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40397
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Lecture-Discussion
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1G
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2:00PM
-3:15PM
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TR
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29 English Building
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Baron, I
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- Part of Term:
- 1
- Date Range:
- 08/25/14-12/10/14
- Credit:
- 4 hours
- Section Info:
- Technology and Dystopia In British Literature - At the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics, director Danny Boyle created a pageant of British history entitled Isles of Wonder that evoked two conflicting views of the island-nation?s past, present and future. Beginning with the pastoral idylls of Shakespeare?s England, Boyle conjures up an easy life of shepherds and shepherdesses at one with nature on this sceptered isle set in the silver waters of the North Atlantic. But the rarified air of this Edenic landscape is soon contaminated by the engines of capitalism, churning up soot and human misery in the dark, Satanic mills of England?s green and pleasant land. Boyle?s spectacle of a British utopia decimated by technology became an overarching literary theme in the hands of twentieth century writers as the hazards of mechanization led to two World Wars and a complete restructuring of the sociopolitical system that had dominated the island nation since the Norman Conquest. In this course, we?ll explore the effect that the second wave of the Industrial Revolution had on Britain and the lasting impact of technology on reconfiguring British political paradigms in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. We?ll examine the image of the crumbling British estate house as industrialization drove millions of individuals to the cities looking for work to escape poverty prior to WWI, and how the cities themselves transposed into icons of urban decay. In the midcentury modernist period, as the Welfare State emerged and the country rebuilt itself up from the ashes of the Blitz, we?ll concentrate on the rise of the Labour party and how it shaped the mindset of working class writers. And finally, as we approach and pass the new millennium, we?ll explore how the media, the internet, terrorism and biotechnology have the power to permanently enhance or destroy Britain?creating another pastoral utopia or a dark dystopian universe where no one survives. Students are expected to actively participate in class discussions and to give an oral report during the course of the semester. There will be three papers and a final project. Novels and films may include: Brave New World, Atonement, Brideshead Revisited, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, A Clockwork Orange, Once Upon a Time in England, Harry Potter and the Philosopher?s Stone, The Golden Compass, Shaun of the Dead, Never Let Me Go and The Children of Men.
- Restriction(s):
-
Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign.
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|
|
40396
|
Lecture-Discussion
|
1U
|
2:00PM
-3:15PM
|
TR
|
29 English Building
|
Baron, I
|
- Part of Term:
- 1
- Date Range:
- 08/25/14-12/10/14
- Credit:
- 3 hours
- Section Info:
- Technology and Dystopia In British Literature - At the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics, director Danny Boyle created a pageant of British history entitled Isles of Wonder that evoked two conflicting views of the island-nation?s past, present and future. Beginning with the pastoral idylls of Shakespeare?s England, Boyle conjures up an easy life of shepherds and shepherdesses at one with nature on this sceptered isle set in the silver waters of the North Atlantic. But the rarified air of this Edenic landscape is soon contaminated by the engines of capitalism, churning up soot and human misery in the dark, Satanic mills of England?s green and pleasant land. Boyle?s spectacle of a British utopia decimated by technology became an overarching literary theme in the hands of twentieth century writers as the hazards of mechanization led to two World Wars and a complete restructuring of the sociopolitical system that had dominated the island nation since the Norman Conquest. In this course, we?ll explore the effect that the second wave of the Industrial Revolution had on Britain and the lasting impact of technology on reconfiguring British political paradigms in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. We?ll examine the image of the crumbling British estate house as industrialization drove millions of individuals to the cities looking for work to escape poverty prior to WWI, and how the cities themselves transposed into icons of urban decay. In the midcentury modernist period, as the Welfare State emerged and the country rebuilt itself up from the ashes of the Blitz, we?ll concentrate on the rise of the Labour party and how it shaped the mindset of working class writers. And finally, as we approach and pass the new millennium, we?ll explore how the media, the internet, terrorism and biotechnology have the power to permanently enhance or destroy Britain?creating another pastoral utopia or a dark dystopian universe where no one survives. Students are expected to actively participate in class discussions and to give an oral report during the course of the semester. There will be three papers and a final project. Novels and films may include: Brave New World, Atonement, Brideshead Revisited, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, A Clockwork Orange, Once Upon a Time in England, Harry Potter and the Philosopher?s Stone, The Golden Compass, Shaun of the Dead, Never Let Me Go and The Children of Men.
- Restriction(s):
-
Restricted to Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign.
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