“The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are
perceived and not as they are known.” - Victor Shklovski
This course is designed to offer a thematic introduction to the English,
European writings that help shape Modern literature(s). It aims to
familiarize students with the main authors of English literary modernism and
the European critical currents parallel to its developments. Our discussion
will be centered upon the (Pre-)Modernist period of which the major authors
will be introduced or investigated; nonetheless, it might be extended to
those who can be loosely called “modern writers”
Each lecture will be roughly divided into two parts; the first will be
focused on the key concepts and ideas that precede, cradle or characterize
the modernist thoughts, and on the important intellectual, cultural and
stylistic currents that bear directly or indirectly upon the literary
production; the second will be on the analysis of selected texts.
Tentative schedule: (欲修習本課程的同學，請盡量不要缺席，尤其是開學前三周，請勿錯過。)
Week 1 Introduction and orientation: Interrogation and Investigation
Week 2 - 8 Interrogation and Quest
1. texts and contexts; selected readings
2. Modern self and Modernity; selected readings
3. Versions of reality- selected readings
Week 9-10 Mid-term response report (oral and written)
Week 11 - 13 Investigation and versions of reality
1. The Stream of Consciousness- selected readings
2. versions of reality- selected readings
Week 13 - 15 Exploration and Epiphany
1. Modern(ist) Art and Cinema- selected readings
2. Epiphany redefined- selected readings
Week 15-16 Final Presentation/term paper
*This schedule is susceptible to change.
**Themes and readings are tentative.
*Main textbook: The Norton Anthology of English Literature-The Major Authors
Tentative Evaluation:
class attendance and participation 50 %
mid-term report/paper 20%
final presentation/term paper 30%
References (*Our readings could be selected from the following works):
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.
The Dead by James Joyce.
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster.
The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, by William Blake.
The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Poirot’s Early Cases by Agatha Christie.
An Apology for Idlers by Robert Louis Stevenson.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann.
Howards End by E. M. Forster.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature-The Major Authors
The Modernist Period 1900-1945 by Patrick Lee-Browne (London: Evans Brothers
Limited, 2003).
The Art of Fiction by David Lodge (London: Penguin, 1992).
Selected Writings on Art and Literature by Charles Baudelaire.
Useful Websites:
Free eBooks by Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/
Internet Archive
https://archive.org/web/
Literary Terms
https://literaryterms.net/
*禁止使用AI