Literatura Inglesa IV: El Giro a la Posmodernidad

UNIT 1: THE POSTMODERN TURN: INTRODUCTION AND BRIEF

ACCOUNT OF THE POSTULATES OF POSTMODERNISM
1. INTRODUCTORY AND CRITICAL TEXTS:
Chapter 1 in the online textbook, containing:
A succinct outline of the most relevant concepts and tenets of
postmodernism.
Allusions to the work of contemporary authors (Fredric Jameson,
Jean Franois Lyotard, Linda Hutcheon) that have contributed to lay
the foundations of postmodern thought.
On the other hand, read attentively the following articles by Linda
Hutcheon: The Postmodern Problematizing of History.
English Studies in Canada 14.4 (1988): 365- 382. [Link to article],
The Post Always Rings Twice: The Postmodern and the
Postcolonial. Material History Review 41 (1995): 4-23. [Link to
article], Incredulity toward Metanarrative: Negotiating
Postmodernism and Feminisms. Collaboration in the Feminine:
Writings on Women and Culture from Tessera. Ed. Barbara Godard.
Toronto: Second Story, 1994. 186-192. [Link to article]
Self-assessment activities (it is recommended that students develop
the self-study activities suggested in the Study Plan above, plus the
activities provided in the online textbook and the curso virtual in
relation to this Unit).
UNIT 2: THE NOVEL AS
WHIRLWIND OF CHANGE

EXPLORATION

OF

THE

GREAT

1. INTRODUCTORY AND CRITICAL TEXTS:

Chapter 2 in the online textbook. This chapter deals with fictional
works by Doris Lessing, Jean Rhys, John Fowles, Julian Barnes,
Antonia S. Byatt, Martin Amis and Ian McEwan.
Critical texts on the writers aforementioned and their works
(provided in the curso virtual).

 Self-assessment activities (it is recommended that students develop

the self-study activities suggested in the Study Plan above, plus the
activities provided in the curso virtual in relation to this Unit).
2. LITERARY TEXTS:
Reading and analysis of the novels Possession, by Antonia S.
Byatt (London: Chatto & Windus, 1990; frequently reprinted), and
Times Arrow, by Martin Amis (London: Penguin, 1991; frequently
reprinted).
Self-assessment activities suggested in Study Plan and provided in
the online textbook and the curso virtual.
UNIT 3: FROM CANONICAL ENGLISH TO MULTICULTURAL
BRITISH: REWORKING THE CANON
1. INTRODUCTORY AND CRITICAL TEXTS:
Relates to Chapter 3 in the online textbook, and deals with
postcolonial authors whose works are linked to contemporary Britain.
Extracts of postcolonial critics will be provided both in the textbook
and the curso virtual.
Self-assessment activities (it is recommended that students develop
the self-study activities suggested in the Study Plan above, plus the
activities provided in the curso virtual in relation to this Unit).
2. LITERARY TEXTS:
Self-assessment activities suggested in Study Plan and provided in
the online textbook and the curso virtual.
UNIT 4: DRAMA IN THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES: ANGER AND
COUNTER CULTURE
1. INTRODUCTORY AND CRITICAL TEXTS:
Chapter 4 in the online textbook, dealing with the development of
drama in Britain from the sixties to the first decade of the twenty-first
century. Special epigraphs will be devoted to John Osborne, David
Hare, Harold Pinter and Caryl Churchill.

 Self-assessment activities (it is recommended that students develop

the self-study activities suggested in the Study Plan above, plus the
activities provided in the curso virtual in relation to this Unit).
2. LITERARY TEXTS:
Reading and analysis of Harold Pinters play The Dumb Waiter,
in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. II.
Self-assessment activities suggested in Study Plan and provided in
the online textbook and the curso virtual.
UNIT 5: POETRY AFTER WORLD WAR II
1. INTRODUCTORY AND CRITICAL TEXTS:
Chapter 5 in the online textbook. This last Unit in the course
tackles the role played by the New Poetry in Britain, paying attention
to the influence of the American confessional poets (focusing on Ted
Hughes and Sylvia Plath), to Tony Harrison, to Benjamin Zephaniah,
Jean Binta Breeze and multicultural poetry, and to postcolonial poets
like Grace Nichols, John Agard, Faustin Charles, Fred DAguiar, among
others.
Self-assessment activities (it is recommended that students develop
the self-study activities suggested in the Study Plan above, plus the
activities provided in the online textbook and the curso virtual in
relation to this Unit).
2. LITERARY TEXTS:
Reading and analysis of poems by the poets mentioned above
provided in the textbook and the curso virtual.
Self-assessment activities suggested in Study Plan and provided in
the textbook and the curso virtual.