Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…
The best laid plans o’ mice and men
Gang aft agley
Objectives: Are any of the above lines new to you? If so, it is not too late to come and discover some of the great literary and cultural references which have shaped the British tradition, and the English language. In this course, we will be exploring various British voices and stepping through centuries, forms and styles. Rest assured, you do not have to be a literary expert to join this class: on the contrary, the main point is to introduce you to the British context, and most importantly, to give you a taste for literature which you will want to take away with you and continue to nourish in later years.
Content: While obviously it would be impossible to be exhaustive, the aim is both to present an overview of the different periods, and to study in detail a sample of emblematic writers/works. Highlights include: Elizabethan theatre , the birth of the novel, the Romantic poets (Wordsworth, Keats, Coleridge…), Shelley’s Frankenstein and the gothic novel, Dickens … without forgetting the 20th century: experimentation in the novel (E. M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce) and the revitalized theatre scene. And, of course, we will revel in some of the best that contemporary fiction has to offer: Jonathan Coe, David Lodge, Hanif Kureishi (cf. postcolonial lit.).
The angles of study are numerous: literary contexts will be highlighted, without neglecting the political and religious background. Our object of study provides the perfect opportunity to explore the English language itself (for example, plays on words, double meanings, figures of speech). Parallels will be drawn with other forms of artistic expression (e.g. painters and composers of the day), and film adaptations will be used as a means of introduction to the original work.
Modalités d'évaluation : Evaluation: Students will each have a research project on a writer, a work, a period, or a theme, which they will present in class. Other written homework will be given regularly. Each class will require participating in reading (out loud), and discussion.
Dernière mise à jour : lundi 9 janvier 2012
