Credit Value:             12

Module Tutor:           Ms. Phub Lhamo

General Objectives

This course introduces students to some of the major writers of the 20^th century and places their literary achievement against the social, economic, and political background of their day.  A variety of literary forms will be explored (novel, poem, essay and play), and emphasis will be placed on modern concepts and techniques, such as stream of consciousness, objective correlative, absurd theatre, existentialism and nihilism.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module, students will be able to:

• comment critically on the impact of scientific inquiry, skepticism and the world wars on 20th century literature;

•  identify modern  literary techniques and movements as symbolism, imagism, and stream of consciousness;

• able and adept at offering informed comparisons of literary expression across the centuries;
• remark, inform and analyze on modern concepts and techniques and it will also superimpose a fresh layer of concerns, concepts and conflicts in the learners;
• comment on the concepts  like , absurd theatre, existentialism and nihilism;
• write an academic essay on the given topic relating the text with its context;
• evaluate a literary text on the basis of its intrinsic value using the 20^th Century critical concepts based on close reading of the text.

Subject Matter:

1.      Introduction to 20^th century literature: on the impact of scientific inquiry, skepticism and the world wars on 20th century literature;

2.      20^th century literary trends in literature- absurd theatre, existentialism and the stream of consciousness.

3.      The Symbolist movement and W.B. Yeats.

4.      The concept of blood consciousness and study of D.H. Lawrence.

5.      The British imperialism and exploitation of the natives and their culture: Study of Joseph Conrad’s the Heart of Darkness.

6.      Stream of consciousness, the concept of ‘la duree’:  James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

7.      Predicament of a modern individual, industrial setting : A study of T.S. Eliot’s  The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Teaching and Learning Approach

Lecture:           3hrs/wk

Tutorials:         1hr/wk (including discussions& presentations)

Assessment

1^st Assignment:           (800 - 1000 words)                 10%

2^nd Assignment:           (1500 - 2000 words)                20%

Oral Presentation:                                                       20%

Examination:                                                               50%

Total:                                                                           100 marks

Essential Reading

Auden, W.H.  ‘Consider’; ‘In memory of W.B. Yeats’; ‘1^st September 1913’ [Poems]

Conrad, J. (2002).Heart of Darkness.Delhi:Worldview Publications.

Eliot, T.S.(2010).The love song of J.Alfred Prufrock. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Joyce, J.(1994). A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. New York, NY: Dover Publications.

Osborne, J. (2004). Look back in anger. New Delhi: OUP

Yeats, W.B.‘The Second Coming’; ‘Sailing to Byzantium’; ‘Easter 1916’ [poems]

Suggested Reading:

Andor, G. (Ed).(1978). D.H .Lawrence: A critical study of the major novels. Bloom, Harold:Oxford University Press,OUP.

Headings, P. R. (1982). T.S.Eliot.  Boston: Twayne Publishers.

MacNeice, L. (1941). The poetry Of W.B. Yeats. New Delhi: OUP.

Watts, C. (1982).  A preface to Conrad. New York,NY: Longman Inc.

Wollman, M. (Ed.).(2004).Ten twentieth-century poets.  New Delhi: OUP.

Module developed by Ms.Phub Lhamo