The 1920's

Anglistik
HS; Di 14:15-15:45

The 1920s mark one of the most vibrant periods in British literature. It is the age of high modernism which sees the publication of Eliot’s The Waste Land, Joyce’s Ulysses and major novels and essays of Virginia Woolf. It is also a period of important cultural transformations as consequences of the trauma of the Great War, feminist movements and the new media. The course will address the key themes, cultural issues and aesthetic concepts of this controversial decade, and discuss at length the texts listed below which should be read before the course begins.
Readings:
Poetry: T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land; Vita Sackville West, The Land;
Fiction: Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, Rebecca West, The Return of the Soldier;
Essays: Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own.
Other texts will be provided in a reader: James Joyce, Ulysses (in parts), Short Stories by D.H. Lawrence, Winifred Holtby and Rosamond Lehmann.
Recommended introductory reading: David Ayers, English Literature of the 1920s; Christoph Bode u. Ulrich Broich, Die Zwanziger Jahre in Großbritannien, 1998 (alas in German: but nevertheless a good overview!)
Requirements: Regular attendance, active participation, oral presentation and final paper.