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[Marcantonio Raimondi: The Dream of Raphael (1508)]


Novels since 1900

This site presents the fossil remnants of a course I taught for one semester at Auckland University in 2008. Having inherited both the booklist and the structure of lectures, I wasn't able to introduce nearly as many innovations as I would have liked.

For instance, the reading list would have been very different if I'd had my way (for further details, see the blogpost here), and there would have been far more interactive tutorials and far fewer formal lectures.

Anyway, I haven't substantially revised it. It is what it is. I did try and give a kind of potted history of twentieth-century culture as an accompaniment to the discussion of the eight novels, so there's probably some material here which may continue to be of general interest. I feel a certain fondness for some of the connections I managed to make in the heat of the moment.

Student responses were, I would have to say, somewhat mixed. Quite a lot of them enjoyed the New Historicist gestures towards more social history and contextualisation of the novels; others would clearly have preferred to stay with the previous emphasis on New Critical close readings.

You can't please all of the people all of the time. As long as you please yourself, though ... I guess that's the main thing.

Administration:

• Welcome


• Course Description


• Assignments


• Timetable

Authors:

[Maggie Taylor: Girl with a Bee Dress]

• Willa Cather (1873-1947)


• E. M. Forster (1879-1940)


• James Joyce (1882-1941)


• Graham Greene (1904-1991)


• John Barth (1930- )


• Margaret Atwood (1939- )


• Ian McEwan (1948- )


• Louise Erdrich (1954- )

Novels:

[Leonora Carrington: Labyrinth]

1. A Portrait of the Artist (1916)


2. My Ántonia (1918)


3. A Passage to India (1924)


4. The Floating Opera (1957)


5. The End of the Road (1958)


6. The Comedians (1966)


7. Cat’s Eye (1988)


8. Tracks (1988)


9. Atonement (2001)

Lectures:

[Rembrandt van Rijn: The Anatomy lecture of Dr Nicolaes Tulp (1632)]

• lecture 1 - Introduction: The Novel since 1900


• lecture 2 - Willa Cather: What is a Novel?


• lecture 3 - Willa Cather: The Significance of the Frontier


• lecture 4 - James Joyce: International Modernism


• lecture 5 - James Joyce: Stephen Hero


• lecture 6 - James Joyce: The 3 Nets


• lecture 7 - E. M. Forster: Bloomsbury & The Raj


• lecture 8 - E. M. Forster: Plot


• lecture 9 - E. M. Forster: The Trial


• lecture 10 - John Barth: Existentialism, Postmodernism &c.


• lecture 11 - John Barth: The Floating Opera (Detail)


• lecture 12 - John Barth: The End of the Road (Character)


• lecture 13 - Graham Greene: The Bipolar Explorer
  [Sean Sturm]


• lecture 14 - Graham Greene: Theme & Symbolism


• lecture 15 - Graham Greene: That Voodoo You Do


• lecture 16 - Margaret Atwood: Feminist Discourses
  [Agnieszka Zabicka]


• lecture 17 - Margaret Atwood: Time


• lecture 18 - Margaret Atwood: Bullies & Artists


• lecture 19 - Louise Erdrich: The Native American Renaissance


• lecture 20 - Louise Erdrich: Structure


• lecture 21 - Ian McEwan: Thatcher Means Death


• lecture 22 - Ian McEwan: Style


• lecture 23 - Ian McEwan: The 30s & the 40s


• lecture 24 - Conclusion: The 21st Century

Tutorials:

[Writing Freelance Star]

• Tutorial 1: Introductions


• Tutorial 2: Willa Cather


• Tutorial 3: James Joyce


• Tutorial 4: E. M. Forster


• Tutorial 5: John Barth: The Floating Opera


• Tutorial 6: John Barth: The End of the Road


• Tutorial 7: Graham Greene


• Tutorial 8: Margaret Atwood


• Tutorial 9: Louise Erdrich


• Tutorial 10: Ian McEwan