Literature of C (English) Language Area - level 2 3200-L2-0LCA2
The aim of the class is to outline the history of English literature from the Enlightenment period to the 20th century English literature, with a focus on the history, social conditions and art of these periods; to present a discussion of the output of leading writers; to analyse and interpret selected literary works as evidence of cultural development and the worldview current in the periods in question.
I. THE ENLIGHTENMENT
CULTURAL CONTEXT: Augustan culture; neo-Classic style; the impact of middle class on the development of new literary genres
LITERARY PHENOMENA: Augustan poetry; 18th-century verse satire; prose satire; periodical essay – the first journalists; the rise of the novel: epistolary novel, memoir-novel, picaresque novel, the novel of manners; the Graveyard School and the Gothic novel
DISCUSSED TEXTS: Alexander Pope: “The Rape of the Lock; Jonathan Swift: “Modest Proposal”, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele (excerpts from essays); Excerpts from of novels by: Lawrence Sterne, Samuel Richardson, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Jane Austen; Horace Walpole
II. THE ROMANTICISM
CULTURAL CONTEXT: French Revolution; development of Romantic aesthetics in opposition to Enlightenment aesthetics; Romantic individualism
LITERARY PHENOMENA: Primitivism and Pre-Romanticism; falsification and imitation of antique literary genres; the first generation of English Romantics; nature and folk culture in Romantic poetry; supernatural elements in Romantic poetry; the Byronic hero
DISCUSSED TEXTS: selected poems by William Blake, Robert Burns; Percy Bysshe Shelley; Lake Poets: selected works by William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge; John Keats; Lord Byron (excerpts)
III. VICTORIAN PERIOD
CULTURAL CONTEXT: Industrial Revolution; the reign of Queen Victoria; Gothic revival and the development of other revivalist styles; women in the Victorian period; Imperialism; colonialism; growing social divisions; emancipation movements
LITERARY PHENOMENA: historical novel; colonialism and imperialism in literature; Victorian novel; Victorian poetry; pre-raphaelite movement; Victorian comedy; detective novel
DISCUSSED AUTHORS AND TEXTS: Walter Scott: “Ivanhoe” (excerpt); Alfred, Lord Tennyson (selected poems); Elizabeth Barret Browning (selected poems); Christina Rossetti; Dante Gabriel Rossetti (selected poems); Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll (fragments); John Ruskin (selected works); Charles Dickens (selected fragments), Emily Bronte “Wuthering Heights” (fragments); Oscar Wilde „The Importance of Being Earnest” (fragments);
IV. 19th CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE
CULTURAL CONTEXT: slavery and abolitionist movement; transcendentalism;
LITERARY PHENOMENA: transcendentalism in literature; American novel; Dark Romanticism; Gothic fiction; horror novel; American poetry; realism and naturalism in literature
DISCUSSED AUTHORS AND TEXTS: Washington Irving „Rip van Winkle”; Ralph Waldo Emerson „Self-Reliance” (fragments); Nathaniel Hawthorne & Herman Melville (fragments); Samuel Langhorne Clemens (fragments); Emily Dickinson (selected poems); Edgar Allan Poe „The Raven” „The Fall of the House of Usher” (fragments); Ambrose Bierce (selected works); Stephen Crane "Red Badge of Courage" (fragments)
V. EDWARDIAN PERIOD AND THE GREAT WAR
CULTURAL CONTEXT: Belle Epoque and the Woman Suffrage Movement
LITERARY PHENOMENA: criticism of Victorian colonialism and imperialism; war poetry; realism in drama
DISCUSSED AUTHORS AND TEXTS: Joseph Conrad „Heart of Darkness” (fragments); Rudyard Kipling „The Man Who Would Be King” (fragments); George Bernard Shaw „Mrs. Warren’s Profession” (fragments); E.M. Forster; Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Alan Seeger (selected poems)
VI. MODERNISM AND POSTMODERNISM
CULTURAL CONTEXT: mid-war period economic crisis; the socialist movement
LITERARY PHENOMENA: Theatre of the Absurd; internal monologue and the stream of consciousness; imagism and symbolism in poetry; poetic impressionism; revival of metaphysical wit; science fiction novel; political fiction
DISCUSSED AUTHORS AND TEXTS: D.H. Lawrence, Thomas S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, W.B. Yeats (selected works); James Joyce (selected excerpts); George Orwell „1984” (selected excerpts); Samuel Beckett „Waiting for Godot” (selected excerpts)
Student’s workload:
Contact hours (in-class): 30
Individual work:
- Reading assigned materials: 20 hrs.
- Preparation for exam: 5 hrs.
Total individual work: 25 hrs.
If classroom learning is impossible, the workshop will be conducted with the help of distance communication tools, most probably Google Meet and others recommended by the University.
Type of course
Mode
Prerequisites (description)
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
KNOWLEDGE:
The student:
- has the basic knowledge about the significance of literary studies in the field of English literature and understands the features of the subject (K1_W01)
- knows the basic terminology and characteristic features defining style and form of literary and poetic texts of English literature in discussed literary periods (K_W02)
- knows characteristics of discussed literary periods and modern trends in thgeir interpretations (K_W04)
- knows the most important authors and texts of English literature in their cultural contexts (K_W10)
- has additional knowledge on most important social, historical and cultural events connected with the discussed texts (K1_W12)
SKILLS:
The student:
- can read and comprehend early and modern literary texts in English (K1_U01)
- can distinguish and identify literary, stylistic and poetic elements in literary texts from discussed periods as well as acquire, individually or under teacher’s supervision, knowledge on the history of English literature (K1_U03)
- can formulate his own conclusions while interpreting discussed texts (K1_U10)
SOCIO-CULTURAL COMPETENCIES
The student is:
- aware of cultural differences between English and Polish literature (K1_K01)
- prepared to expand individually his/her knowledge of history of English literature and skills in reading and analysing literary texts (K1_K02)
- participates in cultural life of Anglo-Saxon countries (K1_K03)
- appreciates Anglo-Saxon cultural heritage and is aware of the value in preserving it (K1_K04)
Assessment criteria
A final written exam consisting of test and open questions.
The percentage of points from the exam determines the score:
0-59%=2 (fail)
60%-68% = 3.0 (3)
69%-76% = 3.5 (3+)
77%-84% = 4.0 (4)
85%-92% = 4.5 (4+)
93%-98% = 5.0 (5)
99-100% = 5.0! (5!)
Failing results in receiving a failing grade in USOS in the first term and the need to retake the exam in the same form during the retake exam session.
Students are required to attend all the classes. Students are allowed two unexcused absences per 30 contact hours.
Bibliography
Fordoński, Krzysztof English Literature. An Anthology for Students. Volume 1. Poznań 2010
Fordoński, Krzysztof English Literature. An Anthology for Students. Volume 2. Poznań, 2011
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vols. 1 and 2, M.H. Abrams (ed.), W.W. Norton and Co, New York – London (7th edition)
The Norton Anthology of American literature. Vols. 1 and 2, Nina Baym, (ed.), W.W. Norton and Co, New York (5th edition)
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: