English literature: in-depth study of a literary movement [ LGERM2726 ]

Prerequisites : an introductory knowledge of English literature and a good proficiency in English (advanced level, B2 + in terms of the Common European reference framework).

This course will offer a survey of Commonwealth literatures through the analysis of several representative works from distinct geographical/cultural areas and historical periods. It will examine the works of major postcolonial authors such as Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul, Nadine Gordimer or Derek Walcott. This course also includes the showing and discussion of adaptations for film and/or television. All the texts are read and prepared at home by the students.

Students will be expected to show their ability to relate texts that illustrate one or more literary currents to the historical and literary contexts explored in the course. They will have to produce an analysis that demonstrates their familiarity with the issues raised by the course, and with the poetics through which those issues are expressed. The module is also indirectly meant to increase the students' lexical skills. Their analyses will therefore have to reflect a command of the English language that corresponds to their level (Masters), as well as a good grasp of the various cultural concepts discussed in the course.

Evaluation : Oral  exam. Students will prepare readings and questions prior to class time to facilitate discussion.

This course offers students an opportunity to analyze the dominant literary and artistic movements of the twentieth century and their aftermath: from modernist to postmodern and postcolonial fiction. It contextualizes the postmodern cultural phenomenon and explores how modernist texts have been reappropriated and rewritten by postmodern creative writers.  Characterized, among others, by intertextuality, metafiction, fragmentation, a blend of high and low culture and pluralism, Postmodernism remains a key literary movement. The class starts with an introduction to Modernism and Postmodernism illustrated by Morrison's graphic novel The Ant or the Grasshopper and a comparison between Virginia Woolf's Modernist novel Mrs Dalloway and Michael Cunningham's postmodern rewriting The Hours. It then focuses on postmodern shifting perspectives in Ian McEwan Atonement and history and the representation of trauma in Art Spiegelman's Maus (graphic novel). The last section of the class focuses on postcolonial elements that have reshaped postmodern fiction (Ondaatje's The English Patient) and raises the question of the future of postmodernism. What comes after the death of the author? Of the novel as a genre? Of postmodernism? Through an analysis of Graham Swift's Tomorrow, we will examine the postmortem remnants of (post)modernism and the contemporary 'return to story'.  This course also includes references to several cinematic productions.

Teaching material : Secondary literature linked to the topic of the course. Reading of the selected literary works and of critical studies.