EUROULIKOOL
TÕLKETEADUSKOND
INGLISE 20. SAJ. KIRJANDUS
Twentieth-Century British Literature
Oppeaine kood Euroülikooli registris T3B 1081
Oppekava kood HM registris: bakalaureuseõpe – tõlkija/tõlk, filoloog 554
Dotsent: Liidia Tsehanovskaja
Õppeaasta 2008/2009
Õppeaine programmi koostas:
Liidia Tsehanovskaja
Kinnitatud teaduskonda nõukogu otsusega
Teaduskonna koordinaator
Course description.
This compulsory course is designed for students majoring in Translation and
Interpretation.
Aims: to help students develop an understanding of the cultural, social and historical
contexts of literary works and a capacity to critically analyse and interpret literary texts.
The course presents a history of British literature from the outbreak of World War I to the
end of the millennium. It traces the development of characteristic British ideas and
attitudes and their manifestation in the works of major British writers.
The organization of the material is chronological to provide a view of the national culture
in historical perspective. In its coverage of British literature the course includes the major
forms with the emphasis on the novel as the most comprehensive genre expressing the
complexity of human experience. Throughout the course priority is given to presenting
patterns rather than particulars – to tracing and illustrating the main outlines of the
novel’s development rather than assessing all the authors who may have contributed to
them. These patterns and outlines are generally shown as shaped by two factors: literary
history and history itself.
Course structure. The course duration comprises 10 double periods (20 academic
hours), the scope of credit points totaling 1.5 (2.25 ECTS). The course is scheduled for
one semester, which ends in an examination. Student independent work comprises 70 %,
involving obligatory reading of assigned literary texts.
Methodology. The material is delivered in the form of lectures. From the start, students
are supplied with a photocopied detailed syllabus and end-of-term examination questions.
The language of instruction is English.
Study materials. Several textbooks, anthologies, literary works assigned for obligatory
reading.
SEMESTER I (20 CLASSES, OR 10 WEEKS)
1. BRITISH LITERATURE BETWEEN THE WARS
World War I and its impact on world history, human consciousness and artistic
expression. Loss of faith in the values of the Western civilization as manifested in the
literature of the lost generation. Richard Aldington (1892-1962) and his jazz novel
Death of a Hero tracing the causes and the ways, which have brought the representatives
of the lost generation to disappointment and despair. The combination of realism and
modernism in Aldington’s artistic method.
The Twenties. Modernism. The new conception of the human self. Sigmund Freud and
his study of the unconscious. Carl Jung and his theory of archetypes. New techniques to
reflect the complex processes taking place in the human psyche.
Literature:
1) Tsekhanovskaya, Lydia. 1999. British Literature. Volume II. – Tallinn: ReMall
Ltd., Pp. 7-15.
2) Blamires, Harry. Twentieth-Century English Literature. 1986. London:
Macmillan. Pp. 89-97.
2. JAMES JOYCE (1882-1941)
James Joyce as a major figure of modernism. The role of Catholicism and the Irish
Literary Revival in the formation of the writer. The new features of realism in the
collection of stories Dubliners. The innovation in the genre of Bildungsroman in the
novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Myth in Ulysses as a structural principle
and as a means of social and ethical criticism. The use of the stream–of-consciousness
technique in the presentation of the characters. Violation of all the literary conventions of
the time.
Literature:
1) Tsekhanovskaya, Lydia. 1999. British Literature. Volume II. – Tallinn:
ReMall Ltd., Pp. 15-25.
2) Blamires, Harry. Twentieth-Century English Literature. 1986. London:
Macmillan, Pp. 103-108.
3) Joyce, James. Dubliners (1 story).
4) Joyce, James. Ulysses (an extract).
5) Grant, M. & Hazel, J. Who’s Who in Classical Mythology. 1979. – New
York: David McKay & C0. Inc.
3 DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE (1885-1930)
Criticism of modern civilization. An exploration of sex psychology as it manifests itself
in every human relationship. A study of Oedipus complex in the novel Sons and Lovers.
