Making the Modernist Novel; or, Making the Novel Modernist (1859-1931)
English 314 (The Culture of Literary Modernisms)
Meegan Kennedy
This course was taught at Trinity College, Fall 2001
Texts for this course
This course examines how writers such as Virginia Woolf, in Bloomsbury, and James Joyce, in Dublin, sought to define themselves against Victorian culture and as part of a new ideology of "the modern." We will locate texts of “High Modernism” in relation to debates over history, gender, nation, psyche, and aesthetics. We will consider how and why these writers, instead of some of their contemporaries, help define a modernist canon. And we will explore how the literary genre of the novel gets redefined; how a modernist aesthetic and culture change what it means to write a novel, and to read one.
George Eliot, "The Lifted Veil"(1859)
Oxford, ISBN 0192832956
Henry James, Turn of the Screw (1898)
N A L (Signet Classics), ISBN 0451526066
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1901)
Rev. 3d edn, Norton, ISBN 0393955524
Sigmund Freud, Dora (1905)
Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0684829460
Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier (1915)
Norton, ISBN 0393966348
James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
(1915)
289 pp, Oxford, 2001, ISBN 0192839985
James Joyce, Ulysses (1918)
Vintage (Gabler edition), ISBN 0394743121
Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room (1922)
Viking Penguin, ISBN 0451526651
Virginia Woolf, The Waves (1931)
Harcourt, ISBN 0156949601
Harry Ramire, The Bloomsday Book (recommended, not
required)
3d edn, Routledge, 1996, ISBN 0415138582
Supplementary texts; purchase through the English department.
Part I, “Foundations of Modernism,” is available now;
Part II , “Modernism” will be available shortly.
Three films will be screened on Thursdays at a time to be
determined.
If you cannot attend the screening, videocassettes of the films
will be on reserve in the library for personal viewing.
Please plan ahead and watch with others if possible.
Class schedule
N.B. This schedule is subject to change. Check the
course website for announcements.
T Sept 4 Introduction
R Sept 6 19th century precursors: Realism and ....
Eliot, “Lifted Veil” and “Brother Jacob” (with introduction)(1859)
Eliot, Chapter 17 from Adam Bede (1859)
1st RR due (put online by next Tuesday; no comment
necessary online)
T Sept 11 James, Turn of the Screw (1898)
RR due
R Sept 13 James, Turn of the Screw
James, “The Art of Fiction” (1884)
James, “Preface” to the New York Edition of The Turn
of the Screw (1908)
Walter Pater, “Preface and Conclusion to The Renaissance” (1893)
T Sept 18 20th century precursors
Conrad, Heart of Darkness with readings from Norton edn.
(1901)
Conrad, “Preface to Nigger of the `Narcissus'”
RR due
R Sept 20 Conrad, Heart of Darkness
T Sept 25 Freud, Dora (1905)
RR due
R Sept 27 Ford, The Good Soldier and literary
impressionism (1915)
with readings from the Norton edn.
FAMILY WEEKEND
T Oct 2 Ford, The Good Soldier
RR due
R Oct 4 Richardson, first 3 chapters of Pointed Roofs
(1913) and the roman fleuve
Forster, excerpt from Aspects of the Novel (1927)
Kandinsky, excerpts from Concerning the Spiritual in Art
(1914)
Screening of A Room With a View (Forster's novel, 1908;
Merchant-Ivory film, 1985)
T Oct 9 TRINITY DAYS
Modernist little magazine presentations (see handout)
PROPOSAL due
R Oct 11 Modernism
Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1915) and
the Künstlerroman
T Oct 16 Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
RR due
R Oct 18 High Modernism
Joyce, Ulysses (1918): epic and colonial history
Chapters 1-3 (Telemachiad: "Telemachus,"
"Nestor," "Proteus")
HOMECOMING WEEKEND (and middle of term)
T Oct 23 Joyce, Ulysses: a new realism, Gabler
controversy
Chapters 4-6 ("Calypso," "The Lotus
Eaters," "Hades")
RR due
R Oct 25 Joyce, Ulysses: interior monologue
Chapters 7-8 ("Aeolus," "The
Lestrygonians")
T Oct 30 Joyce, Ulysses: Hamlet, Dublin, the
city, and the flâneur
Chapters 9-10 ("Scylla and Charybdis," "The
Wandering Rocks")
RR due
R Oct 1 Joyce, Ulysses: sex and the question of
indecency
Chapters 11-13 ("The Sirens," "The Cyclops,"
Nausicaa")
T Nov 6 Joyce, Ulysses: literary history
Chapters 14-15 ("Oxen of the Sun," "Circe")
PAPER due
R Nov 8 Joyce, Ulysses: gender
Chapters 16-18 (Nostos: "Eumaeus,"
"Ithaca," "Penelope")
Screening of Carrington (Christopher Hampton, 1995)
T Nov 13 Woolf, Jacob's Room (1922)
Woolf, “Modern Fiction,” “Mr. Bennett and Mrs.
