English 4155-01W: Twentieth Century British Literature

Dr. Maria Doyle
Spring 2008: MW 5:30-6:45 pm, Humanities 208

Office and Phone: TLC 2-248, 678-839-4853
Email: mdoyle@westga.edu
Office Hours: MW 10:00-12:00, 2:00-3:30 and by appt.
Website: http://www.westga.edu/~mdoyle

Course Description:
Early in the twentieth century, W.B. Yeats asserted in “The Second Coming” that “things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” By the century’s end, Tom Stoppard’s play Arcadia would posit: “We shed as we pick up, like travelers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind.” The movement from modernist disillusionment to postmodern fluidity will serve as a framework for our discussion of a century engrossed in the question of how things fall apart even as they move forward. Exploring anarchist bombers and evening parties, existential wastelands and postmodern fairy tales, this course will ask how the shifting currents of history – including the breakup of the British Empire, the politics of World Wars I and II and the rise of the British welfare state – have also fractured literary time, cultural meaning and the definition of Britishness itself. Classes will explore a variety of literary forms including short stories, plays, novels and poems from across the period.

A catalog description and learning outcomes for this course can be found online at http://www.westga.edu/~engdept/fr/CourseGuid/4155.html.

All handouts will be posted to the MyUWG course page, so be sure to check the site if you miss a class, since, "I wasn't in class the day we discussed X" will not be considered an acceptable excuse for not keeping up with material or for turning in work late. Students should also use their university email accounts to correspond with the professor.

As a "Writing Across the Curriculum" course, this class will engage students in a variety of formal and informal writing activities, those designed primarily to help students generate ideas (Writing to Learn [WTL]) and those designed to give students an opportunity for the formal presentation of those ideas (Writing to Communicate [WTC]). Students must have completed 6 hours of WAC credit to graduate. For more information on WAC goals and outcomes, see http://www.westga.edu/~wac/wacpolicy_rev10-04.htm

Required Texts:

Samuel Beckett, Endgame (Grove)

Angela Carter, Wise Children (Penguin)

Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent (Signet)

Thomas Hardy, Hardy's Selected Poems (Dover)

Seamus Heaney, North (Faber)

James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Penguin)

George Orwell, Animal Farm (Signet)

Salman Rushdie, East, West (Vintage International)

Bernard Shaw, Heartbreak House (Penguin Classics)

Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (Harcourt)

W.B. Yeats, ‘Easter 1916’ and Other Poems (Dover)

Requirements:
Short Paper (WTL - 10%): Guidelines for this short (4-6 page) thesis-driven essay will be handed out in class. Students will be given the option of revising the finished paper; revisions will be due one week after essays are returned and the final grade for the project for those wishing to revise will be the average of the two grades.

Research Project (WTL - 5% proposal, WTC – 30% research paper and 5% annotated bibliography): Each student will develop an eight-ten page research project based on the course material. Students will put together a two page project proposal (due after spring break) and participate in a research workshop before final papers are due. The research project is your opportunity to find your own niche within the course material by identifying a text (or pair of texts) and a central question that you wish to explore. Complete instructions covering the various stages of the project will be distributed in class shortly after midterm. Due dates for the various stages of the project are included in the schedule of readings.

Exams (WTL – 40% [Midterm 15%/Final 25%]): Exams will ask students to identify and discuss passages, define terms, discuss significant events/stages in 20^th century British literary development and analyze specific themes and ideas as they appear in the literary works on the syllabus. Students should also be able to discuss the historical and theoretical contexts covered in class. Exams will include short response and essay sections. No makeup exams will be scheduled, and students who arrive late to exams will not be given extra time.

Participation (10%): Class participation – your preparation for class meetings and your willingness to contribute to our discussions – is an important component of your grade.  Consistent, punctual attendance is the minimum expected of all students, and after four absences, you will lose half a letter grade in this category for each additional class missed. You do not need to explain your absences to me – I understand that sometimes illness, childcare issues, uncooperative automobiles or unforeseen emergencies prevent you from coming to class – but use those allowed days for real emergencies, as I will not differentiate between “excused” and  “unexcused” absences. Doing well in class participation means more than just coming to class.  Students are further expected to have read the material carefully before class meetings, to listen attentively both to the instructor and to the comments other students make during discussions, to ask questions and offer ideas about the material and to respond thoughtfully to ideas presented both by the instructor and the other students.

I do not give 'makeup' assignments, and unless an exceptional opportunity arises that is directly related to the course material, I do not offer 'extra credit' opportunities: you will all be assessed by the same methods on the same assignments. If you find that you are having trouble with the course material, adjust your study schedule, come to my office hours or make an appointment at the Writing Center to get help with your writing. 

Special Needs: If you have a registered disability that will require accommodation, please see me at the beginning of the semester; I will be happy to discuss your situation. If you have a disability that you have not yet registered through the Disabled Student Services Office, please contact Dr. Ann Phillips in Student Development (678-839-6428).

All students should print out and sign the course policy sheet (click here). This sheet contains information about deadlines, the course late policy, paper format and a statement regarding academic honesty. Signed sheets are due by Jan. 16.

Schedule of Readings:

Students are expected to have read the material listed below by the date for which it appears on the syllabus. Any change to this schedule will be announced in class and posted to the course website.

Unit I: The Development of Modernism

W   1/9       Introduction: The Legacy of the Victorians

M   1/14     Thomas Hardy, Selected Poems

W   1/16     Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent (Ch. 1-8)

Course policy sheets due

M   1/21     MLK Day: No classes

W   1/23     The Secret Agent (Ch. 9-13)

M   1/28     W.B. Yeats, ‘Easter 1916’ and Other Poems

W   1/30     ‘Easter 1916’ and Other Poems

M   2/4       Workshop

W   2/6       James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Ch. 1-2)

M   2/11     A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Ch. 3-4)

                  Short essay due

W   2/13     A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Ch. 5)

M   2/18     Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (pp. 3-147)

W   2/20     Mrs. Dalloway (pp. 147-end)

M   2/25     Midterm

W   2/27     G.B. Shaw, Heartbreak House (Act 1-2)

M   3/3       Heartbreak House (Act 3)

Last day to withdraw with a 'W'

Unit II: Trends After Modernism

W   3/5       George Orwell, Animal Farm

M   3/10     Animal Farm

W   3/12     Harold Pinter, The Dumbwaiter

M   3/17     Spring Recess: No classes 

W   3/19     Spring Recess: No classes

M   3/24     Samuel Beckett, Endgame

T    3/25     Project proposals and preliminary bibliography due online by noon

W   3/26     Endgame

M   3/31     Seamus Heaney, North (Part 1)

W   4/2       North (Part 2)

M   4/7       Research Writing Workshop

W   4/9       Salman Rushdie, East, West

                  (Pts. 1-2)

M   4/14     East, West (Pt. 3)

W   4/16     No class meeting: work on research projects

M   4/21     Angela Carter, Wise Children

                  (Ch. 1-2)

                  Research paper and annotated bibliography due

W   4/23     Wise Children (Ch. 3-end)

M   4/28     Finish discussion of Carter

W   4/30     Review session

Final Exam: Monday, May 5 (5:30-7:30)