ENGL 6500 - [Studies in the Modern Novel: Joyce, Conrad, and Woolf]

Not offered 2017-2018. 4 credits. Student option grading.

D. Schwarz.

We shall read essential masterworks of three major figures who defined by their experiments in form and content the modern and contemporary novel in much of the world. Our close, nuanced readings will include a seven-week study of the most influential book of the twentieth century, James Joyce’s Ulysses; Conrad’s two most important novels, Lord Jim and Nostromo; and Woolf’s experimental Mrs. Dalloway and To The Lighthouse. In addition to examining our three authors’ innovative contributions to narrative, we will also examine these works from a post-colonial perspective and consider their political implications. Thus we shall examine Conrad’s critique of imperialism and Woolf’s critique of a patriarchal and stratified society as well as Joyce’s response to Yeats and the Celtic Renaissance; Joyce’s role in the debate about the direction of Irish politics after Parnell; and Joyce’s response to British colonial occupation of Ireland. We shall be alert to parallel developments in other art forms. Doctoral students, MFA, advanced undergraduates welcome.