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CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE IN ENGLISH

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE IN ENGLISH. Prose: Dr. Zsolt Czigányik Poetry and Drama: Dr. Natália Pikli. 1, September 10 Orientation 2, September 17 John Fowles 3 , September 24 Salman Rushdie 4 , October 1 Angela Carter and Amy Sackville 5 , October 8 Julian Barnes

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CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE IN ENGLISH

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  1. CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE IN ENGLISH Prose: Dr. Zsolt Czigányik Poetry and Drama: Dr. Natália Pikli

  2. 1, September10 Orientation 2, September17 John Fowles3, September24 Salman Rushdie 4, October1 Angela Carter andAmySackville 5, October8 JulianBarnes 6, October15 Anthony Burgess(lecturer: Ákos Farkas) 7, October 22 Ted Hughes (October23-31 autumn break – no lectures) 8, November 5 Tony Harrison: V 9, November 12 SeamusHeaney(cf. 18 Sept) 10, November 19 Carol Ann Duffy 11, November 26 Tom Stoppard & the success of the playwright 12, December 3 Caryl Churchill & in-yer-face theatre 13, December 10 Tibor Fischer COMPULSORY READINGS AT SEAS3.ELTE.HU

  3. Virginia Woolf: Modern Fiction (1925) Inmakinganysurvey, eventhefreest and loosest, of modern fiction, it is difficultnottotakeitforgrantedthatthe modern practice of the art is somehow an improvementuponthe old. […]And yettheanalogybetweenliteratureandtheprocess, tochoose an example, of making motor carsscarcelyholdsgoodbeyondthefirstglance. It is doubtfulwhetherinthecourse of thecenturies, thoughwehavelearntmuchaboutmakingmachines, wehavelearntanythingaboutmakingliterature. Wedonotcometowritebetter; allthatwecan be saidtodo is tokeepmoving, now a littleinthisdirection, nowinthat, butwithacirculartendencyshouldthewholecourse of thetrack be viewedfrom a sufficientlyloftypinnacle.

  4. Itneedscarcely be saidthatwemake no claimto stand, evenmomentarily, uponthatvantageground. • Ontheflat, inthecrowd, halfblindwithdust, welook back withenvytothosehappierwarriors, whosebattle is won and whoseachievementswearsoserene an air of accomplishmentthatwecanscarcelyrefrainfromwhisperingthatthefightwasnotsofierceforthemasforus. It is forthehistorian of literaturetodecide; forhimtosayifwearenowbeginningor ending or standing inthemiddle of a greatperiod of prosefiction, for down intheplainlittle is visible. Weonlyknowthatcertaingratitudes and hostilitiesinspireus; thatcertainpathsseemto lead tofertileland, otherstothedust and thedesert; and of thisperhapsitmay be worthwhiletoattemptsome account.

  5. Contemporary literature • What is contemporary? • strict sense of the word: author is alive(changes day by day) • in university education: 1960s-present (?) + (personal) preference and choice of lecturers • acquiring literature in chronological order: practical benefits • museums vs. parents

  6. Contemporary:close(r) to the readerno (little) time gapcontemporary problems, settings, situations, language, technical devices

  7. ‘Contemporary classics’ What to include in a course?What is valuable? • What will be relevant in 50, 100, 500 years? • canon originally: the books of the Bible officially recognized by the Church literature in general: privileged status of ”great literature”

  8. Canon: necessary (yearlyca. 3.000 novelsin English) • Despitedebates, with a sufficientperspective, acanon is formed Ladányi took out a book – theAnalects of Confucius. ‘Is itanygood?’ Gyuri questioned. ‘Life is tooshortforgoodbooks,’ said Ladányi, ‘oneshouldonlyreadgreatbooks.’ ‘Howcanyoutellifit’sgreat?’ ‘Ifit’sbeenaroundfor a couple of thousandyears, that’susually a goodsign. (Tibor Fischer: UndertheFrog)

