1. British and American Studies International Programme
Course Outline
Course Code and Title: BAS 353 Literature of the Modern Period
Section/Group: 18/01
Semester: 1 / 2002
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1. Instructor’s Name: Aj. Dennis Lewis______________________________
Section/Group: 18/01
Class Time: Days: Tues. / Thurs. Time: 9.00-10.30 Room No.: 206
Office Hours: Days: Mon. / Weds. Time: 9 – 11, 14.00 – 16.30
Office Room No. _2_ Floor: __4__ Building: __Liberal Arts Building_____
Course co-ordinator: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Boonruang Chunsuvimol
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2. Prerequisite: BAS 251 or BAS 252
Course Description: This seminar examines how British and American fiction and
poetry written in the first half of the 20th century engaged the historical events and
intellectual debates of the period. Among issues to be explored are the concepts of
exile and memory, modernity and modernism, authority and subjectivity. While the
course looks in detail at the modernist movement, it also examines the complex
relationship between history and fiction in the works of selected postmodern writers.
←Course Objectives: The course aims to provide students with an understanding of
the
←importance of context when reading 20th-century literature and to help them
←recognize how the period's history, changing values and issues of social and
cultural
←importance helped to shape the works of major authors. The course looks at the
←historical and social background, Modernist experimentation, new subjects and
←literary forms, the post-war crisis and the search for a new identity, and
←postmodernism’s rejection of a single historical record of the past in favor of
multiple
←viewpoints. Students will be expected to write essays that make critical arguments
←about the literary texts they study.
Teaching/Learning Methods: lectures
class discussions
essays
Teaching Aids: handouts
videos
Assessment: Class work 10%
Midterm Exam 40%
Final Exam 50%
Main Texts: 1. Henry James: Turn of the Screw
2. James Joyce: Ulysses
3. D.H. Lawrence: Women in Love
Tentative Schedule:
Week 1: Introduction: fiction in English 1900-1950
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3. Excerpts from Henry James: “The Art of Fiction” and
David Perkins: A History of Modern Poetry, Vol. I.
Week 2: Henry James: Turn of the Screw
Week 3: Henry James: Turn of the Screw
Week 4: James Joyce: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Week 5: James Joyce: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Week 6: Ezra Pound: Hugh Selwyn Mauberley
Week 7: T.S. Eliot: The Wasteland
Week 8: D.H. Lawrence: Women in Love
Week 9: D.H. Lawrence: Women in Love
Week 10: D.H. Lawrence: Women in Love
Week 11: W.B. Yeats: “The Second Coming”
W.B. Yeats: “Sailing to Byzantium”
Week 12: James Joyce: Ulysses
Week 13: James Joyce: Ulysses
Week 14: James Joyce: Ulysses
Week 15: W.H. Auden: “The Fall of Rome,” and “In Praise of
Limestone”
John Ashbery: “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror”
Week 16: Salman Rushdie: Midnight’s Children
Week 17: Salman Rushdie: Midnight’s Children
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