmodernism. For both movements the course will focus on fiction.  A selection of representative texts will be examined in some detail and from a number of theoretical perspectives.
Expected Student Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course you should be able to: distinguish between modernist and postmodernist, as well as realist and non-realist works of literature show an understanding of how narrative functions in prose fiction make optimal use of the library, its electronic resources and know when and how to resort to facilities outside the university library know how to document quotations and citations using the MLA Handbook employ literary theory when analyzing fictional texts argue convincingly in oral and written form for an interpretation of a text write knowledgeably about modernist and postmodernist fiction
Course Texts
The following texts have been ordered from the University Bookstore:
- Amis, Martin. Time’s Arrow. New York: Random House/Vintage, 1992. Print.
- Barnes, Julian. A History of the World in 10½ Chapters. New York: Random House/Vintage, 1990. Print.
- Carter, Angela. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. New York: Penguin (USA), 2011. Print.
- Forster, E. M. Where Angels Fear to Tread. New York: Penguin (USA), 2008. Print. *
- Greenblatt, Stephen, et al, eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8th ed. Vol. F. New York: Norton, 2005. Print.
- Winterson, Jeanette. Written on the Body. New York: Vintage, 1994. Print.
- Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. Ed. Mark Hussey. New York: Harcourt, 2005. Print.*
NOTE : asterisked books are also available free online at www.gutenberg.org, www.online-literature.com and elsewhere (stories free online in the Norton Anthology are asterisked in the syllabus below).
You should also consult:
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: MLA, 2009. Print.
Course Requirements
BEACHBOARD. This syllabus is available on Beachboard. Grades for your various papers (except for reaction papers) will be posted on Beachboard once they are awarded.
ATTENDANCE. Regular attendance is important and counts towards your grade. If you are unavoidably absent please email me in advance. More than three unexcused absences will lower your course grade by a grade point. More than six unexcused absences could result in a course grade of F. See “Makeup and Attendance Policy” below.
READING. You are all expected to have read the fictional texts listed in the syllabus before the first class in which it is listed.
There are three forms of written assignments:
- REACTION PAPERS. You are required to produce a one-page typed reaction to four of the five novels and four of the eleven stories listed in the syllabus on the first day on which it is scheduled. Papers responding just to the opening chapter of a novel do not qualify. You may be asked to summarize your reaction to each text to your fellow students and me during the first class that considers it if time permits. You are required to leave your typed version with me at the end of that first class. Reactions will be graded acceptable (a check), unacceptable (a cross), or exceptional (two checks). Late reaction papers will be accepted but recorded as late and treated as if they had had a grade point deducted.
- ORAL PRESENTATION AND PAPER. You are required to undertake one oral presentation chosen from those listed in the syllabus. Your oral presentation to the class should last between 15-20 minutes (graduates 25-30 minutes). You are required to submit a 4-5 page paper typed/printed in MLA style on the subject of your presentation a week after the class in which you make the presentation (graduates should offer a 6-7 page paper). You should cite at least two reputable sources (graduates at least three). See "Writing Your Oral Paper" on Beachboard.
- TERM RESEARCH PAPER. For your term research paper you can choose either your own topic or one from a list of suggested topics I will post on Beachboard before the Spring Recess (See "Topics for Final Paper"). The topic should not involve the same text you focused on for your oral presentation. You are encouraged to select your own topic provided that you clear it with me by email in advance. As a preliminary you will produce a typed two-page abstract for distribution among your fellow students at the time you make your oral presentation of your research and outline during the final two weeks of the semester. The aim of these presentations is to obtain from the group constructive criticism of your proposed term paper and suggestions for improving it, as well as learning from other students' experiences. Your research paper must incorporate at least four secondary sources from books, articles (including those available online, such as the library's online databases) and not more than one reliable site on the Internet (six sources for graduates), and be 10 pages long (13 for graduates) including a list of works cited, using MLA style.
