Kurzus nemzetközi vendég- és részidős hallgatóknak
- Kar
- Bölcsészettudományi Kar
- Szervezet
- BTK Anglisztika Tanszék
- Kód
- BBI-ANG-225E.M10
- Cím
- Reading British sources from the time of the Second World War
- Tervezett félév
- Őszi
- ECTS
- 3
- Nyelv
- en
- Oktatás célja
- The purpose of this reading course is to acquaint the students with the vocabulary, general and technical, of some notable historical, literary and diary sources for the Second World War period. Acquiring the technique of interpreting and evaluating sources in terms of authenticity is another purpose of the course. An added literary skill is the appreciation of the contemporary atmosphere, milieu, evoked in the texts. The expanded vocabulary and general themes remain useful for understanding and contextualising the contemporary and subsequent English literature and cinema of the mid-20th century. Authors, such as Churchill, Taylor, Calvocoressi and Charmley are exquisite writers in the English language so the experience can also be measured in sheer pleasure of reading.
- Tantárgy tartalma
- The reading classes will use set texts (some of them now regarded as classic sources) from the time of and concerning the British involvement in the Second World War, dating from 1939 to the present. They are complex, nuanced text parts, some literary, some technical. Difficult perhaps by the usual standards. Each week an excerpt of moderate length (one paragraph to half a page) will be distributed, written by eye witnesses, leading politicians, professional historians, ordinary civilians or servicemen. The students are expected to study, understand, dissect the texts for the next session, where a discussion will take place on account of the excerpt in question. The individual students’ ability to understand, handle the texts will be tested. They will be asked to read sentences and answer questions about them. The students will receive every help, assistance to overcome any difficulties until they have clearly understood the texts and their contexts. If a particular passage is proving too difficult for one week, it may be studied for an extended period. Understanding is measured by the ability to explain or paraphrase the meaning, in some cases, as a last resort, by translation. Non-Hungarian students can use their own first languages in cases of translation. This is not only a linguistic exercise, but naturally also a window on particular chapters of wartime history. Background introductions by the teacher and individual background research home assignments will make sure that the texts are read intelligently, their complex historical import is understood by students attending the course. Some highlights from the list of assignments: Winston Churchill’s six volume war memoirs, which won for the author the Nobel Prize in literature, will be the source of two excerpts. The early parts of David Kynaston’s Austerity Britain 1945-51 provide insight into diaries and testimonials of ordinary citizens at the end of the war. Angus Calder’s classic The People’s War: Britain 1939-1945 continues “the history from below” theme. Paul Addison’s Churchill on the Home Front, 1900-1955 examines Britain’s wartime prime minister in an unusual context. Texts from prominent official histories by A.J.P Taylor and Peter Calvocoressi (erudite yet very readable authors), complement the list.
- Számonkérés és értékelés
- Performance will be assessed and graded a) by the quality of active class participation, the level of preparedness for each class; b) one mid-term and one end of term in-class test, when short selections from texts studied previously will be assigned for cloze test, paraphrase or translation. Short cloze tests may be written more frequently to embed new vocabulary.
- Irodalomjegyzék
- A következő művekből kerülnek szövegrészletek feladásra: Addison, Paul. Churchill on the Home Front, 1900-1955, London: Jonathan Cape, 1992. Beevor, Antony. The Second World War, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2012. Calder, Angus. The People’s War: Britain 1939-1945, London: Jonathan Cape, 1969. Calvocoressi, Peter and Guy Wint. Total War: Causes and Courses of the Second Word War, London: Allen Lane, 1972. Charmley, John. Churchill, The End of Glory: a Political Biography, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1993. Churchill, Winston. The Second World War, vol 1: The Gathering Storm, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1948. Coleville, John. The Fringes of Power: Downing Street Diaries 1939-1955, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1985. Kynaston, David. Austerity Britain 1945-51 (Tales of a New Jerusalem), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2008. Lord Moran. Winston Churchill: The struggle for survival 1940-1965, London: Constable & Company, 1966. Taylor, A.J. P. English History 1914-1945, London: Oxford University Press, 1965. Excerpts from: Addison, Paul. Churchill on the Home Front, 1900-1955, London: Jonathan Cape, 1992. Beevor, Antony. The Second World War, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2012. Calder, Angus. The People’s War: Britain 1939-1945, London: Jonathan Cape, 1969. Calvocoressi, Peter and Guy Wint. Total War: Causes and Courses of the Second Word War, London: Allen Lane, 1972. Charmley, John. Churchill, The End of Glory: a Political Biography, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1993. Churchill, Winston. The Second World War, vol 1: The Gathering Storm, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1948. Coleville, John. The Fringes of Power: Downing Street Diaries 1939-1955, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1985. Kynaston, David. Austerity Britain 1945-51 (Tales of a New Jerusalem), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2008. Lord Moran. Winston Churchill: The struggle for survival 1940-1965, London: Constable & Company, 1966. Taylor, A.J. P. English History 1914-1945, London: Oxford University Press, 1965.