BA English Literature and American Studies

• Find out more from student finance
• Eligible UK students can apply for bursaries and scholarships
• Funding for EU and international students is on our country-specific pages
• Many students work part-time or complete a student internship

This course is about the early twentieth-century movement in literary and cultural experimentation that became known as ‘modernism.’ Focussing primarily on poetry and fiction written between 1918 and 1945, we will analyse how modernist writers grappled with issues including colonialism, class, gender, race, ethnicity, disability and sexuality during tumultuous times. Weekly two-hour lectures will provide contextual frameworks for the detailed analysis and discussion of set texts in seminars.   

• To equip students with the close reading skills necessary to analyse formally innovative works of modernist writing 

• To encourage students to acquire and reflect on the critical vocabulary necessary to explain and contextualise the works of modernist writers 

• To prepare students for the advanced study of modernist and post-modernist texts at level 3

• To explore the variety of forms, texts and genres associated with literary modernism

• To engage philosophically and theoretically with the different ways in which modernist texts explore questions of subjectivity, identity and experience

• To familiarise students with important critical and theoretical debates and controversies within the field of modernist studies

• To encourage reflection on the definition of modernism and especially on the relationship between modernism and modernity.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Identify the key formal and thematic concerns of modernist writing
• Appreciate the variety of ‘modernisms’ grouped under the catch-all term ‘modernism’
• Analyse and explain the distinctive formal properties of modernist literary texts
• Discuss the complex relationship between modernism and modernity

Indicative Weekly Schedule:
Week One: Introduction, T. S. Eliot, ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ 
Weeks Two and Three: James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man  
Week Four: Katherine Mansfield’s short stories 
Week Five: Claude McKay, Romance in Marseille
Week Six and Seven: Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway  
Week Eight: Storm Jameson, A Day Off 
Week Nine: Jean Rhys, Voyage in the Dark
Week Ten: George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier and Humphrey Jennings dir., Spare Time
Week Eleven: T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets 

By the end of this course students will be able to: 

• Navigate the most important critical and theoretical debates in modernist studies as well as formulate a distinctive position on these debates
• Discuss the origins and consequences of modernist innovations in literature  
• Analyse and explain the distinctive formal properties of modernist literary texts
• Articulate a critical position on the key question of the relationship between modernism and modernity 

By the end of this course students will be able to: 

• Deploy and reflect on the critical vocabulary necessary for the analysis of formally and thematically innovative works of fiction
• Offer a cogent definition of an important period in literary history
• Make reasoned judgements about prominent controversies within the field of modernist studies
• Assess critical arguments, evaluate the utility of theoretical concepts, and read closely works of literature, in order to formulate persuasive critical claims in assessed work 

By the end of this course students will be able to: 

• Produce cogent arguments about modernist literary texts in written form
• Discuss and analyse a variety of critical and theoretical judgements in seminar groups  
• Research a topic from a variety of sources in order to refine their responses to texts and to frame their arguments as interventions in various critical conversations taking place within the field of modernist studies
• Work effectively with other students and with tutors in order to explore, refine and substantiate critical judgements about modernist texts  

By the end of this course students will be able to show: 

• An advanced ability to analyse and process complex information
• An enhanced capacity to communicate persuasively in speech and writing
• Increased independence in research and problem-solving
• Increased ability to work effectively in groups

• Written feedback on essay and exam
• Additional one-to-one feedback (during consultation hour or by making an appointment)
• Optional tutorials to discuss seminar performance and written work

Primary Reading:
T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets (Faber) ISBN-13:‎978-0571068944
Storm Jameson, A Day Off (available via the UoM library catalogue as an ebook). 
Humphrey Jennings, Spare Time
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, ed. Jeri Johnson (Oxford University Press) ISBN-13: 978-0199536443 
Katherine Mansfield, Selected Stories, ed. Angela Smith (Oxford University Press) ISBN-13: 978-0199537358 
Claude McKay, Romance in Marseille, ed. Gary Edward Holcomb and William J. Maxwell (Penguin) ISBN-13: 978-0143134220
Jean Rhys, Voyage in the Dark (Penguin) ISBN-13‏: ‎ 978-0141183954
George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier (Penguin) ISBN-13:‎ 978-0141185293
Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, ed. David Bradshaw (Oxford University Press) ISBN-13: 978-0199536009

Selected Course Preparatory Reading:
Make a start by reading the novels (Joyce, McKay, Rhys, Woolf, Jameson). By definition, experimental writing resists and subverts patterns with which readers are familiar. Don’t be put off by difficulty. Try to pin down why the texts might seem difficult, and think about how they might be considered to break with literary convention. For a pithy overview, see Jeff Wallace, Beginning Modernism (Manchester University Press) ISBN-13: 978-07190-6789-1