On Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition Part VII with Professor James A. W. Hefferman (2004)

It’s been a month weeks since I finished Part VI, and, with the completion of this binder, I have completed the whole series–84 lectures in all, gentle reader, started–well, I reported on the first two parts in February, so–earlier this year? Late last year? It seems like a long time.

This set is entitled “Modern Literature” and covers mostly early 20th century authors. Individual lectures include:

73. Henry James
74. Joseph Conrad
75. William Butler Yeats
76. Marcel Proust
77. James Joyce
78. Franz Kafka
79. Virgina Woolf
80. William Faulkner
81. Bertholt Brecht
82. Albert Camus
83. Samuel Beckett
84. Conclusion

As with Part VI, I would have expected to have not read many of the authors, but I’ve read Conrad, a poem or two of Yeats, Kafka, Woolf, Camus, and Beckett, and I have books by Faulkner, Joyce, and James which I might get to someday.

Professor Hefferman focuses on single works, for the most part, but gives biographical sketches and, across lectures, explains the development, particularly in the novels but also in the dramas and poetry, the evolution of modernism from what came before. It does tail off mid-century, but if it went much further, I would definitely not be able to report that I’d read the authors–Roth, Updike, and whatnot.

I cannot help but notice that Faulkner is the only American on the list, so no love for Fitzgerald or Hemingway here.

So: The conclusion talks more about themes that are constant in Western literature (love, the relationship with God or gods, and war) more than tracing the evolution of the forms, but I guess 82 of the lectures covered that.

Does it make me want to read the authors? Some of them, the ones I have/own, I suppose. Other, particularly French authors and playwrights, eh, probably not (although who knows what I might find for a dollar in the wild).

I think I’ll do a proper quiz-style post to brag about which ones I’ve read and which ones I have in the stacks to read on another day. Perhaps a day after I remove the CDs from the player in the vehicle (yes, gentle reader, the completion is that fresh: yesterday).