Course for international guest/part time students
- Faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
- Organization
- BTK Department of English Studies
- Code
- BMI-ANGD17-CI9aE.11
- Title
- Modern Fiction - Foundations and Perspectives: Samuel Beckett’s prose
- Usual semester
- Spring
- Published semester
- 2026/27/1
- ECTS
- 3
- Language
- en
- Learning outcomes
- The aim of this course is to introduce students to Samuel Beckett’s prose. The course equips students with the basic skills to approach the complex stylistic, linguistic and cultural phenomena in Beckett’s writing. Through analysing and discussing a wide range of texts, including short stories and novels, it enables students to master difficult texts on their own and develop their competences in the critical examination of Beckett’s prose narratives. The course also places emphasis on an interdisciplinary approach to the literary texts. Corresponding philosophical, psychological and literary theoretical texts are used to provide the necessary framework for tracing a literary career that spanned over most of the twentieth century. Knowledge Have a general and programme-specific theoretical and practical knowledge of Samuel Beckett’s prose. Know the academic terminology of literary criticism. Know how to employ academic terminology and vocabulary of literary criticism and theory. Become acquainted with the main trends of philosophy and psychology used in the discussions of Beckett’s texts. Familiarity with Beckett’s language use. Skills Able to put their thoughts and ideas on literary works and trends in coherent sentences both in writing and in speech Able to use the academic terminology in practise with confidence Able to recognise and employ literary, philosophical and psychological theories in practise Able to understand, interpret and assess academic articles on literature and literary theory for their own use Able to create a presentation connecting to a literary topic using academic sources and present it to their peers in an informative and comprehensible way. Attitudes Open to new achievements and innovations in the field of literary criticism, and take efforts to be acquainted with, understand and use them. Aim for continuous self-education. Aim to know and understand how literature and literary theory work Strive to integrate literary works and trends in their own life, relate them to their everyday experiences and problems Accept the existence of and possible tension between various trends and points of view and be ready to use them for their own purposes Aim to be able to gather and process information on their own from academic sources based on a given set of criteria Open to approaching all Beckett-texts without prejudice Be willing and able to ask for help from teachers in case they face a difficulty Show interest in various fields of applied literature (translation, creative writing, literary analysis) Accept and value opinions expressed by peers and teachers, but strive to express their own opinion in a clear, thoughtful and convincing way Show active participation and maintain an open-minded attitude in classes. Autonomy and responsibility Work autonomously under continuous self-monitoring. Express opinion with care and thoughtful consideration Take responsibility for their own work in the field of literary criticism. Have a sense of responsibility in general for any written work they produce (self-monitoring for the apt and accepted use of academic sources, avoiding plagiarism, etc.)
- Course content
- About half of the seminars are devoted to the open discussion of literary texts that the students have to read in advance. We debate various possible interpretations in the course of which we focus on what makes one interpretation more plausible than an other. In these discussions we resort to pertaining questions of philosophy and psychology, as well as literary history and theory.
- Assessment method
- Assessment is based on attendance, oral presentation, inclass paper and participation in class discussions.
- Bibliography
- Texts discussed from various angles in the course of the term: --‘Assumption’ (1929) --‘A Case in a Thousand’ (1934) --‘Dante and the Lobster’ (1934) --Murphy (1938). --Watt (1945) --Molloy (1947) --The Unnamable (1949) --‘The Expelled’ (1946) --‘The Calmative’ (1946) --‘First Love’ (1946) --‘Imagination Dead Imagine’ (1965) --‘Lessness’ (1969) --‘Still’ (1975) --‘Stirrings Still’ (1988)