This course examines selected texts from the period 1890 to 1940 in the light of gender politics and polemics. The issue of sexual difference is central to modernism as it informs attempts to formulate a new aesthetic based on radicalised models of subjectivity and sexuality. Formulated partly through the developing discourses of psychoanalysis, primitivism, feminism, socialism and fascism, the concern with gender manifests itself in a variety of experiments with writing and being in the world in the period, the most representative of which are studied on this course. 

1 x 90min seminar per week over ten weeks as scheduled on MyCampus.

1 x 5hr conference TBA.

This is one of the Honours options in English Literature and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

ENGLIT4017  Modernism & the Politics of Gender

The standard assessments for this course are: 

■ Essay (1000 words): 20%  

■ Essay (3000 words): 50% 

■ Seminar and workshop contribution: 10%  

■ Seminar presentation of 12 minutes: 20% 

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available: 

■ There are no alternatives to the Essay (1000 words), but flexible deadline can be offered as reasonable adjustment (Students should follow the usual process for extensions). 

■ There are no alternatives to the Essay (3000 words), but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (Students should follow the usual process for extensions). 

■ Written self-evaluation reflecting on seminar contribution or written response to seminar material in advance or after seminar as alternative to seminar contribution.

■ Recorded presentation or One-to-one presentation / discussion/Q&A with staff (where presentation would normally be in class) as alternative to the presentation.

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.  

This course will provide the opportunity to:

■ study the literary period known as 'modernism' in depth via engagement with the politics of gender

■ investigate the textual and contextual manifestations of the concern with gender in the period

■ engage with contemporary and current theories of sexuality and relevant critical debates

■ develop research skills enabling the submission of an extended piece of assessed work

■ engage in independent and group learning

■ demonstrate resilience and time management through effectively planning, undertaking and submitting coursework.

■ deal with change and new challenges by applying their disciplinary skills and knowledge to previously unfamiliar research areas and questions.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ understand the representation of gender in the literature of the period and its relation to the concept of 'modernism'

■ deploy contemporary and recent critical theories of gender and sexual difference in their approach to texts of the period

■ make sophisticated use of printed and electronic resources as available in the University Library and in the unique website created for this course

■ communicate responses to the material studied on the course both orally and in written form through coherent and sustained argument.