ENL 4273,
Section 1841
Twentieth
Century British Literature:
the
³Americanization of the World²
Professor Phillip
Wegner
Tuesday 5-6 (11:45
a.m.-1:40 p.m.); Thursday 5 (12:50-1:40 p.m.)
Turlington 2328
Office: Turlington 4335
Office Hours: Tuesday, 5-6 p.m., Thursday,
2-3 p.m.;
and by appointment
Phone: 392-6650. ex.
261 (office); 392-0777 (dept.)
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/pwegner/home.htm
Shortly after the beginning of the twentieth century, the English social theorist, W.T. Stead, asserted that the fundamental ³trend² of the new century would be the ³Americanization of the world.² In this declaration, Stead signaled an increasing anxiety on the part of the then dominant imperial nation-state concerning the challenge to its position represented by its one-time colony. The concern over the ³Americanization of the world,² and in particular of Great Britain itself, would shape British literary and cultural production throughout the century, taking on a new significance in the years following the Second World War when the United States finally displaces Great Britain as the center of global capitalism. All of this then prefigures in some fascinating ways debates raging in our moment over ³globalization,² and so an understanding of these historical issues will provide us with a greater insight into developments that will shape our lives for many years to come. In this course, we will explore representations of the United States and the processes of what Stead calls Americanization as they are manifest in some of the most important literary and cultural works of the century. We will begin our discussion in the early part of the twentieth century with a close reading of Joseph Conradıs Nostromo (1904) and Virginia Woolfıs The Waves (1931)with a particular eye to the way these works help bring into focus the transition into a truly global economic and political order then already well underway. We will next turn our attention to a number of key works from the middle of the century that narrate both the decline of British ³formal² imperialism and the rise of the United States as a new economic, political, and cultural power. We will also look at the ways these literary texts explore the development of new kinds of youth cultures and the ways they remake British society as a whole. Finally, we will focus on how these debates continue to influence the literature and cultural theory of Great Britain in the last few decades.
Texts
Joseph Conrad, Nostromo
Virginia Woolf, The Waves
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
Graham Greene, The Quiet American
Colin MacInnes, Absolute Beginners
Martin Amis, Money: A Suicide Note
Julian Barnes, England, England
Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel
These texts are all available at Goerings Book Store Campus Location (1717 NW 1st Avenue, next door to Bageland; 377-3703). As we will be doing a good deal of close reading during the course of the semester, I ask that you get copies with the same pagination as these editions. Some additional readings, primarily short essays, may be made available during the course of the semester.
Requirements, Grading, and Related Matters
1) First, a brief but important general reminder: This is not an introductory level literature course, and all enrolled students should have previously completed some literature courses on the lower- and/or, preferably, the upper-division levels. There will be a good deal of reading, and you may find some of it difficult. You will be expected to keep up with all the readings, and you will be asked to demonstrate, in both your oral and written contributions to the class, proficiency in the kinds of critical and analytical skills expected of advanced literary studies majors. These minimally would entail some experience in reading literary fictions critically, an ability to ascertain the thematic and formal textures of the work, a familiarity with some of the technical devices deployed by writers (point-of-view, metaphor, irony, and so forth), some broad sense of modern literary history, and a willingness to think about the intimate connections between these works and the historical contexts in which they unfold. At the same time, this is not a history course; hence, I will not assume that you have any familiarity with the various historical issues we will also be discussing. If you have any questions about whether this course is right for you, or want suggestions on how you might brush up on some of the basics, please come and speak with me soon.
2) Three formal papers of varying the length, the first and shortest being 6-8 pages, all double-spaced, with one-inch margins, a reasonable 12-point or smaller font, and a consistent bibliographic format. A successful paper will fulfill all of the previous requirements, and demonstrate at once your grasp of and engagement with the concrete specifics of the reading material, their relationship to the various historical and cultural issues we discuss in class, and our classroom discussions more generally. Approximately two weeks before each paper is due, I will provide you with a series of questions that will help focus your discussion, and you will be required to develop each of your papers in response to them.
I will from time to time also make available to you additional related readings that address the larger issues we will be discussing in class, or provide other background information. You are welcome to use these in developing your paper discussion. However, you must provide a bibliography of any additional readings and come and talk to me in advance about the use of any other materials in completing your papers (and please review the note on academic honesty found below).
