GSC2403

The rise of the modern

Patrick Morgan

8 points
* 3 hours per week
* First semester
* Gippsland and distance
* Prerequisites: GSC1401 and GSC1402 or equivalents

Objectives On successful completion of this subject students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the literary differences and continuities throughout the period studied; identify and contextualise the particular ideological and cultural concerns of a range of modernist artists; demonstrate an ability to critically comment upon the effectiveness of experimental literary techniques; and show an understanding of the relevance of modernist modes in relation to post-modernism.

Synopsis A study of some of the main modernist works from the 1870s onwards. The texts come from three periods: the transitional period from 1870 to the First World War, the initial modernist wave of the inter-war years, and later modernist works of the postwar period. Poems from the three periods will be selected from the Leonard anthology.

Assessment Essay (3000 words): 40%
* Examination (3 hours): 60%

Prescribed texts

Drama
Brecht B Mother Courage and Her Children Methuen, 1980
Ibsen H Hedda Gabler and other plays Penguin, 1971
Ionesco E Rhinoceros and other plays Penguin, 1970
Prose
Bellow S The dean's December Penguin, 1983
Boll H The clown Boyars, 1988
Conrad J The heart of darkness Bantam, 1981
Dostoyevsky F Notes from the underground Vintage, 1995
Mann T Death in Venice Penguin, 1955
Woolf V To the lighthouse Penguin, 1964
Poetry
Leonard J (ed.) Seven centuries of poetry in English OUP, 1991