Search of harmony in the relations between men and women in Women in Love, Sex as
the primary force shaping human existence in Lady Chatterley’s Lover. New techniques
to express the unconscious modes of being in fiction.
Literature:
1) Tsekhanovskaya, Lydia. British Literature. Volume II. 1999. – Tallinn:
ReMall Ltd. Pp. 25-31.
2) Blamires, Harry. Twentieth-Century English Literature. 1986. – London:
Macmillan. Pp. 108-111.
3) Lawrence, D. H. Sons and Lovers.
4 T. S. ELIOT (1888-19650
T. S. Eliot as the most influential poet of the twentieth century. The main characteristics
of his ‘unpoetic’ poetry: an appeal to intellect; a vast number of allusions to contrast the
spiritual and intellectual poverty of the present with the richness of the past; objective
correlative to express a particular emotion; violent irregularities of rhythm to dramatize
the world no longer felt to be regular; use of collage; the shifts of tone, the sharp
contrasts, the idiom of conversation. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock as an example
of Eliot’s technique of combining traditional with novel meanings. The use of the
medieval legend of the Fisher King in The Waste Land as a structural principle. The
characters as embodiments of the degradation and despair of the modern world. T. S.
Eliot, the playwright. Use of myth in The Family Reunion to suggest that no man can
escape his fate. Use of choric effects.
Literature:
1) Tsekhanovskaya, Lydia. British Literature. Volume II. 1999. – Tallinn: Re
Mall Ltd. Pp. 38-46.
2) Dodsworth, Martin. The Twentieth Century. 1994. – Harmondsworth:
Penguin Books Ltd. Pp. 195-205.
3) Grant, M. & Hazel, J. Who’s Who in Classical Mythology. 1979. - New York:
McKay & Co. Inc.
4) Eliot, T. S. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
5 BRITISH LITERATURE IN 1930-1945
The Thirties. The collapse of the New York Stock Exchange. Economic depression. Mass
unemployment. Hunger marches. The rise of fascism in Germany and Italy. The
popularity of the Communist Party. A new type of writer – a political activist who
believes in collective action. A combination of modernism and social realism in the
writings of the ‘Auden generation’ of novelists.
Graham Greene. The topicality of his writings. Greeneland as a tragic vision of
twentieth-century life. Seediness, cruelty, violence. Lack of communication. The
characters – social and marital failures. The widely dispersed nature of the fictional
background. The cinematic style. Detective elements. The conflict between the
conventional believers, who unquestionably accept the Christian dogma and those who
deny God in the ‘Catholic novels’: The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter, A
Burnt-Out Case. The horrors of colonialism, the right of every nation to choose its own
fate in The Quiet American.
Literature:
1) Tsekhanovskaya, Lydia. British Literature. Volume II. 1999. – Tallinn:
ReMall Ltd. Pp. 48-53.
2) Stevenson, Randall. The Twentieth Century Novel in Britain. 1993. – London:
Simon and Schuster International Group. Pp. 55-73.
3) Greene, Graham. The Quiet American.
6 CHARLES PERCY SNOW (1905-1980)
The world of science, the world of literature, and the world of government and
administration in the sequence of novels Strangers and Brothers. The two aims of
the series: to give ‘some insights into society,’ by relating the stories of several
individuals over a period of time (1920 to 1950); and to follow the moral growth
of Lewis Eliot, the narrator of these stories. The efforts of the academic and
technical intelligentsia, lawyers and administrators to make reason, justice and
progress win in human affairs. Snow’s intellectual hero’s search for an answer to
the eternal question of the meaning of existence. A conflict between personal
ambition and social conscience. The characteristics of Snow’s writings: short
dynamic chapters , each marking a stage in the development of some issue or
affair; the style of an honest recorder, rather than an artist; failure in creating any
mood or atmosphere.
Literature:
1) Tsekhanovskaya, Lydia. British Literature. Volume II. 1999. – Tallinn:
ReMall Ltd. Pp. 53-59.
2) Blamires, Harry. Twentieth-Century English Literature. 1986. – London:
Macmillan. Pp. 195-196.
