Students

ENGL305 – Modernism

2013 – S2 Evening

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit Convenor
Paul Sheehan
Contact via paul.sheehan@mq.edu.au
W6A 622
Mon 11-12; Thurs 1-2
Credit points Credit points
3
Prerequisites Prerequisites
6cp in ENGL units at 200 level
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description
This unit examines the upheavals that took place in literature and culture between 1900 and 1940. Issues discussed include: imperialism and colonialism; the death of God; the cataclysm of the First World War; the crisis in representation and revolution of the word; changing gender relations; the nightmare of history; and the propagation of myth. These are examined through the manifestos of the major aesthetic movements (Impressionism, Imagism, Vorticism) and related themes (impersonality, anti-self). Texts studied include: works from novelists and poets (Conrad, Yeats, Eliot, Pound, Joyce and Woolf); philosophers (Nietzsche and Freud); visual artists (Lewis); and filmmakers (Bergman and Haneke).

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • Demonstrated critical and analytical reading strategies, interpretive analysis, scholarly research, and effective communication, with particular application to the field of modernist studies in English.
  • Ability to identify, evaluate and apply principles of modernism to different literary modes, narrative and non-narrative.
  • Display creative thinking and construct cohesive arguments, with specific application to modernist literary studies.
  • Consider how historical and theoretical propositions of modernism have shaped the reception and reproduction of 20th-century art more broadly.
  • Demonstrate effective time management, work organisation and application of literary-modernist principles to narrative contexts and beyond.
  • Ability to engage in informed critical discussion on unit content with peers and teachers, consider and assess others’ points of view, and to argue a critical position.

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Due
Minor essay 30% Thursday following present
Major essay 50% Wednesday 13th November
Tutorial participation 20% Weekly

Minor essay

Due: Thursday following present
Weighting: 30%

Presentation refers to a 10-minute in-class oral response to the weekly tutorial question, to help stimulate class discussion. This is followed by a 1,200-word essay, a written-up response to the weekly tutorial question. Submit the essay the following Thursday after your presentation, by 5 pm, into the appropriate box (ground floor W6A) with cover-sheet attached.


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrated critical and analytical reading strategies, interpretive analysis, scholarly research, and effective communication, with particular application to the field of modernist studies in English.
  • Ability to identify, evaluate and apply principles of modernism to different literary modes, narrative and non-narrative.
  • Display creative thinking and construct cohesive arguments, with specific application to modernist literary studies.
  • Consider how historical and theoretical propositions of modernism have shaped the reception and reproduction of 20th-century art more broadly.

Major essay

Due: Wednesday 13th November
Weighting: 50%

2,500-word research paper on two subject areas of modernism you have studied. Essay questions can be found on iLearn site. 


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrated critical and analytical reading strategies, interpretive analysis, scholarly research, and effective communication, with particular application to the field of modernist studies in English.
  • Ability to identify, evaluate and apply principles of modernism to different literary modes, narrative and non-narrative.
  • Display creative thinking and construct cohesive arguments, with specific application to modernist literary studies.
  • Consider how historical and theoretical propositions of modernism have shaped the reception and reproduction of 20th-century art more broadly.
  • Demonstrate effective time management, work organisation and application of literary-modernist principles to narrative contexts and beyond.

Tutorial participation

Due: Weekly
Weighting: 20%

Tutorial attendance is compulsory. Failure to attend at least 10 of the 12 weekly tutorials without a medical certificate or other kind of documentation may result in failure of the unit.

Participation means showing evidence of preparation and making relevant contributions to discussions.


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrated critical and analytical reading strategies, interpretive analysis, scholarly research, and effective communication, with particular application to the field of modernist studies in English.
  • Ability to identify, evaluate and apply principles of modernism to different literary modes, narrative and non-narrative.
  • Display creative thinking and construct cohesive arguments, with specific application to modernist literary studies.
  • Consider how historical and theoretical propositions of modernism have shaped the reception and reproduction of 20th-century art more broadly.
  • Demonstrate effective time management, work organisation and application of literary-modernist principles to narrative contexts and beyond.
  • Ability to engage in informed critical discussion on unit content with peers and teachers, consider and assess others’ points of view, and to argue a critical position.

Delivery and Resources

Classes

Lectures take place on Thursdays at 3 pm in C5A 232

Tutorials are on Thursdays, either 4 pm in W5A 105; or 6 pm in W5C 211  

 

Required and Recommended Texts and/or Materials

The set texts for this unit are:

1. Jon Stallworthy & Jahan Ramazani (eds), The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. F: The Twentieth Century and After (Norton; 9th edition)

2. Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier (Norton)

3. James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Oxford)

4. Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (Penguin)

NB: The Norton Anthology / The Good Soldier can be purchased from the Co-Op as a package.

Supplementary texts will be made available via iLearn.

 

FILMS

Ingmar Bergman, Persona (1966)

Michael Haneke, The White Ribbon (2010)

 

Recommended reading

See iLearn site. 