  9. The canon – inchange: 1983-2009 • ”The National Poetry Society Competition has again (seelastyear) failedtounearthconvincingwinnersfrom a total of 12,000 submissions. The firstprize of ₤ 2,000 wasawarded […] to ‘WhoeverSheWas’ by Carol AnnDuffy. This is quite an effectiveevocation of someeeriemomentsintherelationbetweenmotherhood and childhood, butmuch of thedetail is predictable, and thelanguage is notveryinteresting, sothatthepoemdoesn’t improvewithrepeatedreadings.” (Review, 1983) • vs 2009: PoetLaureate, ”the most studiedpoetinschoolsafter Shakespeare”

  10. thecanon - inchange: genderissues • Carol AnnDuffy, ed.: AnsweringBack, 2008 • 46 poets – 23 man/23 woman • Caryl Churchill, playwright – 1960s: ”womencan’t dostructure [indrama]” vsthe most celebrated/intricatelystructuredplaysnow

  11. Sources: prizes and awards (many) Nobel PrizeinLiterature(author) • 2013: Alice Munro2007: DorisLessing2005: Harold Pinter2003: John Coetzee2001: V. S. Naipaul1995: SeamusHeaneyFiction: (Man) BookerPrizesince 1969 'thebestnovelintheopinion of thejudges‘ (common man)toincreasethereading of qualityfiction and toattract 'theintelligentgeneralaudience'.www.themanbookerprize.com - Tony Award,theatricalvenues: Royal CourtTheatre, NT, RSC - PoetLaureate, National PoetryCompetition, journalsvs internet

  12. popular and/orelite? • contemporaryliterature /postmodern • blurringtheborderline • ‚PLAY’ withtradition/eliteculture • influence of popularculture: Tarantinooninyerface-theatre, etc. • problem: entertainment and/oraestheticvalues • (slampoetry?)

  13. Poetry and Drama: ‘the old/young’ • Ted Hughes † (1998), Tony Harrison, SeamusHeaney † (2013), Caryl Churchill, Tom Stoppardintheir 70s • Ted Hughes, Carol AnnDuffy (2009): PoetsLaureate, Heaney: Nobel Prize, Sir Tom Stoppard – ‘established’ and hugeinfluenceonyoungergenerations • BUT: necessarycuts (eg. not Andrew Motion – PoetLaurate 1999-2009) + sorrystate of availabilityoftextsin Hungary… http://literature.britishcouncil.org/writers http://www.inyerface-theatre.com/, PoetrySociety, etc. ‚canonisedcontemporaries’ (contradiction and doubtsforthefuture)

  14. poetrytoday: English authors-Hungarianrelevance • festivals(Hay Festival, Budapest, spring 2012 – Tibor Fischer, Ben Okri, Dragomán György) – contemporarywritersininteractionacrossborders • translations-interaction (S. Heaney – Győző Ferencz, Ted Hughes-Pilinszky, etc.) • Whypoetry? Facebookchallenge - ”Poetsdon’t havesolutions, poetsarerecording human experience” (Carol AnnDuffy)

  15. Poetryclasses • Ted Hughes: fromthecelebrated ‘arrogant’ youngpoet of the 60s tothedyingconfessionalauthor of BirthdayLetters(1989) – masculinity, myth, animals and the human • Tony Harrison: v theemblematiclongpoem of the 80s – concernsrelevanteventoday

  16. Poetryclasses • SeamusHeaney: Irish and/or British? postcolonialism, national and individualidentity („be advised / mypassport is green” vsBeowulf) • Carol AnnDuffy (b. 1955): a womanpoet, Scottish, Lesbian love, dramaticmonologues, philosophy/clichés, rewritingfamousnarratives, socialconcerns

