Term 1

05 Oct. Introduction (Nick Lawrence): Intro 1 - Practical issues; Intro 2 - Modernity/modernism; Intro 3 - Five features of modernity; Intro 4 - World literature

12 Oct. Goethe, Faust Part I (Nick Lawrence); 1- What's modern about Faust?; 2 - Formal features of the play

19 Oct. Equiano, Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, African (Christine Okoth); 1 - Maps of trade, maps of freedom; 2 - Equiano as text; 3 - The case for abolition

26 Oct. Blake, "Auguries of Innocence"; Shelley, "Ode to the West Wind" and "The Mask of Anarchy"; Pushkin, "The Bronze Horseman" (Emma Mason); 1 - What is Romanticism?; 2 - Shelley; 3 - Pushkin and Blake

02 Nov. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Rochelle Sibley); 1- Frankenstein and the French Revolution; 2 - Frankenstein and British politics; 3 - Modernity and the novel

16 Nov. Baudelaire, from "The Painter of Modern Life"; "The Swan," from Fleurs du Mal; "The Eyes of the Poor," "Lost Halo," "Bash the Poor!" from Spleen de Paris; Rimbaud, "The Drunken Boat" (Nick Lawrence); 1 - Two views of modernity; 2 - Heroes of modern life; 3 - Second Empire Paris

23 Nov. Ibsen, A Doll's House (Liz Barry); 1- The world of the play (space-time); 2 - The social world of the play; 3 - Ibsen's modernity

30 Nov. Natsume Soseki, Kokoro (Michael Gardiner): One / Two / Three

07 Dec. Conrad, Heart of Darkness (Caitlin Vandertop); Part 1; Part 2;

Term 2

11 Jan. 2021. Tagore, The Home and the World (Pablo Mukherjee); Part 1; Part 2

18 Jan. Kafka, The Metamorphosis; Lu Xun, “A Madman's Diary” (Rochelle Sibley); Part 1 - Kafka and Lu Xun in context; Part 2 - Alienation and horror; Part 3 - Language

25 Jan. Apollinaire, “Zone”; Eliot, The Waste Land (Nick Lawrence); Part 1 - Space and time in the modern metropolis; Part 2 - Modernism and collage; Part 3 - Radio and mass culture

01 Feb. Katherine Anne Porter, Pale Horse, Pale Rider (Myka Tucker-Abramson); Part 1 - Porter's Life and Times; Part 2 - WWI and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic; Part 3 - Surrealism and Apocalypse

08 Feb. Brecht, Mother Courage and Her Children (Michael Gardiner) One / Two / Three 

22 Feb. Beckett, Endgame (Dan Katz); Part 1; Part 2

01 Mar. Lispector, The Hour of the Star (Caitlin Vandertop); Part 1; Part 2; Part 3

08 Mar. Césaire, Notebook of a Return to the Native Land; O’Hara, “Ode: Salute to the French Negro Poets” and “The Day Lady Died”; Bishop, “Questions of Travel”; Brathwaite, “Letter Sycorax” (Nick Lawrence); Part 1 - Modern poetry and the colonial encounter; Part 2 - Negritude and surrealism; Part 3 - Postwar decolonisation and the language of new nations

15 Mar. Cliff, No Telephone to Heaven (Christine Okoth); Part 1 - Historical and biographical background; Part 2 - Maroons and ruins; Part 3 - Refusal and revolt