Bishop's University Lennoxville, Quebec. English 25l: The British Novel After 1930: Darkness Made Visible

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1 Bishop's University Lennoxville, Quebec English 25l: The British Novel After 1930: Darkness Made Visible Fall 2008 Dr.Glen Wickens MW 15:00 Morris House, Rm 8 N.211 Office Hours: MWF 10:00 Telephone: ext Home: gwickens@ubishops.ca This course examines the development of the British novel after the Modernist Period. Novelists such as Greene, Golding, Amis, Murdoch, Fowles, White, and Ishiguro will be studied in relation to a variety of topics, including World War II and the holocaust, the end of Empire, the idea of the hero, the political unconscious, communism, higher education, and gender and identity. Required Texts 1. 2 Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory (Penguin) William Golding, Lord of the Flies (Faber) 3. Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim (Penguin) 4. Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honourble Defeat (Penguin) 5. John Fowles, The French Lieutenant's Woman (Signet) 6. D.M. Thomas, The White Hotel (Penguin) 7. Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day (Penguin) Schedule of Lectures and Assignments September 3 Introduction to the course 8 Greene, Carnival, and the Cinema 10 The Power and the Glory (1940) 15 The Power and the Glory 17 The Power and the Glory 22 Golding, Lord of the Flies (1954) 24 Lord of the Flies 29 Lord of the Flies October 1 Amis, Lucky Jim (l954) 6 Lucky Jim

2 8 Lucky Jim 15 Murdoch, A Fairly Honourable Defeat (l970) lst essay due 20 A Fairly Honourable Defeat 22 A Fairly Honourable Defeat 27 Fowles, The French Lieutenant's Woman (l970) 29 The French Lieutenant's Woman 31 Screening of The French Lieutenant's Woman, 2-4 p.m. in N.4 November 3 The French Lieutenant s Woman 5 Thomas, The White Hotel (l98l) 10 The White Hotel 12 The White Hotel 14 Screening of The Remains of the Day, 2-4 p.m. in N4 17 Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day (l989) 19 The Remains of the Day 24 The Remains of the Day *2nd essay due (no extensions) 26 The Remains of the Day Weight of Marks Term = 70%; Final Examination (2 hours) = 30% Term: lst essay (1,700 words) = 30% 2nd essay (1,700 words) = 30% class participation & attendance = 10% Further Information for Students l. Scale of Marks: Class Letter Grade Percentage First A 80 - l00

3 Second B Third C F (Failure) A student who does not do all the year's work (the examinations and essays) places himself in jeopardy; he may be failed, regardless of how high his marks on submitted work. 3. Whatever the quality of the content, essays may be failed for stylistic or grammatical incompetence. 4. Students will be expected to have read works before the days assigned for discussion of them. 5. Regular attendance is strongly encouraged. The examinations will directly reflect the material and ideas discussed in class. 6. There is no supplemental examination for this course. 7. Essays must be handed in either to the professor or to the English Department secretary no later than 4:00 p.m. on the day on which they are due. 8. Requests for extensions must be made at least a day before essays are due. 9. Essays that are handed in after the deadline without the prior consent of the professor will be penalized 5% per working day late. l0. The third edition of the MLA Handbook defines plagiarism as "the act of using another person's ideas or expressions in your writing without acknowledging the source" (l.6). For details, examples of plagiarism, and instructions for avoiding it, please read the entire article on plagiarism carefully (pp. 2l-25). Also read the departmental handout on Quotations, Citations, and List of Works Cited and the section about plagiarism and academic dishonesty in the Bishop's University Academic Calendar for If you are guilty of plagiarism, you will receive a mark of zero for the essay concerned; the members of the English Department and the Dean of Arts and Sciences will be informed. If you are guilty of a second offense, you will receive a mark of zero for the course; again, the Dean will be informed. 11. The English Department now has available plagiarism detection services (PDS). 12. Please put your box number on your essay.

4 English 25l First Essay Topics DUE: October 15, 2008 Dr. Glen Wickens LENGTH: approx words Choose one of the following: l. Graham Greene has written that The plot of the novel catches the attention, but the subject lies deeper. Discuss the relation between plot and theme in The Power and the Glory. 2. Discuss the importance of children in The Power and the Glory. 3. Discuss the relation between freedom and imprisonment in The Power and the Glory. 4. Discuss the conflict between the desire to stand aside from society and the desire to fine a niche in it in Lucky Jim. 5. Discuss the idea of luck in Lucky Jim. 6. While their morality may not always be conventional, many angry heroes are nevertheless moralists. To what extent does this statement apply to Jim Dixon in Lucky Jim? 7. Discuss the problem of finding one s own voice in Lucky Jim. 8. Examine any one of the first three stories as an example of carnivalized literature. 9. Discuss the relation between the adult world and the children s world in Lord of the Flies. 10. Analyze the changing function of some of the major symbols (such as the fire, the conch, the eyeglasses ) in Lord of the Flies. 11. What signifiance do rituals and play-acting have in Lord of the Flies? 12. Is it important that a group of boys rather than girls is stranded on the island in Lord of the Flies? 13. Discuss the function of laughter in The Power and the Glory or Lucky Jim. 14. Examine the function of cinematic techniques in The Power and

5 the Glory. 15. Discuss the idea of evil in either Lord of the Flies or The Power and the Glory.

6 English 25l Second Essay Topics DUE: November 24, 2008 Dr. Glen Wickens LENGTH: approx words l. In A Fairly Honourable Defeat, Julius says, "Put three people in a fix and instead of trying to communicate they'll dream up some piece of communal violence." Examine the relevance of this comment to A Fairly Honourable Defeat. 2. Discuss the fascination with power in A Fairly Honourable Defeat. 3. What gives A Fairly Honourable Defeat, with its multiple characters and plot complications, coherence and structure? 4. Discuss the relation between the Victorian and the Modern in The French Lieutenant's Woman. 5. One common complaint about Sarah is that the reader does not know enough about her existence: "so much may be said about her in theoretical terms and not enough in more ordinary ways, about say, her tastes, habits, history, antipathies or desires." How fair is this criticism? 6. Why does the narrator provide three possible endings to The French Lieutenant's Woman? 7. Discuss Thomas's representation of Freud in The White Hotel. 8. In The White Hotel, "The heroine...can finally be understood as neither sick nor mad but ideally human." Do you agree? 9. To many readers, the last section of The White Hotel "has seemed either weak and puzzling or simply offensive." What do you think? l0. What remains of the day in Ishiguro's novel? ll. To what extent does Stevens represent the "likes of you and I" in democracy? l2. Discuss the relation between Lord Darlington and Stevens in The Remains of the Day. 13. How successfully does the film version of The French Lieutenant s Woman translate the stereoscopic vision of Fowles novel, the way it is written from both a mid-victorian and a modern point of view? 14. Why does Thomas include poetry among the many discourses that

7 constitute The White Hotel? 15. To what extent do scenes added or altered in the Merchant and Ivory film adaptation change the meaning of Ishiguro s The Remains of the Day? 16. What is revealed about Stevens through his idea of greatness in The Remains of the Day?