(1) Outline
The theme of this seminar is "British Popular
Fiction
at the Turn of the Twentieth Century". The main aim is to
encourage students to read three popular novels during the
course, at the rate of one every four weeks. These will be
quite lengthy works but the language encountered will be
relatively simple. Class work will be based on exercises to
improve reading comprehension and to promote discussion of
the cultural and moral issues raised by the stories. The
novels to be read were all written in Britain
around the turn of the twentieth century, and belong in turn
to the genres
of Science Fiction, the Adventure Story, and the Detective
Story. We will
be discussing the narrative contents in specific social,
political and psychological
contexts, with images of class, gender, and race among the
focal points.
Where appropriate, versions of the stories in other media
(for example, TV and film dramatizations) will be made
available, to promote thinking about the nature of literary
form.
(2) Texts & Schedule
Week 1 Introductory session
| WEEK |
READING |
PRESENTERS | POWERPOINTS etc |
WORKSHEETS etc. |
|
Week 2 |
H.G. Wells The War of the Worlds (1898) Bk I chs 1-7 | GL--Model Presentation |
GL-ModelPresWWa.pdf |
WOWa-eDQ WoW-Map |
|
| Week 3 | ,, Bk I chs 8-12 | ||||
| Week 4 | ,, Bk I chs 13-17 | ||||
| Week 5 | ,, Bk II chs 1-6 | ||||
| Week 6 |
,,
Bk II chs 7-10 |
||||
| Week 7 | John Buchan Prester John (1910) chs 1-5 |
GL--Model Presentation
|
PJa-dDQ Prester John Map |
||
| Week 8 | ,, chs 6-11 | ||||
| Week 9 | ,, chs 12-17 | ||||
| Week 10 | ,, chs 18-23 | ||||
| Week 11 | Agatha Christie The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) chs. 1-4 |
GL--Model Presentation
|
GL-ModelPresMAS.pptx |
MASa-cDQ MAS-illustrations |
|
| Week 12 | ,, chs 5-8 | ||||
| Week 13 | ,, chs 9-13 | ||||
Week
14 Overview session on the three novels WORKSHEET
Week 15 Final Submission/Individual
consultation
You must obtain copies of the three books
in questions. If you prefer, you can download electronic
versions (in PDF format, probably containing a few formatting
and typing errors) from the links below.
H.G. Wells The
War of the Worlds
John Buchan Prester
John
Agatha Christie The
Mysterious Affair at Styles
Click
on the links above for the DISCUSSION QUESTIONS for each session
in Adobe PDF format
Click
HERE
for the PRESENTATION SCHEDULE for the whole term.
In addition to regular attendance and active
participation, students
will be required to give one presentation, and to write two
book reports,
plus a term-paper of around 1500 words. Click HERE
for the Writing Assignment details. Grades will reflect
attendance and class participation, as well as the fulfillment
of formal presentation and writing assignments according to
the following proportions:
Attendance & Participation: 30%
Presentation:
20%
Writing Assignments:
50% [Book reports 2x10%; Term Paper
30%]
(4) Contact
Office
Hours: Tuesday Period 3 / Thursday Period 3
Office No: 11-1455
E-mail:
[email protected]
