ENGL 450 - The Great Moderns

Introduction and Syllabus

Modernism–When it its? What are some of its characteristics? Who are some of

its great writers?

Why Durrell, Miller, Nin?

Why Lawrence, Eliot, Joyce, Yeats?

 

Assignments:

I. Thursday (February 1)

• Reading–"The Horse Dealer’s Daughter" (Xerox)

2. Thinking about the Works

1. What has happened?

what do you expect to happen?

2. What characters have you met?

What do you know about them?

3. Who is writing?

What have you learned about him?

4. How would you characterize the narrative technique?

5. How would you know the works were not written before the 20^th Century?

 

3. Some Initial Guidelines

1. Please read all assignments for each week.

2. Bring all texts to be considered to each class.

3. Think through the reading, and be prepared to participate in each class.

4. Read to enjoy as well as to study the literature.

 

The Great Moderns

The Journey of the Imagination and Modern Love: Durrell, Miller, and Nin

"The paradoxical task of the modern imagination, whether liberated

or alienated, has been to stand both inside and outside itself, to articulate

its own formlessness, to encompass its own extravagant possibilities."

--Ellmann and Feidelson

 

I. The Erotic Liberation

• Lawrence, "The Horse Dealer’s Daughter"

• Durrell, Justine

• Miller, The Tropic of Cancer

II. The Reality Check

• Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

• "Preludes" Nin, Henry and June

• Diary (Selections)

III. The Truth of Identity

• Joyce, "Araby"

• Durrell, Mountolive

• Prospero’s Cell

• Miller, The Colossus of Maroussi

The Mythic View

• Yeats, "Sailing to Byzantium"; "Byzantium"

• Durrell, Clea

• Nin, The Novel of the Future

Texts:

Lawrence Durrell

• The Alexandria Quartet

• Prospero’s Cell

Henry Miller

• The Colossus of Maroussi

• The Tropic of Cancer

Anaïs Nin, Henry and June

• The Novel of the Future

• Selections from the Diary

Other readings and critical background material (Xeroxed)

 

Course Objectives:

The Great Moderns undertakes an intensive evaluation of a group of significant writers of the "modern" period, in this case the "Three Musketeers," who set out to liberate and remake literature but diverged widely as time passed. Did they in the end connect more closely than they knew or change more completely than they realized? Did they achieve their early aims? What will be their position in literature? And how do you evaluate them as writers? These are some of the questions that we will address this term. We sill also give special attention to the nature of "modernism" as it developed from its first to its second generation writers and then evolved into what we now call "postmodernism."

 

Ground Rules of the Course:

We will be using a seminar/ discussion format in The Great Moderns. Regular class attendance and active participation are highly important, and each of you should be prepared to contribute throughout. Written work will consist of several short interpretive assignments and a final critical essay of about five to seven pages. There will be two exams, a take-home, a mid-term, and a final exam covering all texts and concepts discussed during the semester. My evaluation of your contribution will be based on class work, papers, and exams, each counting about one-third of your final grade.

And now let us turn to the world of the "modern," which has both passed into history and yet is very much a part of ourselves, with us here, still, today . . . .

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