Grade Point Computation
See the University Catalog: Regulations – Grades and Grading Procedures for definitions of grades A-F.
- Attendance, preparation and participation: 10%
- Reaction papers: 25%
- Oral presentation and paper or equivalent: 30%
- Outline for final research paper 5%
- Term research paper: 30%
Syllabus
- MODERNIST FICTION
- T 24 Jan Introduction: narrative fiction.
- Th 26 Jan Allocations of orals. Modernism.
- T 31 Jan Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness (in Norton Anthology).*
ORAL: Conrad, his views on colonialism, and his trip to the Belgian Congo.
- Th 2 Feb Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness (in Norton Anthology).
ORAL (graduate): Chinua Achebe’s critique of the novella’s racism in “An Image of Africa” (in Norton Anthology), and critical responses to it.
- T 7 Feb E.M. Forster: Where Angels Fear to Tread.
ORAL: Forster’s views on character and relationships (cf. “What I Believe” in Two Cheers for Democracy; “Notes on the English Character,” and “Liberty in England” in Abinger Harvest).
- Th 9 Feb E.M. Forster: Where Angels Fear to Tread.
ORAL (graduate): Queer theory and interpretations of the novel by queer theorists (cf. Queer Forster, Cambridge Companion to
E.M. Forster, and E.M. Forster’s Passion and Prose).
- T 14 Feb James Joyce: “The Dead.” (in Norton Anthology).*
ORAL: Comparison of the novella to the 1987 film of The Dead directed by John Huston (show extract).
- Th 16 Feb Joyce: “The Dead.” (in Norton Anthology).
ORAL: Joyce’s use of symbolism in “The Dead.” (especially the west, music, and the snow).
- T 21 Feb D.H. Lawrence: “Odour of Chrysanthemums” (in Norton Anthology).*
ORAL: The wider associations made with chrysanthemums in the story.
ORAL (graduate): Comparison of four versions of the story (see: http://odour.nottingham.ac.uk/)
- Th 23 Feb D.H. Lawrence: “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” (in Norton Anthology).*
ORAL: Lawrence’s new conception of character in this story, lacking earlier novelists’ “old stable ego of the character” (cf. “Why the Novel Matters” in Norton Anthology).
- T 28 Feb Virginia Woolf: To The Lighthouse.
ORAL: The concept of stream of consciousness and the way Woolf employs it in the novel (cf. “Modern Fiction” in Norton
Anthology).
- Th 1 Mar Virginia Woolf: To The Lighthouse.
ORAL: Symbolic uses of the lighthouse and the sea in the novel.
POSTMODERNIST FICTION
- T 6 Mar Postmodernism and literature.
ORAL (graduate): Fredric Jameson’s essay, “Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.”
- Th 8 Mar Salman Rushdie: “The Prophet’s Hair” (in Norton Anthology).
ORAL: Rushdie’s views on Islam, magic realism and the Arabian Nights (see selected essays on his Imaginary Homelands, and
selected interviews).
- T 11 Mar Angela Carter: “The Bloody Chamber” (in The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories)
ORAL: Comparison of Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber” with Charles Perrault’s “La Barbe Bleue” [translated as “Bluebeard” -
see: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17208/17208-8.txt] (1697).
- Th 13 Mar Angela Carter: "The Courtship of Mr Lyon" and "The Tiger's Bride" (in The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories)
ORAL: Compare Bruno Bettelheim's interpretations in The Uses of Enchantment of "Beauty and the Beast" with Carter's two
versions
- T 20 Mar Angela Carter: “The Company of Wolves”* (The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories).
ORAL (graduate): Carter’s feminist position in The Sadean Woman and “Notes from the Front Line” and her reinterpretations of
these fairy tales
ORAL: Comparison of the story with the 1984 film directed by Neil Jordan (show extract).
- Th 22 Mar How to research, structure and write an English research paper.
26-31 Mar SPRING RECESS
- T 3 Apr Martin Amis: Time’s Arrow.
