CURRICULUM GUIDELINE

Topics in Literary Modernism

ENGL 3190
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Course Information Course Discontinued
Course Code & Number: ENGL 3190
Transcript Title: Topics in Literary Modernism
Descriptive Title: Topics In Literary Modernism
Institution Unit: English
Start Term: January 2011
End Term: Not Specified
Credit: 4.0
Description: Focusing on the period between 1885 and 1939, this course surveys a selection of modernist
texts in any genre(s), chosen to highlight an organizing theoretical, national, or thematic focus. Secondary
readings will include theory/criticism, and will introduce students to a range of modernist aesthetic
practices and perspectives.
Course Details
Learning Format: Lecture, Seminar
Contact Hours: 4 hours per week
Semester Length: 15 weeks
Prerequisites

Any TWO university-transfer first-year English courses, or ONE first-year university-transfer English
course and ONE first-year university-transfer CRWR course, AND a minimum of 45 credit hours.

Corequisites
Equivalencies Not Specified
Maximum Class Size: 25
PLAR: No
Course Curriculum
Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of any third-year English literature course, students should be able to

1. read and analyze literary texts with increased skill and insight;
2. integrate their understanding of literature into an evolving awareness of relevant cultural and
historical contexts and perspectives;
3. perceive connections among literary texts across genres, historical periods, and/or cultural
contexts;
4. conduct independent research to supplement the course material and integrate this information
into course assignments; and
5. write different kinds of literary analyses, such as thematic, technical, or theoretical.

 Upon completion of English 3190, students should also have

1. developed an understanding and appreciation of the historical development of modernism;

 2. developed an understanding of some of the social, political, cultural or historical conditions out of
which literary modernism arises, and to which it responds;
3. developed an understanding of the numerous schools and aesthetic concerns of the early
twentieth-century artistic avant-garde(s);
4. developed an appreciation of the range of the particular experiences and issues as reflected in
modernist writing, such as the impact of warfare, technologies, and urbanization on the production
of, and expectations for, literary expression.

Course Content

All third-year English courses share the following features:

1. Students are presumed to have had first-year level instruction and experience in writing critical
essays on literary subjects.
2. Students are required to read in the course subject area beyond the texts assigned by the instructor.
3. Students are required to incorporate into their oral and written coursework secondary source
materials which may include biographical information, literary criticism or theory, unassigned
texts by the author under study, relevant cultural or intellectual history, or other aesthetic works
such as music or visual art.

Readings and topics vary with each instructor’s presentation of a course, but all course materials are
consistent with the objectives and outcomes for this course.

Additionally, in English 3190

1. students will read a selection of modernist texts, as well as some theoretical/critical material
relevant to the particular theme or focus.
2. areas of concentration and course content will vary with the instructor but may include, but not be
limited to, explorations of: the influence of technology on creative practice; the role of warfare—
and artist’s experiences of warfare—in artistic production; the effect of shifting genre
expectations; the effect of new creative modes such as advertising, cinema, and comics on creative
practice; the role of other literary traditions, styles, perspectives in the development of modernist
aesthetics; the development—and deployment—of theoretical and aesthetic perspectives.
3. the texts chosen may have been produced originally in English or studied in translation.
4. the texts chosen will be predominantly literary, but may include other artistic genres such as film,
music, and painting.

Methods Of Instruction

Some or all of the following methods will be used:

1. lecture/discussion;
2. group work;
3. peer review;
4. independent research;
5. instructor feedback on students’ work;
6. individual consultation; and
7. presentation (individual or group).

Text Books\Materials

Texts will vary with authors and genres selected by the instructor, and may include shorter readings
compiled in custom course packs. 
Typically, the syllabus will draw upon texts by some of the authors and representative aesthetic
movements listed below which characterize a cross-section of modernist writing and theoretical thinking:

Authors may include James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Ezra Pound, E. M. Forster, Joseph Conrad,
Bertolt Brecht, Marianne Moore,  F. T. Marinetti, Wyndham Lewis, W. B. Yeats, Gertrude Stein, Mina
Loy, E. E. Cummings, John Dos Passos, William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, H.D., Tristan Tzara, André
Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Heinrich Ibsen, William Carlos Williams, Ford Madox Ford,
Dorothy Richardson, Wallace Stevens, Anton Chekhov, Marcel Proust, Rebecca West, Nancy Cunard,
Mary Butts, Hart Crane, Djuna Barnes, Jean Rhys, Elizabeth Bowen, Samuel Beckett, Walter Benjamin,
Theodor Adorno.

Aesthetic movements encountered may include Futurism, Vorticism, Imagism, Cubism, Surrealism, and
Dadaism.

The example below is a reading list for a version of the course governed by a specific theme:

Modernism and The Great War

 Dos Passos, John. Three Soldiers.

 Ford, Ford Madox. The Good Soldier.
 Fussell, Paul. The Great War and Modern Memory.
 Gance, Abel. J’accuse!
 Lewis, Wyndham and Ezra Pound. Blast and Blast 2.
 The Penguin Edition of First World War Poetry.
 Waugh, Evelyn. Vile Bodies.
 West, Rebecca. The Return of the Soldier.
 Woolf, Virginia. Jacob’s Room.

Means Of Assessment

1. A minimum of two academic essays and a final exam worth at least 80% of the course grade
(combined total).
2. A maximum of 20% of the course grade may be based on informal writing (quizzes, short answer
tests); oral reports/presentations; participation/preparation grades; and/or other non writing-
intensive assignments.

