English 2212 – Winter 2011
Twentieth Century British Novel
Dr. Danine Farquharson
Office: Arts 3038
Phone: 864-2448
Email:
Office Hours: Wednesday, 10:00 to noon or by appointment
Course Description: “a study of representative British Novels of the Twentieth Century, including works by such authors as Conrad, Forster, Joyce, Lawrence, Woolf, Waugh, Lessing and Murdoch.” As you will soon discover, the readings and discussions this term will challenge the calendar description of what constitutes a “representative” British novel of the 20th century. Other than Virginia Woolf, I have done away with a list of authors prescribed for this course sometime in the 1970s. Instead, we will read a series of novels that pose two important questions: what does it mean to be “British”? And what does it mean to write a “British” novel? We will, hopefully, discover all the ways in which these two questions are inseparable.
Course Assessment:
Critical Response Journals 20%
Midterm Exam 20%
Term Paper 30%
Take Home Final 30%
Course Texts, in order of study:
Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One's Own. 1929.
-----. Mrs. Dalloway. 1925.
Barker, Pat. Regeneration. 1991.
Bowen, Elizabeth. The Last September. 1929.
Ishiguro, Kashuro. Remains of the Day. 1988.
Hornby, Nick. About a Boy. 1998.
Smith, Zadie. White Teeth. 2000.
Kureishi, Hanif. The Buddha of Suburbia. 1990.
Total cost if purchased from Bookstore: $124.59
As always, a good dictionary and thesaurus are needed for English courses.
Finally, if you are not familiar with the MLA style manual for the presentation of essays and papers then you must quickly familiarize yourself with such.
The term paper for this course must conform to the MLA style manual.
General Course Policies
1. Students are entirely responsible for the content of missed classes
2. Assignments and Exams
Emailed assignments will NOT be accepted.
I will accept late assignments only if students have a valid reason for needing an extension and only if students have attended class regularly. Unexplained late assignments will lose 5% per day after the due date. Students who do not consistently attend classes and do not have a “medical note” will not be given permission to write missed in class exams. I follow university regulations for medical notes as outlined in the University Calendar, 14.4.1:
“Students who request permission to drop courses, to withdraw from University studies, to have examinations deferred or to obtain other waivers of University, departmental or course regulations based on medical grounds are required by the University to produce a note from a physician in support of their request. Such notes must be sufficiently specific to allow a proper consideration of the student's case. The University requests that all medical notes be on letterhead, be signed by the physician and include details on the following:
1. confirmation of the specific dates on which the student visited the physician.
2. the degree to which the illness (or treatment, in the case of medication, for example) is likely to have affected the student's ability to study, attend classes, or sit examinations.
3. the length of time over which the student's abilities were likely hampered by the medical condition (e.g., recurring and severe back pain over a two-month period would likely have a more adverse effect on studies than a single episode of back pain requiring bed rest for a week).
4. the fitness of the student to resume studies (it is in the student's best interest not to return to studies prematurely).”
Plagiarism is a very serious offence and will not be tolerated. Plagiarism is the act of presenting the ideas or works of another as one's own. This applies to all material such as essays, laboratory reports, work term reports, design projects, seminar presentations, statistical data, computer programs and research results. The properly acknowledged use of sources is an accepted and important part of scholarship. Use of such material without acknowledgment is contrary to accepted norms of academic behaviour.
3. Contacting me
I have clearly defined office hours – these are the times I am in my office and open to student inquiries. If I am ever unable to make my office hours then a notice will be posted on my door, and alternate arrangements made. If you wish to email me, please feel free to do so but be aware of the following: a) I will respond to email when I have time to do so; b) if I do not respond to email, you must assume that I have not received your message (often email on the university server backs up and so if you email me at 4:00pm on a Thursday then it is conceivable that I won’t receive the email until Friday, even Saturday); and c) I do not respond to any student message that does not include the course number and student’s full name.
You may also call my office phone number to try and speak to me or to leave a message, but to reiterate, I return phone messages when I have time to do so. If you have any questions about these policies, then please speak to me early in the term so as to avoid confusion later.
4. Essay Assignments
All essay assignments must conform to the MLA style guide for both formatting of the paper as well as citations.
Critical Response Journals (20%): Feb 10 and Apr 5
You will write 10 journal entries throughout the course of the semester, all of them in response to a question that I shall give the class during class time.
The journals will be worth 2% each and handed into me on two separate days during the semester. Approximate length of each journal should be 400 to 600 words.
The task in these journals is to work through, in your own terms, various questions and concerns that arise from the readings and the class discussions. I will announce the direction of each journal in class, often as a result of that day’s discussion – thus, it is imperative that you attend all classes.
Journals can take any form you wish, as long as they are legible and in fact address the topics.
Term Paper (30%): March 29, at the beginning of class
The term paper should be 8 to 10 pages, with secondary research incorporated into your argument. The paper must be formatted according to MLA guidelines.
Your task is to write a comparative essay using any text studied this term and Buddha of Suburbia in order to consider one of the following thematic trajectories:
1. The Past: many of the authors/texts reach into the past for sources of either subject matter or political concern. Consider the uses of this temporal drive: nostalgia? Revisionist history? Aesthetic distance? What is the status of “history” in 20th century British literature?
2. Memory and Identity: the relationship between who we are (as individuals as well as constituents) and how/what we remember is constantly examined. Offer a discussion of how and why “the problem of identity” is articulated through memory.
3. The Narrator: the novels may offer different narrative styles, but there is a frequent use of the problematic (or to use an older word “fallible”) narrator. How is that narrative voice used in the texts to compliment an epistemological problem or position?
4. Realism: One would have thought two World Wars would have obliterated the possibility of realism and yet there is a constant drive toward and market for realistic novels. Is realism an outmoded style of literature in the postmodern condition, or does it still have evocative power and/or social relevance?
5. Humour: Beyond pure pleasure, examine the role of comedy in 20th century British fiction. What is funny? Does that subject matter or style change? What is the purpose of humour in these novels?
Midterm exam (20%): Feb 17
This exam will be passage analysis. Choosing one of four possible short excerpts from texts studied so far, you will be asked to write an analytical essay discussion the passage’s relationship to the novel as a whole.
Final Exam (30%): Apr 5 and 12
The final exam questions will be distributed on the last day of classes and you will have 7 days to complete the test. You will be asked to write two short essays covering the entire term readings.
Key Dates:
Midterm exam: February 17th
First set of journals due: February 10th
Second set of journals due: April 5th
Term paper due: March 29th
Final exam handed out: April 5th
Final exam due: April 12th, before 4:30pm
Cancelled classes: February 22, March 31