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FROM MODERNISM TO POSTMODERNISMTopics List

1) Modernism: the notion, the culture, the context

2) Poetry: early modernisma) The new style

i) Symbolismii) Aestheticismiii) Decadence

Representatives: Arthur Symons, Lionel Johnson, Ernest Dowson, Oscar Wilde, W. B.Yeats (early phase)b) The traditionalists: thematic modernity

i) Colloquial perspectiveii) Preoccupation with localityiii) Sense of finality

Representatives: Rudyard Kipling, A. E. Housman, Thomas Hardy, EdwardThomasc) The war poets: Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg

3) Poetry: high modernisma) Imagism: T. E. Hulme, D. H. Lawrence, Ezra Poundb) Modernism proper: T. S. Eliot

4) William Butler Yeatsa) Early (Symbolist) period: Celtic myth and occultismb) Later (modernist) period: "The Second Coming"; the Byzantium poemsc) Works in drama and prose

5) Poetry: late modernisma) The spirit of the 1930-40sb) Wystan Hugh Audenc) Louis MacNeiced) Dylan Thomas

6) The novel: early dystopiaa) Utopia and dystopiab) H. G. Wellsc) Aldous Huxley

7) Fiction against the grain: social satire and comic grotesquea) Aldous Huxleyb) Evelyn Waughc) Jerome K. Jeromed) P. G. Wodehouse

8) The popular novel (I)a) crime

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b) espionagec) horror

9) The novel: later dystopiaa) George Orwellb) William Goldingc) Anthony Burgess

10) The postwar novela) The Angry Young Men: Alan Sillitoe, John Wain, Keith Waterhouseb) The campus novel: Kingsley Amis, David Lodgec) The existentialist novel: William Golding, Iris Murdoch

11) Poetry after 1945: the new modernists

12) Postmodernist metafictiona) Technical-experimental

i) B. S. Johnsonii) Christine Brooke-Roseiii) Alan Burns

b) Historiographici) John Fowlesii) Malcolm Bradburyiii) Graham Swiftiv) Julian Barnes

13) Feminism and postcolonialisma) Angela Carter; Jeannette Wintersonb) Salman Rushdie; Kazuo Ishiguro

14) Poetry after 1945: the postmodernists

15) The popular novel (II)a) Science fictionb) Fantasy

READING LIST

THEORETICAL/CRITICAL SUGGESTIONS

Beasley, Rebecca, Theorists of Modernist Poetry

Bentley, Nick, Contemporary British Fiction

Bertens, Hans, The Idea of the Postmodern: A History

Bradbury, Malcolm & Robert Macfarlane (eds), Modernism

Bradshaw, D. & K. J. H. Dettmar (eds), A Companion to Modernist Literature and Culture

Carter, R. & J. McRae, The Routledge History of Literature in English

Finney, Brian, English Fiction Since 1984: Narrating a Nation

Head, Dominic, The State of the Novel: Britain and Beyond

Howarth, Peter, British Poetry in the Age of Modernism

Marcus, L. & P. Nicholls (eds), The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century English Literature

McHale, Brian, Postmodernist Fiction

Nicol, Bran, The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction

Poplawski, Paul, Encyclopedia of Literary Modernism

Shaffer, Brian W., Reading the Novel in English 1950-2000

Waugh, Patricia, Metafiction

Whitworth, Michael H., Reading Modernist Poetry

Womack, Kenneth, Postwar Academic Fiction

POETRY/FICTION MUST-READS

Poetry

William Butler Yeats, Selected poems

Thomas Stearns Eliot, Selected poems

Wystan Hugh Auden, Selected poems

Ted Hughes, Selected poems

Fiction

Herbert George Wells, The Time Machine

Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

George Orwell, 1984

Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One

William Golding, Lord of the Flies

Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim

Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange

Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince

David Lodge, Changing Places

John Fowles, The Magus

Terry Pratchett, Mort

Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot

Jeannette Winterson, Passion

Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

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READING LIST

PoetryWilliam Butler Yeats, Selected poemsThomas Stearns Eliot, Selected poemsWystan Hugh Auden, Selected poemsTed Hughes, Selected poems

FictionHerbert George Wells, The Time MachineAldous Huxley, Brave New WorldGeorge Orwell, 1984Evelyn Waugh, The Loved OneWilliam Golding, Lord of the FliesKingsley Amis, Lucky JimAnthony Burgess, A Clockwork OrangeIris Murdoch, The Black PrinceDavid Lodge, Changing PlacesJohn Fowles, The MagusTerry Pratchett, MortJulian Barnes, Flaubert's ParrotJeannette Winterson, PassionKazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the DayDouglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

From Modernism to Postmodernism (topics list)Reading List (history & theory)Reading List (fiction & poetry)