  17. Drama • London theatricalscene / Fringetheatres – eagertoreceive a greatnumber of newplayseveryyear • Focalpoints: • Tom Stoppard – firstgreatsuccess 1960s (RosGuil), internationalfame, Hollywood/Oscar-winning film: ‘thecuriousfate and fortunes of thesuccessfulcontemporaryplaywright’ - a popularclassic • Caryl Churchill – socialills, currentthemes – stockbrokers/male-femalesocialroles/cloning and identity, etc. • 1990s, in-yer-facetheatre (SarahKane, JezzButterworth, Martin MacDonagh, etc., influenceof Tarantino)

  18. Martin MacDonagh: Radnóti Színház 2001-2011: A kripli (The Cripple of Innishman, 1996, transl. Dániel Varró, firsttransl. by Anna Szabó T.) 5 plays 34 performancesin Hungary since 1997 (5 in 2007) – Csaba Székely Hollywood: InBruges (Erőszakik), SevenPsychopaths (A hét pszichopata és a Si-cu) contemporary English playsonpresent-dayHungarianstages: Caryl Churchill’s The Skriker (Az iglic), Martin MacDonagh’s The Lonesome West (Vaknyugat)

  19. Postmodernism

  20. Postmodernism • vague and fashionableterm • meaning and value: disputedno (little) perspective(Howtodefineourownage?) • poststructuralism and deconstruction„meaning is neitherinherentinlanguage, norintheworld of thingsbut is ‘constructed’ byconventionalframeworks of thought and language” (Gray, 1992) • individuality, human character, freedom: constructs of a particularculture and time(vs. universaltruths, absoluteauthenticityrelativised) • Most oftenreproducedphoto

  21. Postmodern • Man no longerthe centre of theuniverse – no centre • Threatsof extinctionofhumanity(nuclear holocaust, despoilingtheenvironment/planet, overpopulation)breakingup of traditionalcommunities=> senseofdespair and disillusionment(vs. 60s)

  22. result of meaninglessness: play withstyles and values • a sense of disjunction or deliberate confusion, irony, playfulness, reflexivity, a kind of cool detachment • Apostmodern insistence on process rather than product: a“postmodern” cultural artifact is one that consistently questions itself and the context that it seems to fit within. • Nealon, Jeffrey, and Susan Searls Giroux. The Theory Toolbox. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2012.

  23. postmoderntextslookatthemselvesastexts (Ø illusion, isolatedfromauthor and extratextualreality)oftenrevealtheinstability of languagemeaningsareconstructionsontologicaluncertainty: which is therealworld? • freedom of interpretation (limitless?) • Postmodernism, celebrates the freedom of possibility, but it also seems to make agency or concrete decision impossible.

  24. Meaning of ‚modern’ • modernism(early 20th c.): breakswithartistictraditions and conventions, experimentationwithtimetheexperimentbecomesconventional • countereffect: pre-modernistwritingreshapedcf. Fowles (pastiche, invention) • Salman Rushdie: magicrealism (plausible and impossible) • reader’srole, author’srole: death of theauthor?

  25. IhabHassan, The PostmodernTurn.Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1987. • ModernismPostmodernismForm (closed) Anti-form(open)PurposePlayDesign ChanceHierarchyAnarchyFinished Art ObjectProcess/PerformanceDistanceParticipationTotalizationDeconstructionDepthSurfaceDeterminacyIndeterminacy

  26. Howfar is itrelevantinthe 21st century?post-postmodernism? re-evaluation of traditionalvalues and communities (religion, nation) • Alan Kirby: Digimodernism1990s: decomposingpostmodernism (hybrid)21st c.new cultural paradigmPoMoobsolete (oncefresh), creativeperiod over

  27. Computerization of text _> new form of textualityevanescence and anonymous, social and multiple authorshiptriggered by the redefinition of textuality and culture by the spread of digitalization • reality TV, Web2.0, videogames, radio shows:reader/viewer intervenes

  28. Return of the grand narrative • PM: rhetoric of disruption (everything has to be new, breakin human experience)heroic age of theory • Incredulitytowardmetanarratives (Lyotard)progress, enlightenment, Christianity • 2000: West forced to reflect on the foundationsof its own civilization„seek to make sense of the grand narratives”

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