ORAL: Amis’s use of an unreliable narrator in Time’s Arrow (cf. Robert Jay Lifton’s The Nazi Doctors).
- Th 5 Apr Martin Amis: Time’s Arrow.
ORAL: The uses to which Amis puts a reverse chronology.
ORAL: Amis’s views on language (cf. introduction and selected essays in The War Against Cliché).
- T 10 Apr Jeanette Winterson: Written on the Body.
ORAL: Lesbian-feminist interpretations of the novel.
- Th 12 Apr Jeanette Winterson: Written on the Body.
ORAL: The construction of an un-gendered subject.
- T 17 Apr Julian Barnes: A History of the World in 10½ Chapters (especially chap. 1 “Stowaway”; chap. 3 “The Wars of Religion”).
ORAL (graduate): Methodologies of history, including Hayden White’s Metahistory and Barthes’s “The Discourse of History.”
- Th 19 Apr Julian Barnes: A History of the World in 10½ Chapters (especially chap. 5 “Shipwreck”).
ORAL: The novel’s view of art as fabulation.
- T 24 Apr Julian Barnes: A History of the World in 10½ Chapters (especially “Parenthesis;” chap. 10 “The Dream”).
ORAL: The novel’s use of one major motif (woodworms and beetles, or arks, or the clean/unclean) to help give esthetic unity
to the work.
- Th 26 Apr V. S. Naipaul: “One Out of Many” (in Norton Anthology).
ORAL (graduate): Postcolonial theory and Naipaul’s In a Free State
ORAL: Migration and the story’s attitude to it cf. Naipaul’s The Writer and the World.
- Th 1 May Presentations of final paper outline in class.
- Th 3 May Presentations of final paper outline in my office.
- T 8 May Presentations of final paper outline in class.
- Th 10 May Presentations of final paper outline in my office.
- T 15 May 12:30-2:30: Submit final paper in LA1-302
Useful web sites:
Plagiarism
If you use the ideas or words of another writer as if they were your own without giving credit to the other writer you are guilty of plagiarism. Please consult the Schedule of Classes (“Cheating and Plagiarism”) for details of the University’s policy regarding plagiarism. If you are found to have plagiarized another writer’s words you will receive an F for the paper the first time and an F for the course on a repeat occasion.
Campus Technology Help Desk
The CSULB Technology Help Desk in the Horn Center Lobby is available for students. The Help Desk can assist you on a wide range of computer issues including: Operating Systems, CSULB Email Accounts, My CSULB, Beachboard, Remote Connection to CSULB, Microsoft Desktop Applications, Anti-Virus, Internet and Web related topics,. Contact the Help Desk by phone at 562-985-4505, email to helpdesk@csulb.edu or visit them on the web at helpdesk.csulb.edu.
Withdrawal Policy
Students who choose not to complete this course should withdraw officially as soon as possible and inform me. Withdrawals during the first two weeks do not appear on official records. Withdrawals between the third and twelfth weeks must be for “serious and compelling reasons” and require signed approval by me and the department chair. Withdrawals during the final three weeks of instruction are generally permitted only for accident or serious illness. They require signatures from me, the chair, and the Dean of the College, who may require withdrawal from all classes in which the student is enrolled.
Makeup and Attendance Policy
For a definition of “excused absences” see the University Catalog: Regulations – Class Attendance. Excused absences require you to inform me a week in advance of your absence. More than three unexcused absences will result in the lowering of your course grade by a grade point or more depending on the number of such absences. Students who miss exams or fail to meet deadlines for graded papers for what I consider a compelling reason (such as a religious holiday or jury duty) may make up that part of the grade. It is your responsibility to arrange with me an alternative if you miss the deadline for an assignment. If you submit an assignment late without a documented excuse a penalty for lateness will be imposed. A student who misses the final exam or fails to submit a final paper in lieu of a final exam without a documented excuse will probably receive an F or an Incomplete, depending on the circumstances and previous work.
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