BRITISH LITERATURE 1 (Contemporary)

Instructor: Mr. Thornton

December 8, 2009

British Literature Semester FinalName ______

During this semester, we have focused on British Literature of the Twentieth Century. Expressionism, Modernism, Stream of Consciousness, and Theater of the Absurd are terms that you became familiar with. Because of the wars that Britain waged during the century, the mood in England could oftentimes be described as desperate and cynical. Poets and writers vividly portrayed this angst, and frequently defined the feelings of the people of the British Empire. For the final – next Wednesday and Thursday, December 16 and 17 – I am asking you to interpret a story and two poems (which we did not read as part of the class); and write a short dialog inspired by the plays that we read at the end of the class.

There will be two parts to the final: read the following selections from the textbook and take notes – on this sheet or another. You will turn these notes in as part of the final. Your notes will demonstrate that you read and analyzed the pieces prior to the discussion about them that will be held during the final.

Ezra Pound suggested that poets “compose in the sequence of the musical phrase….”In the gray textbook read “Fern Hill” by Dylan Thomas and “The Horses” by Ted Hughes, pp. 1208-1212. Analyze these in terms of their rhythmvia their poetic techniques, and their meaning in the context of other poetry we have read by Yeats and Eliot.

Read“The Book of Sand” by Jorge Luis Borges, pp. 1198-1202. Be prepared to discuss this story relative to the works of Conrad and Joyce.

On a separate sheet, compose dialogue and stage directions for a scene of an encounter and conversation between two friends or acquaintances. Base the scene on the types of encounters portrayed in the plays that we have read by Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett. Include at least three of the following characteristics in your scene:

  • Emotional exchanges fraught with denial – people refuse to deal with the issues at hand
  • Small talk broken up by interruptions that sometimes seem out of place, or tangential to the action
  • Vernacular, or everyday language, including slang and dialectical usage
  • Scenes of conflict that are not resolved, but have an ending
  • Relationships that show a lack of trust, or evidence of the tension inherent in real life
  • Absurdity of non-sequiturs

Two short pages of clipped dialogue will be sufficient.