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Observations, Sensations, Actions; British Fiction, 1890-1939 ENGL256 SP

The British fiction of the modern period displays a range of concerns, from the aestheticist cultivation of beauty and sensation to documentary-realist explorations of social and political problems. This course will interpret novels, stories and quasi-fictional reportage from the period in relation to ideas (then and now) about the social and political function of literature. Emphasis will fall equally on questions of narrative technique and thematic content. How are the diverse emphases of these works responses to processes of modernization and the commodification of culture? How do these works depict the relation of social and historical realities to individual perception and experience? How are private desires reconciled with public responsibilities? How is literary language imagined as both rational communication and a disruption of habituated modes of thought and action? How are the pervasive "anticapitalist" sentiments of the period manifested in both progressive and reactionary views of culture and politics? We will begin with a novel about the work and business of writing novels at the end of the 19th century, Gissing's NEW GRUB STREET; we will end with Isherwood's "camera" eye on decadence and fascism in 1930s Berlin.

MAJOR READINGS

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

COURSE FORMAT: Discussion Lecture

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UG Credit: 1.00 Gen Ed Area & Dept: HA ENGL

Prerequisites: None

Section 01

Weisberg, D

Times: .T.T... 10:00AM-11:20AM;

Grading Mode: A/F

Registration Preference (1 high to 6 low, 0=Excluded) Sr: 1, Jr: 1, So: 2, Fr: 0

Major Preference Given

Last Updated on MAR-03-1998