Masterworks of Early 20th-Century Literature

by David Thorburn

If you've ever longed to read the great Modernist novels of the early 20th century - perhaps James Joyce's Ulysses , Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse , or William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! - but have shied away or set them down because of their intimidating style, fragmented narrative, or lack of a clear plot, you no longer need to wait, or be reluctant to return. In this series of 24 lectures, an acclaimed literary scholar and award-winning teacher has created an accessible gateway to this remarkable literary movement. Professor Thorburn will show you not only how an entire generation of Modernist authors - including Joyce, Faulkner, Conrad, Woolf, and Kafka - turned the tradition of literature on its head, creating new techniques to reflect an increasingly complex post-Victorian world, but how to understand and enjoy them. You'll see that even though their works are indeed some of the most challenging you'll ever encounter, they are also among the most rewarding. Choosing short but representative novels and stories, Professor Thorburn offers a compelling overview of Modernism you'll find intriguing - even if you don't have time to read the works along with him. Each work is introduced with a full plot summary to ensure that readers from all backgrounds will easily understand the lectures. Guided by the tenet, "trust ourselves and trust the texts," Professor Thorburn demystifies the world of literary criticism and demonstrates how a thoughtful, careful reader can find exciting and enriching insights in these works. You'll examine these great novels and stories from all angles, through close readings of selected passages and illuminating discussions of structure, form, symbolism, and character.

Complete two-part set of 24 lectures (each 30 minutes long) on 12 audio CDs with accompanying course guides. In original hard cases.

Genres: Nonfiction, Audiobook, Literature, History, Literary Criticism, Books About Books, Writing

12 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Loved this Course
Perhaps the Best Course I've Ever Had

I found this course more enjoyable and rewarding than any I've had in 8 years of higher education. Though that statement, I admit, may say something about the quality of my education, it probably has more to do with my maturity in the 20+ years since my last degree. Yet I think it has more to do with the superb professor, Dr. David Thorburn of MIT.

What a wonderful set of lectures on modern literature, that has significantly transformed and improved my views and reading of modern literature. The professor is fantastic in his enthusiastic love for literature, art and artist/authors. I was sad after I couldn't find another set of lectures by Dr. Thorburn.

I highly recommend this for those of us not graced with such a course or an education in creative arts.


The Syllabus:

Road Map—Modernism and Moral Ambiguity

How to Read Fiction—Joyce’s “An Encounter”

Defining Modernism—Monet’s Cathedral

Defining Modernism—Beyond Impressionism

The Man Who Would Be King—Imperial Fools

Heart of Darkness—Europe’s Kurtz

Heart of Darkness—The Drama of the Telling

The Shadow-Line—Unheroic Heroes

The Good Soldier—The Limits of Irony

The Good Soldier—Killed by Kindness

Lawrence (and Joyce)—Sex in Modern Fiction

“Horse Dealer’s Daughter”—A Shimmer Within

The Metamorphosis—Uneasy Dreams

Dubliners—The Music of the Ordinary

Ulysses—Joyce’s Homer

Ulysses—The Incongruity Principle

To the Lighthouse—Life Stand Still Here

To the Lighthouse—That Horrid Skull Again

Isaac Babel—Jew and Cossack

Isaac Babel—Odessa’s Homer

Faulkner’s World—Our Frantic Steeplechase

Absalom, Absalom!—The Fragile Thread

Pale Fire—Modern or Postmodern?

The Moral Vision of Modern Fiction

[Dovydas Pancerovas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Neskaitant kelių įdomių intarpų, ši knyga tėra XX amžiaus pradžios literatūros šedevrų atpasakojimų rinkinys. Autorius daugiausiai kalba apie siužetus (kas yra OK) ir apie personažus (kas dar labiau OK), tačiau jo siūlomos interpretacijos, mano skoniui, plokštokos. Nieko naujo ar įdomaus nesužinojau.

[Bettie]

My hopes for this course are through the roof...

Lecture 1: Road Map: Modernism and Moral Ambiguity:

CAPTAIN CARPENTER By John Crowe Ransom

Captain Carpenter rose up in his prime
Put on his pistols and went riding out
But had got wellnigh nowhere at that time
Till he fell in with ladies in a rout.

It was a pretty lady and all her train
That played with him so sweetly but before
An hour she'd taken a sword with all her main
And twined him of his nose for evermore.

Lecture 2: How To Read Fiction: Joyce's An Encounter (Dubliners):
In which our educator fiercely disses A Reader's Guide to James Joyce

Lecture 3: Defining Modernism: Monet's Cathedral:

Rouen

Lecture 4: Defining Modernism: Beyond Impressionism: Mr Bennet and Mrs Brown





Lecture 5: The Man Who Would Be King: Imperial Fools

Rudyard Kipling's White Mans Burden (1899) No wonder Kipling is so reviled nowadays.

