The History of English Literature II

Teacher(s)

Bragard Véronique;

Language

English

Prerequisites

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

Main themes

This course offers a chronological and critical survey of English literature from the 18th to the 21st century. It examines and illustrates the main literary movements and genres of this period and places them in their socio-cultural contexts.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	At the end of the course, students should be able to show insight into the distinctive features of major literary movements and genres. They should be able to situate them in their socio-cultural and historical contexts. Students will become familiar with important literary figures and canonical works of the historical period that is studied. They will be expected to know how to read and interpret some key texts.

Content

This course offers students an opportunity to analyze the dominant literary and artistic productions and movements of the 19th & 20th century and their aftermath: from Victorian to modern, from modern to post- postmodern, post-9/11 and postcolonial fiction. This class contextualizes Victorian times, modernity and the postmodern cultural phenomenon (Lyotard, Jameson). It starts with an introduction to Victorian times and literature and an in-depth analysis of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847). It then moves to modernism and postmodernism illustrated by a comparison between Virginia Woolf's modernist novel Mrs Dalloway (1925) and Michael Cunningham's postmodern rewriting The Hours (1998). The third section of this module focuses on trauma in Art Spiegelman's Maus (graphic novel) and raises the question of the future of literature after the traumatic events of 9/11 via an analysis of Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005). It engages with trauma studies and criticism, perpetrator elements and the role of empathy in the reading act. The last section of the class examines postcolonial literatures via an analysis of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea (excerpts), the famous prequel to Jane Eyre. This course also includes references to several cinematic productions.

Teaching methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

Lectures; PowerPoint presentations, films, required reading, course notes.
Students prepare readings and questions prior to class time to facilitate discussion. They attend workshops (15 hours) to discuss the novels covered in class as well as their personal assignments (2).

Evaluation methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

Oral exam (with one written question) based on the lectures and the required readings. To take the exam, students will have submitted and corrected 2 assignments and one video (shown in class).

Bibliography

Portofolio de lectures (syllabus disponible à la DUC); 3 romans (DUC)

Teaching materials

• syllabus disponible à la DUC

Faculty or entity

ELAL