ENGLISH 397 – MODERN FICTION – FALL 2007
Mares - Fletcher 313 x6238
Office Hours: M Th 4-5 p.m. & by appointment
Requirements    Evaluation    Deadlines    Calendar    Policies & Guidelines    Midterm Audit

 "Notice what you notice." - Allen Ginsberg

In this seminar, we will focus on certain texts that have helped to define modern literature as well as our sense of what it means to be 'modern.' As a literary phenomenon, modernism extends from roughly the turn of the century through the Second World War. Most of the works we will be reading were published in the early 1900's through the 1920's – modernism's heyday. Since American modernists are studied in other courses offered by the Department, the emphasis in this course will be on writers from countries other than the U.S. We will consider what is distinctive about these works as aesthetic achievements, while also situating them within wider historical, social, and cultural contexts. Essentially, we will be trying to discover for ourselves why these works have proved to be of enduring interest.

Ongoing questions for the course include the following: How in their styles, forms, and themes do these works register the impact of major events and developments of the times? How do they reflect the rise of mass culture and new technologies, the so-called "war between the sexes," the crisis of the First World War? How are they informed by changing concepts of the self, the nature of reality, the possibilities of human knowledge, and our place in the universe?

Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse	Anton Chekhov, About Love & Other Stories	James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Marcel Proust, Swann's Way	Katherine Mansfield, Collected Stories	Franz Kafka, Complete Stories (+ Background & critical readings)

EVALUATION
Approximate breakdown of the final grade: ongoing class contributions = 20%; 7-9 pp. essay = 30%; abstract = 10%; ongoing reading log = 20%; midterm reading log audit = 10%; final 'exam' entry = 10%.

Students completing their senior exercise in this course may substitute their 15-20 page essay (plus annotated bibliography) for the paper otherwise required for the course. They need to submit formal research proposals as well as abstracts of their senior exercises. Instead of creating a final 'exam' entry in their reading logs, they will give presentations based on their senior exercises during the last week of class. Approximate breakdown of their final grade for the course: ongoing class contributions = 15%; 7-9 pp. essay = 30%; abstract = 10%; ongoing reading log = 20%; midterm reading log audit = 10%; presentation = 15%. Approximate breakdown of their senior exercise grade (1 hr. credit): proposal = 5%; tentative bibliography (submitted with proposal) = 5%; 15-20 page essay = 60%; annotated bibliography (submitted with essay) = 5%; abstract = 10%; presentation = 15%.

Students are expected to adhere to the Honor Code in all of their work for this course. Plagiarism, whether intentional or unintentional, is a violation of the Honor Code and will be treated with the utmost seriousness. If you have any questions about how plagiarism is defined, review the relevant sections on pp.25-26 and pp.51-52 in your Student Handbook. Also, please note that work you completed for other courses, here or elsewhere, may not be submitted for credit in this course. See me if you want further clarification.

Main Deadlines 

AUGUST
23   - Introduction - "Cultural Forces Driving Modernism" and "Some Atrributes of Literary Modernism"
(John Lye, Brock University);   "Modernism"/"Postmodernism" M.H. Abrams

[Thanksgiving break begins on Friday, Nov. 16 at 5:30 p.m.]

[Reading Day, Dec. 8]
[Exams, Dec. 9-14]

Policies & Guidelines    Midterm Audit
Last Updated: 29 November 2007