| Unit name | Transatlantic Women Modernists |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ENGL20042 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Matthews |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of English |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit will look at the gender in and of modernism, on both sides of the Atlantic, paying particular attention to the ways in which transatlantic literary and feminist networks shaped the writing of the period. Many of the writers we will read were travellers or immigrants, their lives and works shaped by the world wars and colonialism, and this sense of movement will allow us to better understand the historical and political spaces the texts occupied, from the cosmopolitan centres to the colonies. Considering poetry, prose, and reportage, we will think about how formal conceits were developed to write about these shifting communities, and to respond to changing notions of race, class, nation, and gender. We will ask what makes these works ‘modern,’ exploring the influences on their writing of psychoanalysis, women’s suffrage, access to birth-control, Marxist politics, and print culture.
On successful completion of this unit students will have (1) developed a detailed knowledge of modernist writing by women; (2) developed a critical understanding of the forms, politics and contexts that influenced the transatlantic culture of modernist writing; (3) acquired an understanding of major critical approaches in modernist, gender, and feminist literary studies; (4) demonstrated their ability to analyse and compare texts, as well as engage different critical approaches; (5) strengthened their skills in academic writing, argumentation, and evaluation of evidence from primary texts and critical literature.
1 x 2-hour seminar per week
One short essay of 2000 words (33.3%) and one long essay of 4000 words (66.7%). Both summative elements will assess (1) knowledge and understanding of writing by transatlantic women modernists; and (2) understanding of the cultural context of women’s writing of the period, and critical approaches to it. The long essay will also involve (3) comparative analysis. Both essays will also test (4, 5, and 6) students’ ability to analyse and assess competing accounts of the primary texts; their ability to adduce pertinent textual material in support of their argument and their ability to present that argument lucidly and in accordance with academic conventions.
Djuna Barnes, Nightwood (London: Faber and Faber, 2007) Nella Larsen, Passing and Quicksand, ed. by Davis (New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1986) Jean Rhys, Voyage in the Dark (London: Penguin Modern Classics, 2000) Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas (London: Vintage 1996) Bonnie Kime Scott, The Gender in Modernism: New Geographies, Complex Intersections (Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2007) Shari Benstock, Women of the Left Bank: Paris 1900-1940 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987)