 Sample Assignment Structure

 Two essays 50%

 Class presentation 20%
 Final examination 30%
 ENGL 2112
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Course Information

Course Code & Number: ENGL 2112

Transcript Title: Studies in Children's Lit.

Descriptive Title: Studies In Children’S Literature

Institution Unit: English

Start Term: September 2014

End Term: Not Specified

Credit: 3.0

Description: This course explores works of literature specifically intended for children and young adults, as well as
traditional influences on children's literature, such as folk and fairy tales and moral tales. Students will read works
reflecting a variety of literary genres, as well as contextual and/or critical material related to the works being
studied.

Course Details

Learning Format: Lecture, Seminar

Contact Hours: 4 hours per week

Semester Length: 15 weeks

Prerequisites

Any two university-transfer first-year English literature courses, or one university-transfer first-year

English literature course and one university-transfer first-year Creative Writing or English writing
course.  

Corequisites

Equivalencies Not Specified

Maximum Class Size: 35

PLAR: No

Course Curriculum

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of any second-year English literature course, the student should be able to
 1. use with increased proficiency the skills of literary analysis taught in first-year English courses;
2. recognize the significance of the literary and other contexts (such as biographical, historical, mythological
or philosophical) of a work being studied;
3. read critically and use in essays secondary sources (such as criticism or other texts by the same author) as
an aid to comprehending the primary text(s) being studied;
4. read critically and independently texts not discussed in class; and
5. formulate a thesis on a given subject in one or more specific works, and to develop this thesis using
suitable textual evidence.

Upon completion of English 2112, the successful student should also have a deeper understanding of

1. read with an awareness of the intended child audience;

2. understand key issues in children’s literature, such as didacticism and social attitudes towards children
and childhood, as reflected in literary texts; and, where appropriate, identify typical features of literary
genres and modes, such as realism and fantasy, and discuss their effect on plot, character and theme;
3. understand some of the wide variety of critical approaches to children's literature, such as postcolonial,
gender/queer theoretical, intertextual, postmodern, and critical race approaches.

Course Content

All second-year English literature courses share the following features:

1. Students are presumed to be proficient in the writing of critical essays on literary subjects.
2. Students are required to read in the course subject area beyond the texts assigned by the instructor or
discussed in class.
3. Students are required to incorporate into their oral and written coursework secondary source materials.
These may include autobiographical or biographical material; literary criticism or theory; unassigned texts
by the author under study; relevant cultural or intellectual history; or other arts, such as music, film, or
fine arts.
4. Readings and topics will vary with each instructor’s presentation of a course; however, all course
materials are consistent with the objectives/outcomes for this course.

In English 2112, students will examine at least two full-length novels as well as some of the following:

1. Traditional literature, such as folk tales, fairy tales, and myths

2. Early didactic/instructional works (prose and/or poetry)
3. Children’s verse (poetry and nursery rhymes)
4. Picture books and other illustrated works
5. Dramatic works
6. Short fiction
7. Criticism and theory as it relates to the work of particular authors under study.

Methods Of Instruction

Some or all of the following methods will be used:

1. Lecture/discussion;
2. Group work;
3. Peer editing;
4. Group or individual presentations;
5. Independent research;
6. Instructor feedback on students’ work; and
7. Individual consultation.

Text Books\Materials
Texts will vary depending on the instructor, and may include shorter readings compiled in custom course
packs.

Three sample reading lists follow:

Golden Age Children's Literature

 MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin

 Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
 Barrie, Peter Pan (drama)
 Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
 Hale and Hale, Rapunzel's Revenge
 Hallett and Karasek, eds. Folk and Fairy Tales (includes critical essays on fairy tales and adaptations such
as Disney's)

Boys and Colonialisms

 King and Monkman, A Coyote Columbus Story

 Stevenson, Treasure Island
 Selections from Uncle Remus
 Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
 Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
 Achebe, Chike and the River
 Coursepack including a selection of fairy tales--Grimms, "The Brave Little Tailor;" Calvino, "The Neapolitan
Soldier"; poems--Milne, Steveson, Lear; and short critical selections from Nodelman, The Pleasures of
Children's Literature; Higgonnet, Girls, Boys, Books, Toys: Gender in Children's Literature; Kohl, "A Plea for
Radical Children's Literature"

Fantasy

 Tolkien, The Hobbit

 Alexander, The Book of Three
 Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
 Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
 L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time (original or 2012 graphic novel adaptation)
 Coursepack including Kleist, "On the Marionette Theatre;" Campbell, "Stages of the Hero's Journey;"
LeGuin, "Why Americans Are Afraid of Dragons" and MacDonald, "The Fantastic Imagination"

Means Of Assessment

1. A minimum of two formal academic essays, with a combined value of at least 40% of the course grade.
2. A minimum of 80% of the course grade will be based on writing assignments (essays, essay-based exams,
journals, paragraphs). A maximum of 20% of the course grade may be based on informal writing (quizzes,
short answer tests); oral reports/presentations; participation/preparation grades; and/or other non
writing-intensive assignments.
3. A minimum of 15% of the course grade will be based on in-class writing (essay or exam).

According to the College Evaluation Policy, the final grade awarded to each student shall consist of at
least three separate assessments. No single assessment will be weighted at more than 40% of the final
course grade.