The age of Johnson
Not offered in 1995
ENH4760
Visions and revisions: reworkings
A Dilnot
12 Points * 2 hours per week * First semester * Clayton
This subject will examine some ways in which imaginative experience may be reworked. Reworkings include authorial self-revision, rejoinders, amplification, reinterpretation, indirect allusion and subversion. Factors in reworking, such as authorial bias, the spirit of the age, and movement from one genre to another will also be considered, and the element of reworking in translation. Postmodern and postcolonial factors in reworkings will receive particular attention. Half the texts are from the twentieth century, enabling students to view this period's literature as built upon earlier work, and to consider how contemporary sensibilities affect interpretation.
Assessment
Two seminar papers (1300 words): 15% each * Essay (2500 words): 30% * Essay (3500 words): 40%
Prescribed texts
Bond E `Lear' Plays two Methuen
Brontë C Jane Eyre OUP
Byatt A S Possession Vintage
Dickens C Great expectations Penguin
Fowles J The Magus Picador
Fowles J The French lieutenant's woman Picador
Gaskell E North and South Penguin
Harrison T Theatre works, 1973-1985 Penguin
Lodge D Nice work Penguin
Rhys J The wide Sargasso Sea Penguin
Shakespeare W Hamlet Signet
Shakespeare W Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 Signet
Shakespeare W King Lear Signet
Shakespeare W The Merry Wives of Windsor Signet
Shakespeare W The Tempest Signet
Stoppard T Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Faber
Walcott D Omeros Faber