Program Overview

Unit Overview

The unit ENGL202 - Twentieth-Century Literature is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the literary movements and works of the twentieth century. This period saw significant social, political, and artistic transformations that influenced literature, and the unit aims to explore these changes and their impact on literary works.

Unit Rationale, Description, and Aim

The unit is essential for professionals working in literary or cultural fields, as it provides a firm understanding of modernism and postmodernism and their effects on culture. The unit's aim is to familiarize students with the literature of the twentieth century, developing skills in linking literature to its social and political contexts.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completing this unit, students will be able to:

• Discuss theoretical approaches towards and textual knowledge of literature of the twentieth century
• Communicate clearly in written and/or oral form, in a style appropriate to a specified audience
• Locate, evaluate, and appropriately reference a variety of texts relevant to twentieth-century literature
• Apply the methods that literary theorists have used to research and interpret twentieth-century literature
• Reflect on key debates relating to literary studies over time

Content

The unit covers key cultural ideas and movements of the twentieth century, including:

• Futurism, the Avant-garde, Modernism, and Postmodernism
• The influence of perceptions of Africa on Modernism
• Feminism
• 'High culture' and popular culture, mass communication
• Specific developments leading from global flows of culture
• Historical contexts of the twentieth century, such as World Wars I and II and the new social movements of the late twentieth century

Assessment Strategy and Rationale

The assessment strategy is designed to assess and build the knowledge and skills required to achieve the learning outcomes. The assessments include:

• A descriptive/reflective response (20%) that encourages students to discuss twentieth-century literature and develop communication and analytical skills
• A research essay (40%) that fosters skills in analysis, synthesis, writing, and research in literature of the twentieth century
• A summative assessment/examination (40%) that supports students' engagement with their reading tasks and deepens their broad summative understanding of the literature and critical debates

Learning and Teaching Strategy and Rationale

The unit may run in attendance or multimode formats, providing key theoretical and contextual information through online or face-to-face lectures. The unit uses face-to-face class exercises, discussions, and formal assignments to encourage a questioning approach to literature. Student engagement through online and in-class analysis will encourage exploration, critical thinking, and reflection on approaches to the texts and the historical and political contexts from which they emerge.

Representative Texts and References

The unit includes a range of representative texts and references, such as:

• Bru, Sascha, et al., ed. Regarding the Popular: Modernism, the Avant-garde, and High and Low Culture
• Connell, Liam. Precarious Labour and the Contemporary Novel
• Cordle, Daniel. Late Cold War Literature and Culture: The Nuclear 1980s
• Detloff, Madelyn. The Persistence of Modernism: Loss and Mourning in the Twentieth Century
• Grossman, Michele. Entangled Subjects: Indigenous/Australian Cross-cultures of Talk, Text, and Modernity

Credit Points and Year

The unit is worth 10 credit points and is available in the year 2026.