21L.485 - 20th-Century Fiction
Prof. David Thorburn
Required texts:
Isaac Babel, The Collected Stories, tr. Constantine (Norton)
Conrad, Heart of Darkness (Dover Thrift Edition)
Conrad, The Shadow-Line (any edition)
Faulkner, The Portable Faulkner, ed. Cowley (Penguin)
Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier (Random House: Vintage)
Joyce, Dubliners (Penguin)
Joyce, Ulysses (Random H) [optional purchase]
Kafka, The Metamorphosis (Random H: Bantam)
Kipling, The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories (Dover)
Nabokov, Pale Fire (Vintage International)
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (Harcourt Brace)
“Timeline,” “Glossary” and “Biographical Notes,” [digital text on website]
Required viewing:
Thorburn lectures 3 and 4, “Monet’s Cathedral,” “Beyond Impressionism”
in the Masterworks series listed below.
Recommended:
DVD lectures by Thorburn, “Masterworks of Early 20th-Century Literature,”
The Teaching Company, 2007. Available from the film office, 14N-428.
Writing Requirements:
One short summary (1-2 double-spaced typed pages long), a weekly
"response" (maximum length, one page) to any aspect of the reading
no
longer than one double-spaced page, two interpretive essays (4-7 pages)
due on the dates specified on the syllabus.Students may revise and resubmit
these essays for a new grade within one week of the date on which
essays are returned. Late papers will be graded without penalty if they
are submitted within seven days of the due date, but such papers will be
ineligible for revision and may not receive written commentary. No
papers will be accepted beyond the seven-day grace period.
Examinations: Two in-class exams, consisting of one essay question and
short-answer identifications.
This course is offered for variable credit. Students must declare
their choice of 9 or 12 units at the beginning of the term.
Requirements
9-UNIT VERSION
Writing:
One short summary (1-2 double-spaced typed pages long) and nine responses
to any aspect of the reading or our class discussions. These responses should
be no longer than 1-2 double-spaced pages and are due at the start of class
on Tuesdays.
Exams:
Two 90-minute exams, consisting of one essay question and short-answer identifications.
12-UNIT VERSION
The above requirements, plus two interpretive essays (6-10 pages) due on the dates
specified on the syllabus. Students may revise and resubmit these essays for a new grade
within one week of the date on which essays are returned. Late papers will be graded
without penalty if they are submitted within seven days of the due date, but such papers
will be ineligible for revision and may not receive written commentary. No papers will be
accepted beyond the seven-day grace period.
COMPUTER USE IN CLASS
You are encouraged to bring your laptops to class and to make notes during our discussion.
You are encouraged to make rare – and very quick – probes into cyberspace, to look for
material immediately relevant to our discussions. Your moral contract with me and your
classmates is to use your computer only for activities directly relevant to our class. If
someone is discovered checking email or using a computer for any other purpose not
connected to our current discussion, he or she will be asked to leave the course.