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Literature and Theatre

Literature of the 1920s

Course Times & Enrolment

This course is currently unavailable.

Course Summary

This course takes place around the 100th anniversary of the Armistice and will study writings about the Great War, the Irish War of Independence and the great highs and lows of the 1920s. After Sean O’Casey’s brilliant Shadow of a Gunman, we will study a range of the greatest texts from the period, including Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Brecht’s iconic Threepenny Opera, Noel Coward’s witty but edgy Private Lives, and Scott Fitzgerald’s dazzling Tender is the Night. Riches and poverty, selfishness and political engagement, sensual delight and extreme physical violence, all collide in the twenties to produce an amazing variety of great literature.

Course Details

Pre-requisites for enrolment

No previous experience necessary.

Content of Course

1. Armistice and the surviving war poets’ muted celebrations.

2. Wasted young lives in the Irish War of Independence: Sean O’Casey’s The Shadow of a Gunman (1923).

3. The ‘Lost Generation’ of survivors: Ernest Hemingway’s masterpiece, The Sun Also Rises (1926).

4. The Marxist response: Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera (1928).

5. Starting to be able to confront the traumas of the Great War: R. C. Sherriff’s Journey’s End (1928).

6. Unhappy marriage, murder and the electric chair: Sophie Treadwell’s expressionist masterpiece, Machinal (1928).

7. Wit and violence in the marital home: Noel Coward’s Private Lives (1930).

8. Retrospective: the War and the Twenties in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night (1934).

Teaching method(s)

2-hour discussion-based seminars using visual material.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

  • Appreciate the special techniques of Modernist writing employed in the texts;

  • Understand the ways in which Modernist writing developed over the period covered by the course;

  • Analyse the works covered on the course within their historical and cultural contexts.

Sources

Core Readings

Essential:

  • Sean O’Casey. Three Dublin Plays. London: Faber & Faber (1998)

  • Ernest Hemingway. Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises. London: Arrow (1994)

  • Bertolt Brecht. The Threepenny Opera. London: Methuen (2005)

  • R. C. Sherriff. Journey’s End. London: Penguin (2000)

  • Sophie Treadwell. Machinal. London: Nick Hern (1993)

  • Noel Coward. Private Lives. London: Bloomsbury Methuen (2013)

  • F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night. London: Penguin (2001)

Recommended:

  • Christopher Butler. Modernism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP (2010)

  • Malcolm Bradbury and James MacFarlane. Modernism: A Guide to European

  • Literature 1890-1930. London: Penguin (1991)

Web Sources

http://personal.rhul.ac.uk/uhle/012/Modernism%20on%20the%20Web.html

‘Modernism on the Web’: a guide to online resources

Class Handouts

Textual extracts, Powerpoint presentations.

Queries

If you have questions regarding the course or enrolment, please contact COL Reception at Paterson's Land by email or by phone 0131 650 4400.

Student support

If you have a disability, learning difficulty or health condition which may affect your studies, please let us know by ticking the 'specific support needs' box on your course application form. This will allow us to make appropriate adjustments in advance and in accordance with your rights under the Equality Act 2010. For more information please visit the Student Support section of our website.