Brown”
Arthur Bennett, “Is the novel decaying?” ( in Cassell's
Weekly, 28 March 1923)
RR due
R Nov 15 Woolf, Jacob's Room
Screening of Mrs. Dalloway (Woolf's book, 1925; film,
Marleen Gorris, 1997)
T Nov 20 Woolf, Jacob's Room
Realist and modernist fiction writing exercise due today
Thanksgiving break begins after last class today
R Nov 22 NO CLASS (Thanksgiving)
T Nov 27 Woolf, The Waves (1931)
RR due
R Nov 29 Woolf, The Waves
T Dec 4 Woolf, The Waves
PAPER REVISION due
R Dec 6 Woolf, The Waves
W Dec 12 Final exam questions sent out
R Dec 13 9 am Take-home final exam due
Assignments:
20% 1-2 pp (double-spaced) weekly reading responses, and brief
responses to online discussion board
20% 6-8 pp paper, in 3 stages (proposal, paper, revision)
20% Take-home final exam
20% Group presentations
10% Realist and Modernist fiction-writing exercise (4 pp)
10% Participation: preparation, discussion, and attendance (5 %),
pop quizzes on reading (5%)
Your grade thus depends on several different types of response to a text: verbal and written, short and long, time-limited and unlimited responses; creative and critical writing; weekly drafts of an argument and a cumulative, revised one.
Weekly reading responses:
Weekly 1-2 pp, double-spaced reading-response papers. Please post to the Discussion Board (on the course website) by noon on Monday of each week, and bring a clean hard copy to class for me. I will return responses Thursday with my comments. No response paper due the weeks you hand in another written assignment; thus, a total of 10 RR.
Consider your response a preface to class discussion and a chance to practice your close reading and “big picture” skills on a brief, informal level. Discuss one narrowly focused point or question you have on one of the readings for that week. Stay close to the text, citing specific words, phrases, patterns, and the like. Then suggest what your observations might help us understand about the text and what it is trying to accomplish. Then come to class with one good question for discussion based on your response.
Response papers will not be accepted late. They cannot be made up except in case of illness. They will be graded for clarity; evidence of close, careful reading; and thoughtfulness, on a scale of plus, check, minus, or zero (not completed).
You will also post at least one informal online comment (can be as short as one paragraph) on someone else's reading response by 11 p.m. Monday. This should jump-start class discussion and allow us to focus on the issues that we most need to sort out. As in class discussion, strive for a collegial, respectful, and tolerant, but also rigorous, debate over our readings.
Deadlines:
Assignments -- including the reading response -- will not be accepted late unless you have an excused absence for that day's class. If you need a paper extension, I need a written request from you at least one week before the deadline; include name, date, course number, and the date you anticipate finishing, within one week of the deadline (I don't need to know why you want the extension). I will sign and date your request. Include it with your paper.
Attendance:
Mandatory. Please give me notice if you need to be out of town for a class. Let me know if you are sick, so I can excuse you from class. More than two absences during the semester may result in a lower grade for the course. After 10 minutes your late arrival counts as an absence.