Twentieth Century Literature - I (Poetry & Drama)

Paper Code: 
ENG 322
Credits: 
04
Periods/week: 
04
Max. Marks: 
100
Objective: 

The course will enable the students to:

  • Get introduced to the variety of new poetic voices from the 20th century
  • Understand the historical background including the socio-cultural changes in the aftermath of World War I
  • Familiarize themselves with the literary trends, techniques and issues in British literature in the early 20th century
  • Develop skills to interpret and critique the modernist canon

Course Learning Outcomes

  •  Gain an understanding of the various literary and social provocations at work in the texts prescribed, with an enhanced understanding of literary texts and social structures
  •  Acquire knowledge of the cultural, political and stylistic protocols of modernism and its various literary movements
  •  Make a close and critical reading to see how issues such as politics, history, ethnicity, class, sexuality and gender, have been explored in 20th century poetry and drama
13.00
Unit I: 
W.B.Yeats

Easter 1916

A Bronze Head

Sailing to Byzantium

The Second Coming

Lapis Lazuli

 

11.00
Unit II: 
W.H. Auden

Sir, No Man’s Enemy

In Memory of W. B. Yeats

September 1, 1939

O for doors to be open

 

15.00
Unit III: 
T. S. Eliot

The Waste Land

 

10.00
Unit IV: 
G.B.Shaw

Pygmalion

 

11.00
Unit V: 
John Osborne

Look Back in Anger

 

Source Books: 
  • Greenblatt, Stephen, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 3rd ed. Norton, 1983.
  • Woodhead, Chris. Ed. Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Verse. OUP, 1984.

 

SUGGESTED READINGS: 
  • Fraser, G.S. The Modern Writer and His World. Praeer Publishers, 1964.
  • Gish, Nancy K. The Wasteland: A Poem of Memory and Desire. Twayne Publishers, 1988.
  • Routh, H.V. Towards the 20th Century: Essays in the Spiritual History. Macmillan, 1983.
  • Tomar, Vipin. The 20th Century English Literature: A Survey of Poetry, Drama, Fiction and Criticism. Swastik Publications. 2012.
  • Unwin, Stephen, and Carole Woddis. A Pocket Guide to 20th Century Drama. Faber, 2001.

 

Academic Year: