ENG 3073 - MODERN BRITISH NOVEL

credits: 3.0
Will study works by five major modern British novelists, Thomas Hardy, H.G. Wells, Ford Madox Ford, Virginia Woolf, and D.H. Lawrence, as well as the radical re-definition of the novel undertaken by many writers of prose fiction in the early part of the twentieth century. Particular attention will be given to interiority in the modern novel: the shift from social to psychological realism and the structural and stylistic complications implicit in this shift. Specific topics examined within the novels are the ways in which modern writers reconsider tradition, understand experience, develop personality, and locate and cultivate value, as well as the ways in which these five novelists manipulate literary form and style to depict the alienation and fragmentation of modern life. Method of Instruction: Informal lecture and class discussion of assigned readings. Method of Evaluation: Reading quizzes (20%), and three focused critical essays (four-five pages) analyzing aspects of works studied in the course (ranging from 20% to 35%). Students will be encouraged to revise their first two essays, and in each case, the higher of the two grades will be recorded. Meets *WEP Distribution Requirement.