English 104B: British Literature from 1900 to the Present

Instructor: James H. Donelan 
Email: donelan@english.ucsb.edu
Class Meetings: MWF 10:00-10:50, Girvetz 1004
Office Hours: Monday 11-12, Tuesday 11-12 or by appointment.
Office Location: 2715 South Hall
Home Page: http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/jdonelan/teaching/E104B/f2010.htm
Texts: Greenblatt, et al, eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume F: The Twentieth Century and After
Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

Enroll No.: 54742; enrollment is by section. Section attendance is mandatory.
Sections:
TA:                  Time:                           Place:              Enroll:
Horton             M 5-5:50                   SH 1609          54759
Horton             M 6-6:50                   GIRV 2108      54767
Satris                R 5-5:50                   SH 1415          54775
Satris                R 6-6:50                   SH 1415          54783
Beckstrand       T 5-5:50                    GIRV 2127      54791
Beckstrand       T 6-6:50                    HSSB 1228     54809
Fastman           W 8-8:50                   SH 1415          54817
Fastman           W 9-9:50                   SH 1415          54825             

Course Description: We will be reading novels, plays and poems, from the first Modernist revolution to the Postcolonial era by a diverse group of writers, representing the extraordinary burst of experimentation and intensity in literary production prompted by global warfare, economic upheaval, and the collapse of empire over the course of the twentieth century.

Requirements: The course requires regular attendance, active participation in class discussion and activities, and timely completion of all assignments, a short essay (5-6 pages), a midterm, one longer essay (8-10 pages) and a final examination. In addition:

• Papers should be no longer or shorter than the length assigned and submitted on time. Late papers will result in grade reductions.
• Never submit a paper without proofreading it carefully. Students are expected to adhere to MLA citation style and to provide full, descriptive titles for their essays.
• Your classmates and your instructor depend on your presence in class and your full participation. Do not miss class unless you must. You should prepare to speak in class both in section and in lecture by reading the assigned texts before the class meets.
• All university regulations regarding academic dishonesty will be enforced.
• Grades will be computed according to the following percentages: short essay, 15%; midterm, 20%; long essay, 25 %; final, 25%; attendance and participation, 15% .

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Syllabus

All readings are from The Norton Anthology: Volume F except for Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway. Page numbers for the assignments are given after the title; please read the selection carefully before the day indicated so you can discuss it in class. Readings vary in length, so please plan carefully.

I: Introduction to Modern Literature

9/24     Introduction: The Calamitous Twentieth Century

9/27     Eliot, “Prufrock” 2289 and “The Hollow Men” 2309.
9/29     Eliot, “The Waste Land” 2295.
10/1     Eliot, “The Waste Land,” continued, and “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” 2319.

II: The Great War

10/4     “Voices from World War I” 1954; Brooke, “The Soldier,” 1955; Thomas, “Tears,” 1957;
            Sassoon, “They” 1960; and Owen, “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” 1971.
10/6     Owen, “Dulce Et Decorum Est,” 1974; “Strange Meeting,” 1975; “Futility” and “S.I.W.,” 1976; Graves, from Goodbye to All That, 1985.

III: Yeats and Auden: Modernism and Politics

10/8     W. B. Yeats, “Down by the Sally Gardens,” 2024; “Who Goes with Fergus?” 2026;
            “Adam’s Curse,” 2028; and “Easter 1916,” 2031.

10/11   Yeats, “The Second Coming,” 2036; “Sailing to Byzantium,” 2040; and
            “Among  Schoolchildren,” 2041.
10/13   W. H. Auden, “Petition” 2422; “Lullaby,” 2423; and “In Memory of W. B. Yeats,” 2429;
10/15   Auden, “The Unknown Citizen,” 2431; “September 1, 1939,” 2432; and “The Shield of  
            Achilles,” 2437. First Essay Due.

IV: The Modern Artist: Joyce and Woolf

10/18  Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
10/20  Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, continued.
10/22   “A Room of One’s Own” 2092.

10/25  Joyce, “The Dead,” 2163
10/27  Joyce, excerpts from Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, 2200.
10/29   Midterm

V: Post-War and Post-Masculine Literature

11/1     Mansfied, “Daughters…,” 2333 and Rhys, “The Day…,” 2357
11/3     Smith, poems, 2372.
11/5     Orwell, “Shooting an Elephant,” 2379 and “Politics and the English Language,” 2378

11/8     Beckett, Endgame, 2393
11/10   Poems by Larkin, 2565
11/12   Poems by Thomas, 2444

11/15   Poems by Hughes, 2594 and Harrison, 2530
11/17   Lessing, “To Room Nineteen,” 2543
11/19   Poems by MacDiarmid, 2464; Bennett, 2469; and Gunn, 2582

VI: Post-Colonialism and the End of Empire

11/22   Thiong’o, from Decolonizing the Mind, 2535
11/24   Rushdie, “English,” 2539; and Achebe, “An Image of Africa,” 2709
11/26   Happy Thanksgiving Break!

11/29   Heaney, poems, 2822.
12/1     Walcott, poems, 2586.
12/3     Conclusions and Review. Second paper due.

12/7     Final Examination, 8-10AM.