DCCU – FFLL: 3rd year, Autumn Semester 2020-2021

Survey Course: 2 hours per week (+ 2-hour seminar every other week)

MODERNISM IN ENGLISH LITERATURE

MAIN TOPICS:
1. Periodization. Main characteristics, central themes and major figures of Modernism
in English literature (UK, USA); Adam’s Curse (1904) by W.B. Yeats, a poem
mirroring aesthetic features of Modernism.
Seminar 1 – Modernism: an intense revival of Romantic genres (poetry),
attitudes and ideals: intuition, imagination, mysticism, rebelliousness,
closeness to nature, love, freedom and the feeling of adventure – a huge
impact on the Spanish-speaking world and beyond, Rubén Darío’s credo (La
canción de los pinos – El canto errante, 1907): “Románticos somos…
¿Quién que Es, no es romántico?” (We are romantics... Who that is, isn't it
romantic?); T.S. Eliot’s philosophy in Silence (1910).
2. New directions for modern poetry in English: the manifestos of Thomas Ernest
Hulme: A Lecture on Modern Poetry (1908), T.S. Eliot: Reflections on Verse Libre
(1917) and Ezra Pound’s A Retrospect and A few don’ts (1918).
3. “Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.” – T.S. Eliot’s
philosophy in The Waste Land (1922).
Seminar 2 – Key transitional figures between literary realism and literary
modernism in English language: Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass (1855) – A
Glimpse and Song of Myself (sections: 1, 4, 6, 7, 15, 17, 22, 25, 27, 31, 32,
38, 40, 48, 51, 52) and Henry James: The Turn of the Screw (1898); literary
relationships between writers: A Pact (1916) by Ezra Pound.
4. The cultural shift from Romanticism to Modernism: T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock (1915).
5. Nothing Gold Can Stay (1923) – Robert Frost: “the joy of taking pains” and the art
of a poet away from Modernism: The road not taken (1916), Fire and Ice (1920),
Dust of snow (1920), Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (1923), Acquainted
with the night (1928), Devotion (1928), Fireflies in the garden (1928), Neither Out
Far Nor In Deep (1936), Design (1936), Provide, Provide (1937).
Seminar 3 – Poetic themes of Romantic inspiration: He Wishes for the
Cloths of Heaven (W.B. Yeats, 1899), Love is thicker than forget (E.E.
Cummings, 1939), Do not go gentle into that good night (Dylan Thomas,
1951), I carry your heart with me (E.E. Cummings, 1952).
6. Epiphany as a modernist literary device in the Joycean short story A Painful Case
(Dubliners, 1914).
 7. The Existentialist theme of losing faith and experiencing nothingness: A Clean,
Well-Lighted Place (Ernest Hemingway, 1927).
Seminar 4 – Tone, language and structure in: Piano (D.H. Lawrence, 1909),
The Wild Swans at Coole (W.B. Yeats, 1916-1917), Birches (Robert Frost,
1916), The Naming of Cats (T.S. Eliot, 1939).
8. Fiction about life in wartime London: war and its effects – The new dress (Virginia
Woolf, 1927) and The demon lover (Elisabeth Bowen, 1945).
9. The Avant-Garde, a hallmark of Modernism – Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot
(1948-49/first performed 1953): The Theatre of the Absurd. The philosophical
background to Waiting for Godot: the Existentialism, a dominant thinking of a
Modernist author.
Seminar 5 – “For almost the first time in his life he had nothing whatever to
do.” – trying to cling to something: richness versus meaning in life: F. Scott
Fitzgerald’s The rich boy (1926).
10. “My little company of the faded and frightened, the difficult and old and lonely” –
the typical protagonists in Tennessee Williams’ plays: A Streetcar Named Desire
(1947).
11. A classic of modern American literature: Harper Lee – To kill a mockingbird
(bildungsroman novel, 1960).
Seminar 6 – When human beings choose war – an allegorical story about
unsettled and conflictual natures: John Steinbeck’s The Great Roque War
(fragment from Sweet Thursday, 1954).
12. “Make it new!” and “Only emotion endures.” – Modernism in English Literature:
main ideas and representatives (final review).

BIBLIOGRAPHY – it is based on lecture notes to which the following texts are required:

➢ POETRY

Walt Whitman (1819-1892): Leaves of Grass: A Glimpse, Song of Myself

Ezra Pound (1885-1972): A Pact

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939): Adam’s Curse, The Wild Swans at Coole, He Wishes
for the Cloths of Heaven

Robert Frost (1874-1963): The Road Not Taken, Fire and Ice, Stopping by Woods on a
Snowy Evening, Birches, Provide, Provide, Dust of snow, Devotion, Neither Out Far Nor In
Deep, Acquainted with the night, Fireflies in the garden, Design, Nothing Gold Can Stay

David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930): Piano

Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965): The Waste Land, Silence, The Naming of Cats, The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

E.E. Cummings (1894-1962): Love is thicker than forget, I carry your heart with me

Dylan Thomas (1914-1953): Do not go gentle into that good night

➢ DRAMA

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989): Waiting for Godot

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983): A Streetcar Named Desire

➢ SHORT STORIES and NOVELS

James Joyce (1882-1941): A Painful Case (short story)

Elisabeth Bowen (1899-1973): The demon lover (short story)

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941): The new dress (short story)

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961): A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (short story)

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940): The rich boy (short story)

Henry James (1843-1916): The Turn of the Screw (novel)

John Steinbeck (1902-1968): The Great Roque War (from Sweet Thursday, novel)

Harper Lee (1926-2016): To kill a mockingbird (novel)

➢ ESSAYS

Thomas Ernest Hulme (1883-1917): A Lecture on Modern Poetry

Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965): Reflections on Verse Libre

Ezra Pound (1885-1972): A Retrospect and A few Don’ts

CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
BECK, Hamilton, 1999, An Anthology of American Literature and Culture, vol. II, pages 7-
210, Cartier
RATHBURN, Jack, COTRĂU, Liviu, 1983, Two approaches to literature, EDP, Bucharest
SANDERS, Andrew, 1994, The Short Oxford History of English Literature, chapter 9,
pages: 505-540, available online: http://elibrary.bsu.az/books_400/N_253.pdf
 SEMINAR ASSIGNMENTS
Of the topics that are proposed (students are invited to think of/suggest any other
topics corresponding to the characteristics of the present course) you will choose one to
consider and analyse. You will then share your findings and conclusions with the class so
we can explore common issues found in the writings of the Modernism Literature (poetry,
drama, short story and novel). In the light of your choice, your analysis should include:
❖ short biography of the author (relevant data and in connection with the chosen
topic to analyse)
❖ modernist themes/morals/lessons/principles
❖ literary analysis/contrastive analysis: narrative techniques, style and language
❖ why you have chosen certain text/topic
❖ references: quotes and critical points of view
The Presentation – you will be responsible for a 15 minutes presentation with the
focus on elements of Modernism in English Literature (poetry, drama, short story and
novel). You may also provide handouts for teacher and students with related information
for use during your presentation.
Considerations: No word lengths are given, but make sure that you integrate
sufficiently detailed information. Remember to prop up researched information with quotes.
Marking criteria:

MODERNIST
EVALUATION:

Assessment methods Points

1. ACTIVE participation during the courses and seminars 3
2. Presentation (of the topics regarding Literary Modernism) 2
3. Written exam 4
Granted point: 1