 

Technology Used and Required

Online units can be accessed at: http://ilearn.mq.edu.au/.

PC and Internet access are required. Basic computer skills (e.g., internet browsing) and skills in word processing are also a requirement. Please consult teaching staff for any further, more specific requirements.

 

What has changed

New format: lecture / tutorial, rather than seminar.  

Unit Schedule

 

WEEK TOPIC
Week 1 Introduction: Inventing Modernism
Week 2

Impressionism and Empire

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness;'Preface to The Nigger of the "Narcissus"

Chinua Achebe, 'An Image of Africa' 

Week 3

Romanticism Reconstructed

W. B. Yeats, 'Adam's Curse', 'A Coat', 'Easter, 1916', 'The Wild Swans at Coole', 'The Second Coming', 'Leda and the Swan', 'Sailing to Byzantium', 'Among School Children', 'The Circus Animals' Desertion'

Week 4

Blasting and Bombardiering

Siegfried Sassoon, 'They'

Wilfred Owen, 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'

Ford Madox Ford, 'From "Antwerp"'

T. E. Hulme, 'Trenches: St Eloi'

Wyndham Lewis, 'The Romance of War'; 'Cantleman's Spring-Mate'

Week 5

Ascent of the Image

T. E. Hulme, 'Romanticism and Classicism'

F. S. Flint and Ezra Pound, 'Imagisme / A Few Don'ts'

Hulme, 'Autumn'

Pound, 'In a Station'

H. D., 'Oread', 'Sea Rose'

Week 6

Modernist Storytelling

Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier

Katherine Mansfield, 'The Daughters of the Late Colonel'

D. H. Lawrence, 'Odour Of Chrysanthemums'

 Week 7

Myth, Tradition, Impersonality

T. S. Eliot, 'The Boston Evening Transcript', 'Hysteria', 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'; The Waste Land; 'The Hollow Men'; 'Tradition and the Individual Talent'

   MID-SEMESTER BREAK
Week 8

Revolution of the Word

James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

D. H. Lawrence, 'Why the Novel Matters'

Week 9

Toward the Vortex

Wyndham Lewis, 'Long Live the Vortex!; 'Blast 6'

Pound, 'Vortex, Pound'

Mina Loy, 'Feminist Manifesto'

Marinetti and Nevinson, 'A Futurist Manifesto'

Lewis, Vorticist paintings

Week 10

Identity, Language, Subjectivity

Sigmund Freud, 'The Material and Sources of Dreams'; 'The Dream-Work' 

Film: Persona

Week 11

Being in Time

Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

Virginia Woolf, 'Modern Fiction'

Week 12

End and Aftermath: Neo-Modernism(s)

Herman Melville, 'The Whiteness of the Whale' 

Film: The White Ribbon

Week 13 Essay workshop

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Academic Honesty Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html

Assessment Policy  http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html

Grading Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grading/policy.html

Grade Appeal Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html

Grievance Management Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grievance_management/policy.html

Special Consideration Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/special_consideration/policy.html

In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of Academic Student Support Services. Details of these services can be accessed at: http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

UniWISE provides:

  • Online learning resources and academic skills workshops http://www.students.mq.edu.au/support/learning_skills/
  • Personal assistance with your learning & study related questions.
  • The Learning Help Desk is located in the Library foyer (level 2).
  • Online and on-campus orientation events run by Mentors@Macquarie.

Student Services and Support

Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.

Student Enquiries

Details of these services can be accessed at http://www.student.mq.edu.au/ses/.

IT Help

If you wish to receive IT help, we would be glad to assist you at http://informatics.mq.edu.au/help/

When using the university's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students and it outlines what can be done.

Graduate Capabilities

Capable of Professional and Personal Judgement and Initiative

We want our graduates to have emotional intelligence and sound interpersonal skills and to demonstrate discernment and common sense in their professional and personal judgement. They will exercise initiative as needed. They will be capable of risk assessment, and be able to handle ambiguity and complexity, enabling them to be adaptable in diverse and changing environments.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Consider how historical and theoretical propositions of modernism have shaped the reception and reproduction of 20th-century art more broadly.
  • Demonstrate effective time management, work organisation and application of literary-modernist principles to narrative contexts and beyond.
  • Ability to engage in informed critical discussion on unit content with peers and teachers, consider and assess others’ points of view, and to argue a critical position.

Assessment tasks

  • Minor essay
  • Major essay
  • Tutorial participation

Commitment to Continuous Learning

Our graduates will have enquiring minds and a literate curiosity which will lead them to pursue knowledge for its own sake. They will continue to pursue learning in their careers and as they participate in the world. They will be capable of reflecting on their experiences and relationships with others and the environment, learning from them, and growing - personally, professionally and socially.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Demonstrate effective time management, work organisation and application of literary-modernist principles to narrative contexts and beyond.
  • Ability to engage in informed critical discussion on unit content with peers and teachers, consider and assess others’ points of view, and to argue a critical position.

