Course syllabus
Course Description and Learning Goals:
English 101 is a wide-ranging study of literatures in English in different forms and media between the beginning of the 20th century and the present. Themes such as modernity/postmodernity, memory, war, and ecological crisis will be studied in the context of key historical events and cultural movements. We also examine and compare key elements of narrative (structure, style, perspective, theme, characterization, setting, etc. in prose; all of the above plus lighting, tracking, and so on in film). After beginning by looking at the kind of realist literature that flourished before WWI, we will move on to modernism’s reaction against realism, and then to postmodernism and contemporary hypertexts. Students will learn to read and interpret a range of literary works, develop written and oral arguments about literature, and familiarize themselves with some of the major cultural movements of the 20th century.
Required texts (listed by date of publication):
- Arnold Bennett, “His Worship the Goosedriver,” from Tales of the Five Towns (1905); link on Canvas; also available as audiobook
- James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916); bookshop
- Virginia Woolf, “Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown” (1923); on Canvas
- Virginia Woolf, To The Lighthouse (1927); bookshop
- Don DeLillo, White Noise (1985); bookshop
- Bill Manhire, “The Brain of Katherine Mansfield” (1988); link on Canvas
- Christopher Nolan (dir.), Memento (2000); to be screened for the whole class. Also on Short Loan at the A/V library.
You should have the texts with you for all lectures and tutorials—in hard copy for printed works. Don’t plan to read the books on your computer or phone, especially since you are not allowed to use these devices during lectures/tutorials.
Because we refer to the texts regularly in class and need to be able to find the same page, it’s very important that whenever possible you use the course edition of the text, available at the University Bookshop.
The three printed books required in English 101 have also been placed on Short Loan, though in different editions.
Assessment Information (see further details in “Assessments”)
- 5% first close reading—contract marking
- 5% peer review of first close reading
- 25% second close reading—instructor marking
- 10% participation in and contributions towards discussion
- 5% preparatory exercises for final exam
- 50% two-hour final exam
Schedule of Assigned Readings, Lectures and Major Assessments
Week 1
6 March Introduction
9 March Required reading: Arnold Bennett, “His Worship the Goosedriver,” from Tales of the Five Towns. Canvas. A free audio recording is at https://librivox.org/tales-of-the-five-towns-by-arnold-bennett/ (make sure to get the version read by Martin Clifton).
Week 2
13 March Bennett/realism
16 March Required reading: Virginia Woolf, “Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown,” Canvas
tutorials this week: Bennett and Woolf
Week 3
20 March Required reading: James Joyce, A Portrait Of the Artist As a Young Man: Chapters 1- 2
Recommended additional reading:
Schwarze, Tracey Teets: "Silencing Stephen: Colonial Pathologies in Victorian Dublin” (Canvas)
23 March Required reading: Portrait: Chapter 3
Recommended additional reading:
Mulrooney, Jonathan: "Stephen Dedalus and the Politics of Confession” (Canvas)
tutorials this week: Portrait
Week 4
Two hard copies of close reading due in tutorials; upload to TurnItIn first
27 March Required reading: Portrait, chapters 4-5
30 March Portrait
tutorials this week: Portrait
Week 5
Two hard copies of peer reviews due in tutorials; upload to TurnItIn first
3 April Required reading: Virginia Woolf, To The Lighthouse: Part I, “The Window”
6 April Required reading: To The Lighthouse: Part II, “Time Passes”
tutorials this week: TTL
Week 6
10 April Required reading: To The Lighthouse: Part III, “The Lighthouse”
Recommended additional reading:
Seshagiri, Urmila. “Orienting Virginia Woolf: Race, Aesthetics, and Politics in To The Lighthouse” (Canvas)
13 April To The Lighthouse, wrap-up
NO TUTORIALS THIS WEEK
SEMESTER BREAK
Week 7
1 May Introduction to postmodernism
Strongly recommended reading:
Baudrillard, Jean. From Simulacres et Simulation (Canvas)
Hart, Kevin. From Postmodernism: A Beginner’s Guide (Canvas)
4 May mid-semester evaluation exercise
tutorials this week: postmodernism
Week 8
8 May Required reading: Don DeLillo, White Noise: Part I, “Waves and Radiation”
Recommended additional reading:
Wilcox, Leonard. “Baudrillard, DeLillo’s White Noise, and the End of Heroic Narrative” (Canvas)
11 May Required reading: White Noise: Part II, “The Airborne Toxic Event”
Recommended additional reading:
Barrett, Laura. “‘How the Dead Speak to the Living’: Intertextuality and the Postmodern Sublime in White Noise” (Canvas)
tutorials this week: White Noise
Week 9
15 May Required reading: White Noise: Part III, “Dylar”
Recommended additional reading:
Wiese, Annjeanette. “Rethinking postmodern narrativity: narrative construction and identity formation in Don DeLillo’s White Noise” (Canvas)
18 May White Noise
tutorials this week: White Noise
Week 10
22 May Required reading: Bill Manhire, “The Brain of Katherine Mansfield.” At a minimum, you must keep reading until you have died at least once and survived at least once.
Recommended additional reading:
Schofield, Dennis. “Beyond The Brain of Katherine Mansfield: The Radical Potentials and Recuperations of Second-Person Narrative” (Canvas)
23 May close reading for instructor marking due to TurnItIn by 4 pm
25 May “The Brain of Katherine Mansfield”
tutorials this week: “Brain of Katherine Mansfield”
Week 11
Screen “Memento” independently before 29 May
29 May Required viewing: Christopher Nolan, “Memento”
Strongly recommended additional reading:
Sibielski, Rosalind: "Postmodern Narrative or Narrative of the Postmodern? History, Identity, and the Failure of Rationality as an Ordering Principle in Memento” (Canvas).
1 June “Memento”
tutorials this week: “Memento”
Week 12
On-line exam prep exercise to be completed before midnight 6 June
8 June exam review exercise and questions
ADDITIONAL TUTORIALS THIS WEEK: “Memento” and course review
Two-Hour Final Examination: date TBA
Course summary:
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