Gunga Din




NONFIC NOVEMBER 2015:

CR White Mughals
5* A History of England from the Tudors to the Stuarts
3* Rome and the Barbarians
4* Field Notes From A Hidden City
3* The King's Jews: Money, Massacre and Exodus in Medieval England
5* A History of Palestine 634-1099
3* Charlotte Brontë: A Life
3* The Alhambra
5* A Long Walk in the Himalaya: A Trek from the Ganges to Kashmir
3* Buddhist Warfare
4* A Gathering of Spoons
AB A Brief History of Roman Britain - Conquest and Civilization
4* Victorian Glassworlds: Glass Culture and the Imagination, 1830-1880
3* Food Safari
4* She-Wolves by Castor
3* India: A Portrait
2* The Archaeology of Ancient Sicily
5* Classics of Russian Literature
3* The Battle of Salamis
4* The Age of Wonder
5* Lost Worlds of South Americas
3* Wind and Sand
2* Skeptics Guide to the Great Books
3* The Invention of France
3* Balthus
AB She-Wolves by Norton
CR Every Time a Friend Succeeds
CR Unfaithful Music and Disapearing Ink
2* Thomas Aquinas
CR Invisible Women
CR Masterworks of Early 20thC Literature



TTC:

4* History of Science 1700 - 1900
5* A History of England from the Tudors to the Stuarts
TR Secrets of Sleep
TR Turning Points in Modern History
TR Apocalypse
4* Myth in Human History
3* A History of Russia
TR The Classics
5* London
4* Re-thinking Our Past
4* The Vikings
5* Lost Worlds of South America
3* Rome and the Barbarians
TR Living the French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon
OH History of Science: Antiquity to 1700
TR Albert Einstein: Physicist, Philosopher, Humanitarian
TR Will to Power: The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
5* From Monet To Van Gogh: A History Of Impressionism
5* History of the English language
TR The Late Middle Ages
3* Great American Music: Boadway Musicals
5* Classics of Russian Literature
5* Lost Worlds of South America
2* The Skeptic's Guide to the Great Books
2* Thomas Aquinas
CR Masterworks of Early 20thC Literature

[BookCrazy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was one of the worst Great Courses I've ever listened to. I picked this particular series as I struggle with modern literature and most of the supposed great authors of the 20th Century. I was hoping to understand why they bore me to tears and instead a truly awful narrator, who was often overwrought and stumbling over his words, made me dislike these books and authors even more.

This lecturer often had to restart his sentences because he misspoke (or misread) his notes. There was no great insight into the authors lives or place in history that would explain why the books chosen are credited as masterworks. If anything, he made me dislike Ford Madox Ford, whose Parade's End I found eminently readable. His readings from Lady Chatterley's Lover were hysterically bad. He was trying to explain why this book was considered titillating when written, while at the same time making it seem like it had been written by a 13 year old who just discovered porn.

And my poor dear Kafka - whom I love - this was a very sad lecture. Glad I already knew and appreciated Kafka before listening to this or I would never read him.

I guess Falkner and Joyce will remain on my WTF list. I will never get why anyone reads Falkner. For whatever perverse reason I still have a desire to understand Joyce, but this is not the lecture series to lead me to enlightenment on Ulysses or Dubliners.

[Don Heiman · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 2007 The Teaching Company released M.I.T. Prof. David Thorburn’s 24 lecture course “Masterworks of Early 20th Century Literature.” His course features literary modernists from the 1880’s to 1915. These modernist authors include Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, and Rudyard Kipling. The course next profiles the “high Modernest” generation of James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Frank Kafka. The lectures conclude with the conservative Russian and Modernist authors Isaac Babel, William Faulkner, D. H. Lawrence, and Vladimir Nabokov. Each lecture discusses author writing styles, their most renown books, and their primary themes and social commentaries. Prof. Thorburn’s course guide is exceptional. It has a detailed timeline of events and authorships from 1880 to 1940. The guide also has a wonderful author bibliography, and an exceptional glossary of literary as well as social modernism terminology. Each of the 24 lecturers are 30 minutes long. (P)

[Constantia Munda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Main Points -

1 – Stream of consciousness, = DH Lawrence ( homo erotica writer),

2 - Impressionism Painting, like text from Virginia Woolf.

3 – Unreliable Narrator- Joseph Conrad.

4 - Estrangement and alienation is major themes of Modern literature.

5 – Kafka’s “The Trial” deconstructs “Justice.”
5a – Priest says “Yep your guilty, stop professing innocence – it proves your GUILT."

6 – Experimental in structure, but conservative content.

6 – Unheroic protagonists.

7 – Homelessness, and universal displacement are other major theme. (TS Elliot, S. Beckett).

8 - Harsh and Beautiful.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great survey of the Modernist movement-- Conrad to Faulkner. Also included Woolf, Lawrence, and Babel. Recommended reading of discussed books

[Walter Bowne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

[Jeff J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good survey, albeit a bit heavy on James Joyce.

[Brenden Gallagher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent survey of literary modernism by a brilliant and learned mind. Wonderful listen.