We shall finally start with English Literature course. This course was created for students of Kremenets Regional Humanitarian Pedagogical Academy named after Taras Shevchenko, higher education institution in Ukraine. Students are about to become translators, that’s why their good knowledge of the cultural and historical context is absolutely inevitable.
So I have to underline main aspects of this course. Every class consists of theoretical and historical/textual elements, that are linked together in conclusion. Be psyched up to use all your knowledge of history, philosophy, free arts and language. Philosophy plays enormous role in contemporary culture, and even more it becomes more literature look-alike.
Before the class you have to dig into the texts to be prepared for discussion. The discussion looks to be a principal strategy of our work during the classes. Every module ends with test paper consisting of two questions to be answered freely with no hints or other answer options, and that’s how your progress shall be evaluated. The most of student’s work should be done individually due to the compleсation of the tasks, huge text to be read and wide problems to be investigated.
Discussion 1. THE ROMANTIC PERIOD I
Theory:
1. Periods of English History and Literature
2. The Nature of Literature (by Wellek and Warren)
Texts:
1. Lyrical Ballads, by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
2. ‘The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman’ by Laurence Sterne
Discussion 2. THE ROMANTIC PERIOD II
Theory:
1. Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophy
2. The Function of Literature (by Wellek and Warren)
Texts:
1. Thomas De Quincey’s ‘Confessions of an English Opium-Eater’
2. Novelists of the Romantic period (Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus’)
Discussion 3. THE ROMANTIC PERIOD III
Theory:
1. Immanuel Kant’s ideas as a brand new era in the philosophical thought
2. Euphony, Rhythm, and Meter (by Wellek and Warren)
Texts:
1. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poetry works
2. Revolutionary William Blake
Discussion 4. THE ROMANTIC PERIOD IV
Theory:
1. Irrationalism as philosophical trend
2. Literature and Biography (by Wellek and Warren)
Texts:
2. Lord Byron’s ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’
>> TEST <<
Discussion 5. The Victorian age I
Theory:
1. Friedrich Nietzsche’s ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra’
2. Literary Theory, Criticism, and History (by Wellek and Warren)
Texts:
1. Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues
2. ‘Treasure Island’ by R. L. Stevenson
Discussion 6. The Victorian age II
Theory:
2. The history of English studies (by Peter Barry)
Texts:
1. ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde
2. George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion’
Discussion 7. The Victorian age III
Theory:
1. Impact of Karl Marx on his time
2. The Nature and Modes of Narrative Fiction (by Wellek and Warren)
Texts:
1. ‘Mary Barton’ by Mrs. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
2. William Makepeace Thackeray’s ‘Vanity Fair’
Discussion 8. The Victorian age IV
Theory:
1. Feminism
2. General, Comparative, and National Literature (by Wellek and Warren)
Texts:
1. Charlotte Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre’
2. George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) and her novel ‘Middlemarch’
Discussion 9. The Victorian age V
Theory:
1. Søren Kierkegaard’s work in philosophy
2. Main aspects of Narratology (by Peter Barry)
Texts:
1. ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens
2. Charles Kingsley’s ‘The Water-Babies’
>> TEST <<
Discussion 10. MODERN AGE I
Theory:
2. The Analysis of the Literary Work of Art (by Wellek and Warren)
Texts:
1. Thomas Hardy’s novel ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’
Discussion 11. MODERN AGE II
Theory:
2. Literature and Psychology (by Wellek and Warren)
Texts:
1. Close look at Joseph Conrad’s lifetime
2. Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’
Discussion 12. MODERN AGE III
Theory:
2. Important notes on modernism (by Deb Dulal Halder)
Texts:
1. H.G. Wells’ ‘The War of the Worlds’
2. Rudyard Kipling and his ‘The Jungle Book’
Discussion 13. MODERN AGE IV
1. Some recurrent ideas in critical theory (by Peter Barry)
Texts:
1. William Somerset Maugham’s ‘The Moon and Sixpence”
2. Deep look into Maugham’s European background
>> TEST <<
Discussion 14. MODERN AGE V
Theory:
2. The Nature and Modes of Narrative Fiction
Texts:
1. Aldous Leonard Huxley and his ‘The Brave New World’
Discussion 15. MODERN AGE VI
Theory:
1. The stream of consciousness novel
2. Modernism
Texts:
1. Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Room of One’s Own’
2. Version of the method: ‘Swann’s Way’ by Marcel Proust (France)
Discussion 16. MODERN AGE VII
Theory:
2. More on stream of consciousness
Texts:
1. ‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce (Ireland)
2. Deep and wide contexts: Laurence Sterne, Franz Kafka, Dorothy Richardson, Edgar Allan Poe
>> TEST <<
Further reading
A Brief History of English Literature by Dr.A.R.Bharathi
A History of English Literature by MICHAEL ALEXANDER
THE SHORT OXFORD HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE by Andrew Sanders
A Short History of English Literature Second Edition by HARRY BLAMIRES
Beginning Theory by Peter Barry
HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE by Dr. Digvijay Pandya
English Literature by EDWARD ALBERT
A History of English Literature by Arthur Compton-Rickett
The Routledge History of Literature in English by Ronald Carter and John McRae