Twentieth to Twenty-First Century Literature

Course Description

Course Content:

This module will begin by exploring literature published from the 1930s through to the
present day, and will examine the strategies writers have used in response to a changing
Britain and wider world. Students will consider how twentieth and twenty-first-century
texts adapt realist, modernist and postmodern techniques to engage with issues such as
the rise of mass culture, the threat of totalitarianism, the establishment of the Welfare
State, post-war immigration, and sexual liberation. To enhance students' perspective on
these issues, they will be introduced to non-fiction material by other contemporary
writers, such as J.B. Priestley, Erich Fromm, Iris Murdoch, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Richard
Hoggart, and George Lamming, as well as more recent critical and theoretical material.

The module also examines the development and continuing popularity of realist drama in
the twentieth century. We will pay particular attention to the ways in which realist
drama is used as a tool of social and political examination in various contexts as well as
examining developments in non-realist forms of drama such as the experiments which
gave rise to what is called the ?Theatre of the Absurd?.
On the module a selection of texts will be studied chosen to illustrate the great variety of
genres and styles in contemporary British writing and to exemplify literature written by
different nationalities and social groups. The relations between literature and
contemporary events will be studied, and will assess how these texts respond salient
themes such as social mobility, hybridity, democracy and technology. Relevant theory
will be brought into discussions as necessary.

AUTUMN SEMESTER LECTURES:
Poetry of 1930s: Auden, Spender, MacNeice, Day Lewis,
Poetry and Place: R.S. Thomas, Dylan Thomas, Tony Harrison, Dannie Abse, Anne-Marie
Fyfe
Philip Larkin
Poetry in the 21st Century: Carol Ann Duffy, Seamus Heaney, Benjamin Zephaniah
Evelyn Waugh: A Handful of Dust (1934)
George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
Brigid Brophy: The King of a Rainy Country (1956)
Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook (1962)
J. G. Ballard: Crash (1973)

SPRING SEMESTER LECTURES:
Hanif Kureishi: The Black Album (1989)
Julian Barnes: England, England (1992)
Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting (1993)
Zadie Smith: White Teeth (2000)
Ian McEwen: Saturday (2003)
Look Back in Anger (1956)
Harold Pinter: The Caretaker (1960)
John McGrath: The Cheviot, The Stag and The Black, Black Oil (1973)
Caryl Churchill: Top Girls (1982)
Ayub Khan-Din: East is East (1996)

Teaching:
Lectures/workshops and seminars

Assessment:
STUDY OPTION 1: a portfolio (50%) and Take Home Test (50%).
Portfolio to comprise:
1) Poetry close reading of 500 words
2) Fiction short-answer exercise of 750 words
3) Drama short-answer exercise of 750 words
Take-home test to comprise: 2,000-word essay to focus on at least two of the following:
poetry, fiction, drama.
STUDY OPTION 2: portfolio (some elements as those for Study Option 1).
STUDY OPTION 3: portfolio (some elements as those for Study Option 1).

Study Option 1 = Whole Year
Study Option 2 = Autumn
Study Option 3 = Spring/summer