English The English course will aim to imbue students with some of the skills needed to pursue the subject at undergraduate level, as well as exposing them to texts of a greater level of challenge than those covered at A Level. It will continue to explore some of the critical theories and practices touched upon at A Level, especially Marxist, Feminist and Post-Colonial readings of texts, and Practical Criticism. Lesson Outline: 2 seminars per week and a 1-1 tutorial. Week 1: • An overview of literary periods from Anglo-Saxon to Postmodernism, and a discussion of why a literary-historical approach is generally followed in university courses – and possible alternatives • A discussion of the concepts of canon, literary genius and intrinsic worth verses a cultural materialist approach to literature, and possible compromises • Consideration of an intrinsic and extrinsic approach to textual analysis and making a case for an approach that synthesises both Week 2: • Particular focus on 19th Century move from Romanticism to Realism and Rationalism: including late gothic, the growth of genre fiction, including crime, science fiction and dystopia. Key texts: Germinal, Zola The Time Machine, HG Wells Week 3: • Particular focus on early 20th Century Modernism and the project of mimesis. Key texts: The Waste Land, Eliot Waiting for Godot, Beckett To the Lighthouse, Woolf
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