Papers are due on the dates noted; late papers will receive lowered grades unless other arrangements have been made in advance with me.
3) Readings should be completed before the first class meeting in which they are to be discussed. The length and difficulty of each reading varies, and to keep on pace you must be reading continuously throughout the semester: in short, this means as the semester progresses you will be reading well ahead of our discussions.
Moreover, I do expect lively participation on everyone's part in the discussion of these works. Depending on your activities in class, occasional short quizzes or other brief writing assignments may occur from time to time as well.
4) Given the complexity and extent of the course readings, I will also ask each of you to turn in every week a brief reading log, tracking where you are in the course readings. Your first job in your reading logs will be to keep track of the movement of the narrative as it unfolds through each chapter. What is the plot in each of the chapters? What happens and to whom? Who are the characters, what are they doing, and how are they presented to us? Your second task will be to briefly comment upon the workıs particular representations, especially in terms of the issues at the center of our discussion. I donıt want you to evaluate the work (³this is stupid² is not an acceptable observation), but rather to speculate on the authorıs reasons for presenting things in the way they do. For example, how does author use specific characters to embody the United States, Europe, and other geopolitical entities? How does she do so? These logs will prove invaluable to me in tracking the issues of interest to you in the readings, and for you as reminders of what you have read as you get ahead of the class discussion.
5) As everything above should suggest, attendance and participation in class discussion are an indispensable part of the work we are going to do here. To this end, you will sign a class attendance roster circulated at the beginning of each meeting. You will be allowed three unexcused absences, totaling no more than four class hours, throughout the semester. Any additional non-emergency, non-medical absence not cleared in advance by me will result in a lowering of the final course grade. To state the matter simply and directly, if you miss an excessive number of classes, you will have been considered not to have completed the requirements of the course, and hence will not receive a passing grade. Moreover, regular late arrivals (or early departures) will be counted as absences.
6) No final or midterm examinations.
7) Grades will be based on the conscientious completion of all of the above requirements. Failure to fulfill any of the above requirementsincluding attendance or reading logswill impact directly on your final grade. If you have any concerns or questions about your work for this class, please come and speak with me.
8) Finally, communication is crucial to everything we are going to do in the next four months. Thus, if you are unsure about any of the course requirements, or run into any kind of difficulty, academic or otherwise, as the semester progresses, please come and speak with me as soon as you can. I will try to be as accommodating as possible, but I cannot help you if you do not let me know what is going on. Also if you have any general questions, or just feel like continuing the discussion begun in class, I encourage you to drop by during my scheduled office hours, or to make an appointment to see me.
A Brief Note on Academic Honesty
Plagiarism in any formincluding but not limited to directly quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing from external sources without proper citations, as well as presenting as your own work papers written by someone else (for example a paper written by a friend; a purchased or retyped paper; or one taken from a file, electronic or otherwise)is a direct violation of the university Academic Honesty Code. You are required to review this code and the Academic Honesty Guidelines, especially the discussion of plagiarism, found in the Undergraduate Catalogue. Plagiarism or any other form of academic dishonesty will result in an automatic failure of the assignment, a mandatory rewriting of the assignment, and a lowering by two letter grades of your final course grade (a B would become a D); a second attempt will result in an automatic failure of the course and a filing of a report in your academic file. If you have any questions, or even the slightest doubt, about what constitutes plagiarism or academic dishonesty, I beseech you to come and speak with me before you turn in the paper.
Tentative Schedule
PART I: Intimations
of the Trend; or, The End of One Hegemony and the Beginning of Another
Joseph Conrad, Nostromo (1904)
Virginia Woolf, The Waves (1931)
PART II: The Postwar Moment; or, Life in Oceania
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
Graham Greene, The Quiet American (1955)
Film screening: The Quiet American (2002)
Colin MacInnes, Absolute Beginners (1959)
Paper #2 Due November 9
PART III: Centuryıs End; or, the New
Class, Globalization, and Empire
November
9-16
Martin Amis, Money: A Suicide Note (1985)
November
23-30
Julian Barnes, England, England (1998)
Film screening: Notting Hill (1999)
NO CLASS November
25 (Thanksgiving)
Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel (2001)