Lahore University of Management Sciences
Mushtaq Ahmed Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences
(MGSHSS)
ENGL 2253 The Age of Literary Modernism: Early 20th- Century American
Fiction
Spring Semester (2016-2017)
Instructor
Dr. Saeed Ghazi
Room No.
Room No. 129, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Academic Block
Office Hours
Thursday and Friday 5:00 – 6:30 pm
Email
[email protected]
Telephone
8045
Secretary/TA 2115
TA Office
Hours
TBA
Course URL
(if any)
Course Basics
Credit Hours
4
1
Lecture(s)
Nbr of Lec(s)
Per Week
Recitation/Lab (per
week)
Nbr of Lec(s)
Per Week
Tutorial (per week)
Nbr of Lec(s)
Per Week
2
Duration 110 Minutes
--
-Duration
TBA
Duration TBA
Course Distribution
Core
No
Elective
For English majors, minors,
In Group distribution, Out Group distribution, Free Elective
Open for Student
Category
All
Closed for Student
Category
None
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This is a four Unit sophomore level survey course that scrutinizes the distinctive characteristics
of early 20th- Century American Fiction through an intensive investigation of the critically
acclaimed masterpieces of four of the principal canonical novelists of this period, F. Scott
Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and John Steinbeck. This period labeled by
critics as the “Age of Modernism” felt the full impact of (nineteenth century) developments in
biology and geology culminating in a collapse of the old certainties. The outbreak of the ‘Great
War’ deepened and intensified the growing disillusionment with the Enlightenment’s promise of
progress and human perfectibility. The Irish poet William Butler Yeats encapsulates the tumult
and turbulence of this period in the following lines (from “The Second Coming”) “the Centre
does not hold/Mere anarchy is loosed on the world”. Ezra Pound sought to give literary and
poetic expression to this altered sensibility by urging authors “to make it new”. This fertile,
diverse and heterogeneous period witnessed thematic innovations and daring formalist
experimentation in the Arts in general and the novel in particular. In this course we will closely
2
scrutinize the nature, scope, and limits of these experiments and achievements with respect to the
early 20th century American novel.
Prominent among the issues that will engage our attention are the following:
The emergence of Literary Modernism, the evolution of the stream of consciousness novel,
the impact of cinema and cinematic technique on the novel, the roaring twenties, interrogation of
the American dream, the Waste Land motif, the idea of the grotesque, Fitzgerald and
Romanticism, Hemingway and the representation of women, the characteristics of the
Hemingway Code hero, Faulkner and the American South, Steinbeck and the great depression.
COURSE PREREQUISITE(S)
None
COURSE OBJECTIVES
To provide students with an overview and a critical understanding of early 20th
Century American Fiction and the evolution of literary modernism. Students will
acquaint themselves with the distinctive characteristics of early 20th-Century
American Fiction and obtain an insight into the political, social, cultural, and
philosophical developments of this tumultuous period.
A)
B)
To acquaint students with the distinguishing characteristics of four major novelists
of this period.
Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete ENGL 2253 should
A)
B)
Manifest a heightened understanding and appreciation of the distinct characteristics
of Literary Modernism in general and of the works of Fitzgerald, Hemingway,
Faulkner, and Steinbeck in particular.
Emerge with a deeper understanding of the diverse contexts – social, cultural,
political, and historical within which and in response to which these novels
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emerged.
Grading Breakup and Policy
There will be 28 sessions of class each 110 minutes in length.
Students will write a brief response paper based on the assigned readings at the start of each new
text. They will take a Mid-term and a Final exam and write an 8-10 page critical essay/research
paper. The topics for the essays and the working thesis/theses will have to be approved by the
Instructor.
The critical essay/research paper, due on the last day of class should strictly adhere to the MLA
(Modern Language Association) format. A copy of the 8th edition of the MLA Handbook for
Writers of Research Papers (2016) is on reserve at the library.
