Department of English
Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University
2202441
British Fiction from the Twentieth Century to the Present
Puckpan Tipayamontri
Office: BRK 1106
Office Hours: M 1–3 (If you are off-campus, via Zoom Meeting Room) and by appointment
Phone: 0 2218 1780
TTh 2:30–4:00
Tentative Schedule
*An asterisk in front of an item
indicates required syllabus reading. Others are recommended supplementary
reading.
Week 1 |
Jan. 19 |
1: 1900s: End of an Era Reading
Discussion:
Prior texts; international influences in the development of
British fiction at the turn of the century; impact of
British fiction across the globe; defining and contesting
Britishness; changing ideas about fiction; making way for
the modernists; rise of the literary craft and criticism;
developing genres and subgenres; popular and "serious"
fiction
|
Jan. 21 |
2: 1910s: Transcontinental Interconnections Reading
Discussion:
Maritime culture; the British Empire
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Week 2 |
Jan. 26 | 3:
1910s: Beginning of New Sensibilities Reading
|
Jan. 28 | 4:
1910s Reading
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Week 3 |
Feb. 2 |
5: 1920s: Experiments Reading
Discussion:
Competing fields and forms for fiction ex. science, art,
film; emergence of modern fiction
|
Feb.
4 |
6: 1930s Reading
Discussion:
Voices; representing war; O'Connor and the short story
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Week 4 |
Feb.
9 |
7: 1940s: Engagements Reading
Discussion:
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Feb. 11 |
8: 1940s Reading
Discussion:
Orwell's art of political writing
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Week 5 |
Feb. 16 |
9: 1940s:
Renaming Reading
Discussion:
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Feb.
18 |
10: 1940s:
Visions Reading
Discussion:
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Week 6 |
Feb.
23 |
11: 1950s: Questioning Reading
Discussion:
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Feb.
25 |
12: 1960s: Recalibrating Reading
Discussion:
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Week 7 |
Mar. 2 |
13: 1970s: Diversity Reading
Discussion:
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Mar.
4 |
14:
1980s
Reading
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Week 8 |
Mar.
9 |
No class (Midterm week: March 8–12, 2021) |
Mar. 11 |
15: 1980s: Reclaiming the World Reading
Discussion:
Postcolonial sensibilities; implications of the English
language; owning languages
|
|
Week 9 |
Mar.
16 |
Midterm
Test (15 minutes for thought and planning and 1 hour for writing) This is an open-book essay-type online test. It starts at 2:30 p.m. and ends at 3:45 p.m. I will be available online (Zoom and e-mail) throughout the test period to answer any questions you may have. The test paper and instructions are posted on our announcements page.
|
Mar.
18 |
16: 1980s Reading
Discussion:
The rise of graphic novels; storytelling media
|
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Week 10 |
Mar.
23 |
17: 1990s Reading
Discussion:
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Mar.
25 |
18: 1990s Reading
Discussion:
Literary visibility (ex. awards, best-of collections,
big-name publishers, major chain bookstores and online
sellers); cultural translation; contemporary publishing
cultures and processes; recalibrating British consciousness
and fiction
|
|
Week 11 |
Mar.
30 |
19: 2000s: Constructive Disruption Reading
Discussion:
Contemporary voices; post-millennial, post-9/11 literature;
disability authors and fiction
|
Apr.
1 |
20: 2000s Reading
Discussion:
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Week 12 |
Apr.
6 |
No
class (Chakri Day)
|
Apr.
8 |
21: Early
2010s
Reading
Discussion:
Functions of history, of philosophy and of teaching;
concerns and preoccupations of history, of philosophy and of
teaching; disadvantages and limitations of history, of
philosophy, of classroom-learning; why are subjects like
history and philosophy taught in schools and colleges?; what
role does philosophy have in life? Is it a practical
resource or a theoretical indulgence?
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Week 13 |
Apr.
13 |
No class (Songkran) |
No class (Songkran) |
||
Week 14 |
Apr.
20 |
22: Early 2010s
Discussion:
Old age; senses; endings
|
Apr. 22 |
23: Early 2010s Reading
Discussion:
Information and perspective: memory and misunderstanding,
evidence and interpretation; motivation and presentation;
truth, lies, life and literature; patterns, echoes, recalls
and variations; observation and understanding; guilt and
expiation; relationship between words, actions and
consequences
|
|
Week 15 |
Apr.
27 |
24: Late 2010s: Disruption and Continuation Reading
Discussion:
What is post-race?; decentralizing Britain; metaphors and
similes of contemporary London and the twenty-first century
world
|
Apr.
29 |
25:
Late 2010s: Narrative Structure and Meaning
Reading
Discussion:
Approaches to narrative structure; narrative structure and
meaning: how ideas affect narrative choice, narrative
strategies regarding place, time, stance, psychology; point
of view; who is deaf?; depathologization (ex. of deafness,
of trauma)
|
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Week 16 |
May
4 |
No class (Coronation Day) |
May
6 |
26: Late 2010s to the Present and Future:
Habitat for Literature
Discussion:
The urban wild; representation (of the animal and plant
kingdom, place, weather, people, death, war and post-war);
digital culture; technology and fiction; cybernetic novels
and full AI novels; the literary Turing Test; digital
narratives: authorship, readership, interactivity, syntax,
continuity, intertextuality, linearity, immediacy,
anonymity, non-human agency; treatments of social media; the
evolution of British fiction, British authors and
Britishness; the ecology of fictional creation; reception;
critical possibilities
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Week 17 |
May 14 |
27: Final Insights 8:00-8:30 p.m.
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Week 18 | May 18 | Final
exam (8:30–11:30 a.m.; open-book, online) The final exam covers material from weeks 9 to 17 on our detailed schedule. The prompts will be posted on our announcements page in both Word and PDF (the latter for you to check against font and layout renditions for different version software) at 8:25 a.m. (five minutes before exam time). I will be available online (Zoom and e-mail) throughout the exam period to answer any questions you may have. |
Week 19 | May 24 | Final paper due (5–7 pp.; paper file received in my e-mail inbox by 4:00 p.m.) |
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Last updated May 30, 2021