Assessment tasks

  • Major essay
  • Tutorial participation

Discipline Specific Knowledge and Skills

Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Demonstrated critical and analytical reading strategies, interpretive analysis, scholarly research, and effective communication, with particular application to the field of modernist studies in English.
  • Ability to identify, evaluate and apply principles of modernism to different literary modes, narrative and non-narrative.
  • Consider how historical and theoretical propositions of modernism have shaped the reception and reproduction of 20th-century art more broadly.
  • Ability to engage in informed critical discussion on unit content with peers and teachers, consider and assess others’ points of view, and to argue a critical position.

Assessment tasks

  • Minor essay
  • Major essay
  • Tutorial participation

Critical, Analytical and Integrative Thinking

We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questioning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique constraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Demonstrated critical and analytical reading strategies, interpretive analysis, scholarly research, and effective communication, with particular application to the field of modernist studies in English.
  • Ability to identify, evaluate and apply principles of modernism to different literary modes, narrative and non-narrative.
  • Consider how historical and theoretical propositions of modernism have shaped the reception and reproduction of 20th-century art more broadly.
  • Ability to engage in informed critical discussion on unit content with peers and teachers, consider and assess others’ points of view, and to argue a critical position.

Assessment tasks

  • Minor essay
  • Major essay
  • Tutorial participation

Problem Solving and Research Capability

Our graduates should be capable of researching; of analysing, and interpreting and assessing data and information in various forms; of drawing connections across fields of knowledge; and they should be able to relate their knowledge to complex situations at work or in the world, in order to diagnose and solve problems. We want them to have the confidence to take the initiative in doing so, within an awareness of their own limitations.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Demonstrated critical and analytical reading strategies, interpretive analysis, scholarly research, and effective communication, with particular application to the field of modernist studies in English.
  • Ability to identify, evaluate and apply principles of modernism to different literary modes, narrative and non-narrative.
  • Ability to engage in informed critical discussion on unit content with peers and teachers, consider and assess others’ points of view, and to argue a critical position.

Assessment tasks

  • Minor essay
  • Major essay
  • Tutorial participation

Creative and Innovative

Our graduates will also be capable of creative thinking and of creating knowledge. They will be imaginative and open to experience and capable of innovation at work and in the community. We want them to be engaged in applying their critical, creative thinking.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Demonstrated critical and analytical reading strategies, interpretive analysis, scholarly research, and effective communication, with particular application to the field of modernist studies in English.
  • Ability to identify, evaluate and apply principles of modernism to different literary modes, narrative and non-narrative.
  • Display creative thinking and construct cohesive arguments, with specific application to modernist literary studies.
  • Ability to engage in informed critical discussion on unit content with peers and teachers, consider and assess others’ points of view, and to argue a critical position.

Assessment tasks

  • Minor essay
  • Major essay
  • Tutorial participation

Effective Communication

We want to develop in our students the ability to communicate and convey their views in forms effective with different audiences. We want our graduates to take with them the capability to read, listen, question, gather and evaluate information resources in a variety of formats, assess, write clearly, speak effectively, and to use visual communication and communication technologies as appropriate.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Demonstrated critical and analytical reading strategies, interpretive analysis, scholarly research, and effective communication, with particular application to the field of modernist studies in English.
  • Ability to identify, evaluate and apply principles of modernism to different literary modes, narrative and non-narrative.
  • Display creative thinking and construct cohesive arguments, with specific application to modernist literary studies.
  • Ability to engage in informed critical discussion on unit content with peers and teachers, consider and assess others’ points of view, and to argue a critical position.

Assessment tasks

  • Minor essay
  • Major essay
  • Tutorial participation

Engaged and Ethical Local and Global citizens

As local citizens our graduates will be aware of indigenous perspectives and of the nation's historical context. They will be engaged with the challenges of contemporary society and with knowledge and ideas. We want our graduates to have respect for diversity, to be open-minded, sensitive to others and inclusive, and to be open to other cultures and perspectives: they should have a level of cultural literacy. Our graduates should be aware of disadvantage and social justice, and be willing to participate to help create a wiser and better society.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Consider how historical and theoretical propositions of modernism have shaped the reception and reproduction of 20th-century art more broadly.
  • Ability to engage in informed critical discussion on unit content with peers and teachers, consider and assess others’ points of view, and to argue a critical position.

Assessment tasks

  • Minor essay
  • Major essay
  • Tutorial participation

Socially and Environmentally Active and Responsible

We want our graduates to be aware of and have respect for self and others; to be able to work with others as a leader and a team player; to have a sense of connectedness with others and country; and to have a sense of mutual obligation. Our graduates should be informed and active participants in moving society towards sustainability.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

  • Ability to engage in informed critical discussion on unit content with peers and teachers, consider and assess others’ points of view, and to argue a critical position.

Assessment tasks

  • Minor essay
  • Major essay
  • Tutorial participation