COURSE DESCRIPTION

The first module will explore two works by authors from different historical periods which deal with similar themes in connection with the notion of survival and self-determination. Defoe’s classic tale has enthralled generations of readers and continues to stimulate critical debate. Besides the political and social implications of the novel, consideration will be given to the author’s literary development within the historical context as well as the stylistic and rhetorical features of the quasi-documentary realism of his writing. Orwell’s allegorical fable reveals the treacherous and insidious intent behind the creation of a utopia which, with the complicity of an ignorant and distracted animal-population, becomes a cruel dystopia. In this dysphoric transformation language becomes the most ruthless weapon of those in power in order to impose their regime.
The second module examines two twentieth- century works which deal with the problem of the relationship between the sexes in a changing modern world from the female’s point of view. In Lawrence’s novella the father’s teaching leads the main protagonist to experience sexuality as a negation of the primeval self, while the protagonist of Rhys’s novel is forced to a life of male-dependency for her own survival in the world.

The division of the course into two separate modules does not, of course, preclude the possibility of considering the intertextual connections of the works chosen. Therefore, students will be encouraged to reflect on the thematic convergences as well as the literary and ideological objectives behind their composition.