Contemporary British Literature

Paper Code: 
ENG 325
Credits: 
04
Periods/week: 
04
Max. Marks: 
100
Objective: 

  • The course will enable the students to:

    • Get introduced to the cultural and literary characteristics of the period  and trace the emergence of post (-War, -Empire,- Modern) sensibility in contemporary British literature
    • Analyse the influence of issues such as politics, history, ethnicity, geography, class and gender, in shaping the literature of the 20th century
    • Respond to the various poetic voices from the post-World War II era and discuss the contemporary reaction to traditional literary and cultural structures and concepts

Course Learning Outcomes

The students will be able to:

  •  Acquire knowledge of the experimentation in narrative, poetic and dramatic forms through a close textual reading of representative contemporary British literary texts
  •  Gain an understanding of the intensive survey of representative British writers from the 1950s to the present
  •  Get an insight into the influence of historical, political and socio-cultural movements during the post-War period on the writings of the period
14.00
Unit I: 

Seamus Heaney

Whatever you say, say nothing

Punishment

Casualty

 

Philip Larkin

The Whitsun Weddings

Maiden Name

I Remember, I Remember

 

Thom Gunn

On The Move 

Autumn Chapter

 

12.00
Unit II: 
John Fowles

The French Lieutenant’s Woman

 

10.00
Unit III: 
Harold Pinter

 

The Homecoming

12.00
Unit IV: 
Muriel Spark

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

 

12.00
Unit V: 
Ian McEwan

Atonement

 

SUGGESTED READINGS: 
  • Chaterjee, Sisir. Philip Larkin: Poetry that Builds Bridges. Atlantic Publishers, 1999.
  • Draper, Ronald P, ed. The Literature of Region and Nation. St. Martin’s Press, 1989.
  • Esslin, Martin. Theatre of the Absurd. Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.
  • Marwick, Arthur. British Society since 1945. Penguin Books, 1982.
  • Motion, Andrew. Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life. Faber & Faber, 1994.
  • Quigley, Austin.The Modern Stage and Other Words. Routledge, 2014.
  • Scigaj, Leonard M. Critical Essays on Ted Hughes. G.K. Hall, 2000.

 

 

Academic Year: 
2020-2021