7 BRITISH LITERATURE IN 1945-1960
The impact of World War II on world history, human consciousness, and artistic
expression. The Cold War. Britain’s loss of its former colonies. The efforts of a Labour
government to build the Welfare State.
The Angry Young Men. Their opposition to the Establishment; their scorn of middle
class values; their ‘ineffectual, incoherent and unfocused rebelliousness’ (J. B. Priestley).
The typical hero – a provincial university graduate of lower-middle class origin, whose
education is of no value for practical purposes. Anti-modernist aesthetic of angry writers’
novels. A skeptical, humorous, colloquial narrating tone.
John Wain (1925-1994). Hurry On Down as a classical example of the literary
production of the ‘Angries’. The protagonist’s disgust with competition, the desire to
excel, the slavish and unthinking adherence to commercial and middle-class values. The
failure of an attempt to stand aside from society and yet to find a niche in it, provided it is
one that carries no responsibility of ‘commitment.’ Wain’s ‘Englishness’ – good sense,
moderation, a feeling for language, erudition and wit.
Kingsley Amis (1922-1995). The hero of Lucky Jim as the archetypal angry young man
of fiction. The aggressive barbarism as a manifestation of a total condemnation of the
genteel high culture. The desire to have the privileges of the old ruling class without its
responsibilities. The conventional happy end exemplifying the ‘angry’ novelsts’
reconciliation with society. Amis’s skill at presenting the funny side of ordinary
experience.
The Working-Class Novel. The lot of the workers in the specific political and economic
conditions of postwar Britain. John Braine (1922-1986). Room at the Top exemplifying
novels which feature protagonists of working-class origin, who are determined, by fair
means or foul, to work their way to the top. Alan Sillitoe (1928 - ). Saturday Night and
Sunday Morning as a typical novel in which protagonists of working-class origin show no
interest in the matter of rising to the upper classes, for they do not see in established
values anything to aspire to.
Literature:
1) Tsekhanovskaya, Lydia. British Literature. Volume II. 1999. Tallinn: ReMall
Ltd. Pp. 62-71.
2) Allsop, Kenneth. The Angry Decade. 1964. London: Peter Owen Limited. Pp.
51-76.
3) Amis, Kingsley. Lucky Jim.
4) Braine, John. Room at the Top.
8 THE PHILOSOPHICAL NOVEL
The influence of existentialism on British writing. The emergence of the philosophical
novel as a synthetic genre, which fuses an artistic, image-based interpretation of reality
with a scientific, logical model of the world. The philosophical conception as the guiding
principle determining the plot, the system of images, the thoughts and actions of the
characters. The parable as the typical form of the philosophical novel.
Iris Murdoch (1919-1999). Ethics as one of the writer’s most important problems, which
makes itself felt in her fictional characters – scholars, writers, teachers, artists – who
often find themselves in situations involving a difficult moral choice. Love as a ‘central
concept in morals.’ Under the Net as an existentialist novel and a debate with Sartre.
Existence as chaos. Total loneliness of the individual in the ill-arranged world. ‘Free
choice.’ The renunciation of the subjective as a key to overcoming the tragic alienation of
characters from each other. A Severed Head as a consideration of the value of
psychoanalysis. A debate with Freud.
William Golding (1911-1993). Imperfections of human nature as the main theme.
Attempts to make people realize that. Lord of the Flies as a tragic anti-Robinson Crusoe
tale of the twentieth century, a study of the origin of man’s violence against man.
Golding’s thesis that the form of society created by man in his ‘natural condition’ is
determined by his imperfect nature. The existentialist theme of the freedom of choice in
the novel Free Fall. Golding’s advocacy of Christian morality and selfless love for
others.
Literature:
1) Tsekhanovskaya, Lydia. British Literature. Volume II. 1999. – Tallinn:
ReMall Ltd. Pp. 71-85.
2) Stevenson, Randall. Twentieth-Century Novel in Britain. 1993. London:
Simon and Schuster International Group. Pp. 98-102.
3) Golding, William. Lord of the Flies.
9 BRITISH LITERATURE IN 1960 – 2000
The Sixties ‘revolution of consciousness.’ Postmodernism as a postindustrial
phase. Computerization. Consumerism. All-embracing relativism. Indeterminacy.
