‘Art,’ wrote Ali Smith, in her essay collection Artful, ‘is always about lifeforce and mortality’. This course takes two exciting and innovative contemporary novels and uses them to trace a path in literary history. Through a close examination of Ali Smith’s How to be Both back and Marlon James’s A Brief History of Seven Killings modernist movement , students will learn about how the techniques and priorities of the writers such as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce are returning to contemporary fiction. We will explore how Smith and James use this literary heritage to express what might otherwise be inexpressible: grief, violence, political upheaval, sexuality, gender, and identity.
Students will learn about how both writers are indebted to modernist literary precursors. Smith has acknowledged her debts to Woolf, Joyce, and Wallace Stevens, among others ; while Marlon James draws on the work of William Faulkner and incorporates modernist technique s of stream of consciousness narrative and polyphony. Students will see for themselves how this modernist legacy has helped shape a form of fiction that does not merely seek to illustrate or represent, but which wrestles with what can and cannot be said, and which seeks to marry content to form.
Learning outcomes
The learning outcomes for this course are:
- Learning to discuss literary texts in an analytical and reflective manner;
- Identifying trends in contemporary fiction, and appreciate the ancestors of recent experimental writing in earlier movements such as modernism;
- Analysis of the relationship between a literary text’s form and its content.
Classes
1. Whatever happened to modernism? The contemporary novel and the return of the new.
2. How to be both by Ali Smith: Ekphrasis
3. How to be both by Ali Smith: Gender and the gaze
4. A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James: Post-colonial modernism
5. A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James: Polyphony and story-telling
Required reading
James, Marlon. (2014) A Brief History of Seven Killings. London: OneWorld.
Smith, Ali. (2014) How to be Both. London: Penguin.
Typical week: Monday to Friday
For each week of study you select a morning (Am) and an afternoon (Pm) course, each course has five sessions, one each day Monday to Friday. The maximum class size is 25 students. Your weekly courses are complemented by a series of two daily plenary lectures, exploring new ideas in a wide range of disciplines. To add to the learning experience, we are also planning additional evening talks and events.
| c.8.00am-9.00am |
Breakfast in College (for residents) |
| 9.00am-10.30am |
Am Course |
| 11.15am-12.30pm |
Plenary Lecture |
| 12.30pm-1.45pm |
Lunch |
| 1.45pm-3.15pm |
Pm Course |
| 4.00pm-5.15pm |
Plenary Lecture |
| c.6.00/6.15pm-7.15/7.30pm |
Dinner in College (for residents) |
| c.7.30pm onwards |
Evening talk/event |
Evaluation and Academic Credit
If you are seeking to enhance your own study experience, or earn academic credit from your Cambridge Summer Programme studies at your home institution, you can submit written work for assessment for one or more of your courses.
Essay questions are set and assessed against the University of Cambridge standard by your Course Director, a list of essay questions can be found in the Course Materials. Essays are submitted two weeks after the end of each course, so those studying for multiple weeks need to plan their time accordingly. There is an evaluation fee of £65 per essay.
For more information about writing essays see Evaluation and Academic Credit.
Certificate of attendance
A certificate of attendance will be sent to you electronically within a week of your courses finishing.
