Modern British Novel

This course provides a survey of modern British fiction from its development early in the twentieth century, to its current achievements and trends. The course focuses on the work of two representative novelists and examines the way these writers perceive the world around them and how they construct their fiction. A close critical reading of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Golding’s Lord of the Flies allows students to understand each work on its own terms, to place it in the context of each writer's full body of work, and, finally, to see in it reflections of the major themes of modern British fiction.