2010-2011 Academic Catalog

Oct 18, 2024

2010-2011 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

COMM 273 - Contemporary British Literature and Culture

This course explores British literary and visual culture following the political, economic, and social upheavals after World War II. Marked by Britain’s declining geopolitical significance, the trauma of the war, and the dissolution of the empire overseas, this period precipitated a crisis of national confidence while opening up new possibilities for defining the “imagined community” of England. We will examine the many aesthetic responses to this era of transition, from nostalgic efforts to reassert a sense of authentic nationhood to new social movements that point to alternative forms of solidarity and community. Topics we will examine include the confluence of race and nationalism; a new emphasis on individual identity and authentic selfhood; the emergence of youth movements and subcultures; the challenges posed by writers from the former colonies; the use of new narrative techniques to respond to realism and modernism. We will explore novels, poetry, music and film profoundly influenced by the legacy of war, new immigration, dramatic shifts in gender and sexual politics, class conflict and deindustrialization, and the potential break-up of Britain. Consideration of these texts, and of the cultural studies movement itself, will serve as the basis for discussions on the ways that literary, popular, and political culture register, and refashion, deeply contested debates regarding the meaning of Englishness. Readings will be drawn from such authors as Anthony Burgess, Kingsley Amis, Ian McEwan, Jamaica Kincaid, Jeanette Winterson, Zadie Smith, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Pat Barker, and Salman Rushdie. For undergraduate English majors, this course satisfies the Period (C-3) requirement.

Cross Listed: ENG 278, ENG 378

Instructor: Mr. Levin

When Offered: Offered 2009-2010

Faculty: Stephen M. Levin, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of English