Brave New Worlds: Literature in English 1850-1950

Course goals

After completing this course, students:
• Will be able to identify some of the most important and distinctive developments in 19th and 20th-century literature in English in relation to broader historical and cultural contexts;
• Will be able to analyse and discuss some key literary genres and texts of this period within a number of theoretical frameworks;
• Will be able to engage with relevant scholarship to support their interpretations of literary text written between the mid 19th and mid 20th centuries.
 

Content

This is a survey of a century of Anglophone literature from the mid 19th to the mid-20th century. Since this period covers a challenging range of texts and authors from various backgrounds and nationalities, a central focus will be on writers who, until a few decades ago, were hardly considered to be part of the canon: female or queer-identifying authors, writers of colour, outsiders, exiles. In the case of the well-established authors, the focus will be on texts that frame the impact of industrialization and mechanization; that represent landscapes of war, imagined or real; that explore technologies of time, that problematize gender and sexuality; and on less explored themes, such as the occult and the surreal. We will consider the distinctive characteristics of a range of literary genres; identify the historical and cultural movements specific to each period; and read the themes and formal elements of poetry, prose and essays against the social and political backgrounds that compose the ‘Brave New Worlds’ of the era.

Additional information

Please note: the time slot shown here is not yet final and may still be modified until the 3rd Wednesday in September. 

This course is equivalent to the following course:
Civil War to Civil Rights (EN3V17001)

If you have already completed this course, you may not take Brave New Worlds due to too much overlap in content.