Overview
English 393: The Early Twentieth-Century English Novel focuses on the first five decades of the twentieth-century British novel, its history and development, its rich variety of forms and techniques, and the ideas and events that influenced it. The required reading does not aim to be exhaustive, but acquaints students with some of the more important novelists of the period. Each novel in the course is read as an individual artistic work with its own formal integrity, as part of the evolution of the literary genre of the novel, and as part of a larger social and intellectual milieu.
Note: Since this is a senior course, we expect students to have good reading and writing skills, as well as the basic critical tools and knowledge of literary forms and techniques that are acquired in an introductory university English literature course such as Athabasca University’s English 211 and 212. Students who do not have the recommended credits in an introductory English literature course may experience significant difficulty with the assignments and examination.
Evaluation
To receive credit for ENGL 393, you must submit a historical context review and two essays, and you must write a supervised final examination. You must receive an overall course grade of D (50 percent) or more, including a passing grade of at least 50 percent on the final exam. The weighting of the course assignments is as follows:
| Activity | Weight |
| Historical Context Review | 10% |
| Essay 1 | 25% |
| Essay 2 | 25% |
| Final Exam | 40% |
| Total | 100% |
The final examination for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.
Materials
Physical course materials
The following course materials are included in a course package that will be shipped to your home prior to your course’s start date:
Greene, Graham. Brighton Rock. 1938. Vintage, 2004.
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs Dalloway. 1925. Oxford UP, 2009.
Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 1916. Penguin, 2003.
Forster, E. M. A Passage to India. 1924. Penguin, 2005.
Singh, Khushwant. Train to Pakistan. 1956. Grove, 1981.
Orwell, George. Burmese Days. 1934. Penguin, 2009.
Markandaya, Kamala. Nectar in a Sieve. 1954. Signet, 2010.
Rhys, Jean. Voyage in the Dark. 1934. Norton, 2020.
Content warning
The assigned novels in this course include content that might be upsetting for some readers. This includes depictions of and references to racism (including racial epithets and slurs), interpersonal and mass violence (including sexual violence, rape, murder, genocide, police brutality, torture, assault, and dead bodies of people and animals), sex work, relationships between adults and minors, pregnancy and termination of pregnancy, infertility, colonialism, exploitation, injustice, poverty, famine, housing insecurity, extreme hunger and starvation, grief, mental health challenges (including shell shock/PTSD and depression), and suicide.
If you have any concerns about this, do not hesitate to contact your tutor before starting the course.
Challenge for credit
Overview
The challenge for credit process allows you to demonstrate that you have acquired a command of the general subject matter, knowledge, intellectual and/or other skills that would normally be found in a university-level course.
Full information about challenge for credit can be found in the Undergraduate Calendar.
Evaluation
To receive credit for the ENGL 393 challenge registration, you must achieve a grade of at least D (50 percent) on the examination.
Challenge for credit course registration form