Crossing all the borders. Postmodernity as an attempt to survive.
Postmodernism as the moment within contemporary literature and criticism
questioning the traditional claims of literature and art to truth and human value. A
continuation, carried to an extreme, of the counter-traditional experiments of
modernism and an attempt to break away from modernist forms, which had
become in their turn conventional. Fragmentation. Eclecticism. Intertextuality. No
distinction between life and art. No barrier between author and reader. Art as a
self-reflecting game. Parody as the main genre.
Historiographic Metafiction. History as a human construct. John Fowles’ novel
The French Lieutenant Woman (1969) as a typical example. The illusion of
reading a Victorian novel is created by an abundance of period detail; the subject
matter, typical of the literature of the Victorians; the chapter epigraphs from the
poetry of Tennyson, Arnold, and Clough to remind the reader that the hero
undergoes the spiritual crisis characteristic of the protagonists of Victorian novels;
the presentational methods of Victorian fiction; the quotations from the key
figures of the age; an imitation of Victorian style. Fowles’ criticism of the
Victorian novel is seen in the novelist’s claim that he cannot control his
characters, which finds expression in his freeing them from the trap of his plot
and suggesting several possibilities the story can go. The writer’s main concern to
observe man in his constant attempt to assert his own uniqueness, which often
calls for the rejection of traditional codes of morality and behaviour as seen in the
story of the protagonists.
Literature:
1) Tsekhanovskaya, Lydia. British Literature. Volume II. 1999. – Tallinn:
ReMall Ltd. Pp. 90-97; 113-120.
2) Lee, Alison. Realism and Power. Postmodern British Fiction. 1990. –
London: Routledge. Pp. 1-29.
3) Stevenson, Randall. Twentieth-Century Novel in Britain. 1993.
London: Simon and Schuster International Group. Pp. 113-118.
4) Fowles, John. The French Lieutenant’s Woman.
10 THE FEMINIST NOVEL
Women’s Liberation Movement to achieve the same rights and opportunities (legal,
political, social, economic etc.) with men. Feminism. Criticism of patriarchal ideology.
Sex and gender. Images of women in novels and poems created by men. Gynocriticism.
A ‘woman’s language’.
Margaret Drabble (1939 - ). The rebellion of Drabble’s intelligent, well-educated
middle-class young heroines against their milieu and their inability to adjust to the norms
of ‘permissive society. ‘ An analysis of the institution of marriage in modern middle-class
society and the role given in marriage to women in A Summer Bird-Cage. Pregnancy,
childbirth, and young motherhood as the heroine’s ‘initiation into reality’ in Millstone.
Angela Carter (1940-1992). Criticism of male myths concerning the nature of women
and their position in society. A study of Marquis de Sade’s evaluation of woman’s nature
in The Sadeian Woman. The Passion of New Eve. The genre of allegory. Gender as a
cultural construct. Violation of traditional distinctions between what is serious or trivial,
horrible or ridiculous, tragic or comic.
Literature:
1) Tskhanovskaya, Lydia. British Literature. Volume Ii. 1999. Tallinn: ReMall
Ltd. Pp. 127-131; 144-147; 152-155.
2) Massie, Allan. The Novel Today. 1990. London: Longman. Pp. 18-22.
EXAMINATION QUESTIONS
1 The Twenties in British literature. Richard Aldington and the lost generation.
2 Modernism. The use of myth and the stream of consciousness in James Joyce’s Ulysses.
3 An exploration of sex psychology in D. H. Lawrence’s novels.
4. The ‘unpoetic’ poetry of T. S. Eliot.
5 The Thirties in British literature. Graham Greene’s Greeneland.
6 The topicality of C. P. Snow.
7 Post-Second World War British literature. The Angry Young Men.
8 The Working-Class Novel.
9 The philosophical novel of Iris Murdoch.
10 The imperfections of human nature in William Golding’s works.
11 The Sixties ‘revolution of consciousness.’ Postmodernism.
12 John Fowles and historiographic metafiction.
13 Margaret Drabble and the feminist novel.
14 Angela Carter and the feminist novel.
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