The break up of the Instruments is as follows:
1. Mid Term
30%
2. Final Exam
35%
3. Critical Essay/Research Paper
25%
4. Response Papers/
Tests/ Class Presentations
10%
Examination Detail
Midterm
Exam
Final
Exam
Yes
Combine Separate: N/A
Duration: 110 Minutes
Exam Specifications: Closed Book/Closed Notes
Yes
Combine Separate: N/A
Duration: 180 Minutes
Exam Specifications: Closed Book/Closed Notes
4
5
COURSE OVERVIEW
Lecture
Author/ Topic
1.
Primary Text /s
Secondary Text /s
Introduction to the Course
Introduction to Literary Modernism
M. H. Abrams (1912-2015)
The Mirror and the Lamp
(1953), “Orientation of
Critical Theories”: 3-29.
2.
Malcolm Bradbury and
James McFarlane,
Modernism (1978), “The
Name and Nature of
Modernism”: 19-55.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
Peter Gay, Modernism
(2007), “A Climate for
Modernism”: 1-30.
3.
The Great Gatsby (1925)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
The Great Gatsby (1925)
4.
5.
6
Jonathan Culler, Literary
Theory (2005), “What is
Literature and Does it
Matter?”: 18-41.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
The Great Gatsby (1925)
Victor Shklovsky (18931984), “Art as Technique”:
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
The Great Gatsby (1925)
The Cambridge Companion
to F. Scott Fitzgerald
(2002), Rena Sanderson,
“Women in Fitzgerald’s
Fiction”: 143-
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
“Babylon Revisited”
(1931);
R. S. Crane, Ed. Critics and
Criticism: Essays in
Method. 1952,"The Concept
of Plot and the Plot of Tom
Jones." :
6.
7.
Tender is the Night (1934)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
Tender is the Night (1934)
8.
Terry Eagleton, Against the
Grain (1986), “Capitalism,
Modernism and
Postmodernism”: 131-147.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
9.
The Sun Also Rises (1926)
10.
The Sun Also Rises (1926)
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
7
Jürgen Habermas,,
"Modernity Versus
Postmodernity." New German
Critique 22. (Winter 1981), 314.
The Sun Also Rises (1926) ;
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
“The Short Happy Life of
Francis Macomber” (1936)
11.
12.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
A Farewell to Arms (1929)
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
A Farewell to Arms (1929)
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
The Old Man and the Sea
(1953)
13.
14.
15.
Mid Term Exam
8
Frank Kermode,
“Modernisms”;
“Modernisms Again”
The Cambridge Companion
to Ernest Hemingway,
(1996 ) Michael Reynolds,
“A Farewell to Arms:
Doctors
in the house of love”:
The Cambridge Companion
to Ernest Hemingway,
(1996 ), Bickford Sylvester,
“The Cuban context of The
Old Man and the Sea”: 243268.
William Faulkner (1897-1962)
Shiv K . Kumar and Keith
McKean, Critical
Approaches to Fiction
(2003), Lawrence Edward
Bowling, “What is the
Stream of Consciousness
Technique?”:331-347.
16.
The Sound and the Fury
(1929)
William Faulkner (1897-1962)
The Sound and the Fury
(1929)
William Faulkner (1897-1962)
The Sound and the Fury
(1929)
William Faulkner (1897-1962)
The Sound and the Fury
(1929)
William Faulkner (1897-1962)
“That Evening Sun” (1931);
17.
18.
19.
“Barn Burning” (1939)
20.
21.
William Faulkner (1897-1962)
As I Lay Dying (1930)
22.
9
The Cambridge Companion
to William Faulkner, (1995)
Richard C. Moreland,
“Faulkner and
Modernism”: 17-30.
23.
William Faulkner (1897-1962)
As I Lay Dying (1930)
William Faulkner (1897-1962)
As I Lay Dying (1930)
John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
24.
The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
25.
26.
27.
28.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
10
The Cambridge Companion
to William Faulkner, (1995)
Carolyn Porter,
“(Un)Making the
Father”:168-196.