Marianne DeKoven
Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Literature
A 200-level course
Syllabus
This course aims to introduce students to the great literature of the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries. We will read fiction, poetry, and drama that addresses some
of the most important literary, social, and philosophical issues of this period: How
can literary form and content represent the fragmented nature of modern society –
together with its global reach? How can literary form and content illustrate the
relation of the individual to society, the question of the unconscious, the dynamic
and rapid change of social and political structures during this period, and the power
of literature itself to transform our lives and our world?
Students will study selected aspects of the history and culture in the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries: the legacy of British colonialism, especially in Africa, the two
World Wars, and the giddy time between the Wars (“the Jazz Age,” it was called in
the USA), shifting relations among European world powers and their relation to
Anglo-American cultures, the development of world Anglophone literature, the
modern city (London and New York), the haunting presence of American slavery,
the catastrophe on 9/11/2001. Throughout the course, we will discuss forms of
psychological and sociological alienation, social standardization, the development of
psychoanalysis, and the changing shape of the family. Eliot, Beckett, and Ishiguro
will be used to sketch a trajectory from modern to postmodern angst. Heart of
Darkness and Falling Man create a frame that will allow us all to see, if not
“progress,” then certainly historical change. Beloved and Never Let Me Go will allow
us to discuss the haunting presence of the past in the present – on both the
psychological and the sociological levels. All the while, we will pay attention to the
way literary form creates a model of the world, and an interpretation of it.
Students will learn to recognize major trends in the content and form of modern and
postmodern literature in English. Strategies of close analysis will be mastered
through specific reading and writing exercises. Students will learn and practice
several different argumentative methods for relating representations of individual
lives to their cultural and historical contexts. Both the notion of literary history and
the grounds for questioning its usual assumptions will provide a running thread of
discussion and critique. In the foreground, always, the class will focus on the
analysis of literary technique.
The course will satisfy Learning Goal p for the SAS Core Curriculum
Course work will consist of two short papers, an in-class writing assignment, and a
final exam. Detailed instructions will be provided for the papers. The in-class
writing assignment will involve writing two essays for which there will also be
detailed instructions. The final exam will consist of identifications and two general
essays.
Required Texts
Please buy the editions I have ordered for you at the Rutgers University Book Store:
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
T. S. Eliot, Selected Poems
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
Toni Morrison, Beloved
Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
Don DeLillo, Falling Man
Schedule of Classes
Part ONE: Modernism
1. Introduction to the course
2. Conrad, Heart of Darkness
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5. T. S. Eliot, “Portrait of a Lady,” “Preludes,” “Rhapsody on a Windy Night”
6. T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” “The Hollow Men.” Begin
Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway.
Short Paper Due on Conrad and Eliot
7. Mrs. Dalloway
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9.
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10. Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
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13. In-Class Writing on Mrs. Dalloway and The Great Gatsby
Part TWO: Postmodernism
14. Beckett, Waiting For Godot
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17. Morrison, Beloved
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21. Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
Short Paper Due on Beckett and Morrison
22. Never Let me Go
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24. DeLillo, Falling Man
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27. Review Class