The Modern Scholar: The Modern Novel

By: Professor Katherine Elkins

Narrated by: Professor Katherine Elkins

A recipient of the Whiting Foundation Teaching Fellowship, Katherine Elkins is also the co-director of the Integrated Program in the Humane Studies at Kenyon College. In this lecture series, Elkins examines the development of the modern novel by investigating four great modernist authors: James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Marcel Proust, and Virginia Woolf. The lectures explore the authors’ most respected works and illustrate how each author’s unique style and vision made a major contribution to the look and shape of the novel today.

©2013 Katherine Elkins (P)2013 Crescite Group, LLC

Encore!

I specifically picked out this selection because of Prof. Elkins. My only disappointment is that it is half the length of her course on the giants of French literature.

Too short, I need more!

Any additional comments?

This lecture series covers the proper/academic definition of the "modern novel," that is, novels written as part of the Modernist movement in the earlier part of the 20th century. Don't be a dummy like me, not read the production description, assume the colloquial term for modern, and think the series was going to cover novels all through the 20th century well past the period actually addressed.

That being said, Prof. Elkins offers a wonderful little series of lectures about some books that definitely deserve a second (or first) reading if you haven't tackled these novels since school that provides great insight into the writing, and social and historical context behind the books.

I would definitely listen to a lecture series from Prof. Elkins that's a traditional length for the Great Courses (15-20 hours) and would recommend this series to anyone interested in 20th century literature. A very enjoyable listen.