Module Code - Title:
EH4007
-
LITERARY MODERNISM
Year Last Offered:
2025/6
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
This module studies British literature from the turn of the twentieth century to the end of the Second World War. Students will explore the turn to interiority and experimental modes of writing and will become familiar with major historical, political and social factors involved in this turn. Topics will include the impact of the two world wars; the influence of major theorists of the mind such as Freud, Jung, William James and Melanie Klein; the cross-fertilisation of the arts, including painting, film and photography; the role of the Cambridge Ritualists and the archaeological discoveries; the battle for suffrage and the subsequent debate about the nature of gender and the relation between and among the sexes.
Syllabus:
This module covers British literature from 1900-1945. Writers will include major novelists of the period such as E.M. Forster, D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf and James Joyce; and/or major poets such as T.S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats, W.H. Auden and the poets of the First World War. In defining the themes and interpreting the literature of the period, attention is paid to political, social and cultural constructs (for example, the World Wars, the suffrage movement, the impact of other art forms), to significant concepts and philosophies (for example, Primitivism, psychoanalysis, physics) and to literary movements (for example, Bloomsbury).
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
Upon successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
Identify key themes in British literature 1900-1945.
Locate texts within literary movements and philosophies.
Examine texts in their cultural, social and political contexts.
Discuss issues relating to the literature of the period.
Interpret and criticise texts through close reading.
Evaluate developments in British literature 1900-1945
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
N/A
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
N/A
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
This module will be taught by lecture, tutorial discussion, assigned and recommended reading; and by research-based critical material. Lectures will combine contextualisation with close reading. Tutorials will have an emphasis on group-work and through a focus on critical discussion, will develop skills in reading, listening and communicating.
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
Greenblatt et al ()
The Nortan Anthology of British Literature
,
Forster EM ()
Howards End
,
Joyce James ()
Dubliners; Ulysses
,
Lawrence DH ()
Women in Love
,
Mansfield Katherine ()
Stories
,
Rhys Jean ()
Good Morning, Midnight
,
Woolf Virginia ()
To The Lighthouse
,
Other Relevant Texts:
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Module Leader:
sinead.mcdermott@ul.ie