230268 Genres, Authors, Periods: Literature after World War II (S) (SoSe 2024)

This course will familiarise students with the rich literature in English of the post-World War II period. We will engage in close readings and put to practice the analytical categories introduced in the introductory lecture in Basic Module 2 by analysing and interpreting exemplary texts from different genres. We will begin with an all-women play that has long been neglected in scholarship: Sylvia Rayman’s Women of Twilight (1951) that puts on stage the marginalisation and predicament of unmarried mothers. Continuing with drama analysis, we will turn to the ‘Angry Young Men’ and study John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger (first produced in 1956, published in 1957), a landmark in the history of a socially and politically engaged theatre. Moving on to narrative texts, we will discuss the short novel The Lonely Londoners (1956) by Trinidadian author Samuel Selvon, in which West Indian immigrants of the so-called ‘Windrush Generation’ struggle with a sense of failed promise.

Bibliography

Please purchase:
Sylvia Rayman, Women of Twilight (1951) – any edition will do
John Osborne, Look Back in Anger (first produced in 1956, published in 1957) – recommended edition: Faber Modern Classics
Samuel Selvon, The Lonely Londoners (1956) – recommended edition: Penguin Modern Classics, with an introduction by Susheila Nasta

Further material will be made available.