! Final Paper: As requested, the Mapping British Fiction final paper due date has been extended to Friday, June 3, 2022 at 4 p.m.

! Insights into British Fiction Presentation: The guidelines for this and for the final paper are accessible here and also linked to on our detailed schedule page.

! Habitat of Happiness: Sign up to focus on a topic in the ecology of Aminatta Forna's novel here.

! Semester Preparedness: All class sessions are conducted online, unless indicated otherwise. Test your devices and update relevant software. Set up your class streaming in an environment conducive to your learning. The following useful tools are provided by the university to facilitate your learning.

• VPN: Chula's virtual private network service gives you access to university privileges and resources from off-campus. Download and install the client, and log in to connect.
• G Suite for Education: Cloud Google and Microsoft Office 365 applications for collaboration, file-sharing
• Adobe: The Adobe suite of applications for creating and editing PDFs and multimedia content
• Chula Reference Databases: University subscribed access to resources such as references, periodicals, audiobooks, and texts via databases like Academic Search Ultimate, Cambridge Books Online, GALE Databases, JSTOR, and Oxford E-books and Journals Online
  

Course Description: British fiction from the twentieth century to the present is an exciting and provocative body of work that has become even richer and been made even more controversial recently. We will investigate its great changes and wide-ranging impact around the world and all the way to Thailand, our literature, culture and memes. What ideas about fictional forms, authorship, readership and Britishness are debated and redefined throughout the last century to now? Readings include short stories and novels from different decades, from diverse authors, and discussions grapple with the issues they raise about literary craft, production and media, values and context, scholarship and new directions. Our course packet samples authors whose work and ideas have influenced and interrogated British fiction such as Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad, Agatha Christie, Virginia Woolf, Muriel Spark, Salman Rushdie, Timothy Mo, A. S. Byatt, Julian Barnes, and Aminatta Forna.

Class Time: T and Th 2:30–4:00

Class Location: All live class sessions (classcasts) will be conducted via Zoom. Links to each session are provided on our detailed schedule.

Required Texts: Course reading is available digitally. PDF files of required and supplementary material are on Blackboard though you are welcome to acquire your own copies from your favorite book vendors. The publisher and year information given below are editions used in this course.

• Course packet (short stories, excerpts and essays)
  
• Joseph Conrad, The Shadow-Line (1917, David Campbell, 1991)
  
• George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945, Signet, 1946)
• Bruce Chatwin, On the Black Hill (1982, Vintage, 1998)
• Julian Barns, The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape, 2011)
• Aminatta Forna, Happiness (Bloomsbury, 2018)
  

Detailed Schedule

Syllabus 

Requirements and Expectations

• Reading Responses: Aside from occasional writing of other kinds, reading responses are useful exercises that attempt to explain, discuss or comment on a question that you pose about the reading. No more than 300 words is expected per response but it should be well thought out. See samples.

• Attendance and Participation: Discussion of the texts will be a big part of this class and students are encouraged to express their opinions, share observations and ask questions. Take notes as you read and write down your ideas and questions. Come prepared to discuss the reading material.

• There will also be short presentations, creative pop events, two tests, and a final paper (5–7 pp.).

• Boxall, Peter, ed. The Cambridge Companion to British Fiction: 1980–2018. Cambridge UP, 2019.
  

• Bradbury, Malcolm. The Social Context of Modern English Literature. Blackwell, 1971.
  

• Bradford, Richard. The Novel Now: Contemporary British Fiction. Blackwell, 2007.
  

• Head, Dominic. The Cambridge Introduction to Modern British Fiction. Cambridge UP, 2004.

• "What Is Plagiarism?," Georgetown University (friendly explanation of plagiarism with examples; you  will be severely penalized for plagiarism in this course)

• "Writer's Guide", University of Victoria (well-organized, easy to follow guide with examples)

• "Online Writing Lab," Purdue University (includes the writing process, grammar and mechanics, literary analysis and criticism, writing about poetry)

• Michael Engle, "How to Evaluate the Information Sources You Find," Cornell University

• "The MLA Style Center," Modern Language Association

• "Proofreaders' Marks," Marquette University
  

• Timelines

• "Timeline," World History, World Digital Library
  

• "World Wars," BBC
  

• "1945 to Present," BBC

• "City Timeline," City of London

• Chris Michaelides, "Chronology of the European Avant Garde, 1900–1937," British Library (2007)
  

• History

• "Home Front: World War One," BBC

• "The Making of Modern Britain," BBC

• Modernism

• "What Was Modernism?," Victoria and Albert Museum

• "Modernism," Tate

• "The Twentieth Century: Introduction," The Norton Anthology of English Literature

• "Modernist Experiment: Overview"
  

• Postmodernism

• "What Is Postmodernism?," Victoria and Albert Museum

• "Postmodernism," Tate

• Gary Aylesworth, "Postmodernism," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2015)

• Jay David Bolter, "Posthumanism," The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy (2016)