Want to know where to place a certain author or title; and to be familiar with the cultural, philosophical, and socio-political background of a story? In order to gain insight, it is important to be knowledgeable about the era the piece was written in. The Norton Anthology of English Literature has an extensive selection of canonized English literature. You are strongly encouraged to consult this book, especially if you are planning to major in English.
Favourite Authors:
SPECULATIVE FICTION
Isaac Asimov (US)
Kurt Vonnegut (US)
Ray Bradbury (US)-favourite: Fahrenheit 451
William Gibson (CAN)-Neuromancer
Douglas Adams (US)-The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
J.R.R. Tolkien (UK)
G.R.R. Martin (US)
George Orwell (UK)
Aldous Huxley (UK)
John Hillcoat (US)
Philip K. Dick (US)
Donald Barthelme (US)
John Barth (US)
Thomas Pynchon (US)
John Wyndham (UK)-Chrysalids, The Day of the Triffids
Arthur C. Clarke (UK): Childhood’s End
MAGICAL REALISM
Haruki Murakami (JP), Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle
Banana Yoshimoto (JP)-Kitchen
Marc Fitten (US)-Valeria’s Last Stand, Elza’s Kitchen
Paul Auster (US)-The New York Trilogy
Julian Barnes (UK)
Salman Rushdie (UK)-Midnight’s Children
Rohinton Mistry (CAN)-A Fine Balance
Angela Carter (UK)-The Magic Toyshop
Mikhail Bulgakov (Russia)
Thomas Mann (Germany)
Adam Bodor (Hungary)
MODERNISM&CONTEMPORARY
Joseph Conrad (UK)-Heart of Darkness
Franz Kafka (Czech Rep.)
William Faulkner (US)-The Sound and the Fury
James Joyce (Ireland)-Ulysses
Joyce Carol Oates (US)
Flannery O’Connor (US)
J.D. Salinger (US)-favourite: The Catcher in the Rye
Cormac McCarthy (US)
Hemingway: A Movable Feast
Samuel Beckett: Molloy
NON-FICTION
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil Turok
Stephen Hawking
TED Talks, NatGeo, History Channel
THEATRE
Harold Pinter (UK)
Samuel Beckett (Ireland)
Eugene O’Neill (US)
Bertolt Brecht (Germany)
Shakespeare (UK)
Tom Stoppard (UK)-favourite: Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Arthur Miller
POETRY
T.S. Eliot (UK)
W.B. Yeats (Ireland)
Philip Larkin (UK)
Ted Hughes (UK)
Sylvia Plath (US)
Robert Frost (US)
FILM
The Perks of Being a Wallflower /The Art of Getting By/Win Win/Blackbird/Donnie Darko/Dead Poets’ Society /Winning Season (The Catcher in the Rye/Pigman)
Finding Forrester (Pigman)
Equilibrium/Brazil (Farhrenheit 451)
1984/Brazil (1984, Animal Farm)
Warm Bodies/Romeo+Juliet (Romeo and Juliet)
O/Kenneth Branagh’s O (Othello)
Throne of Blood/Kenneth Branagh’s Macbeth (Macbeth)
Schindler’s List/The Pianist/The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (Night/Maus)
Blade Runner /I, Robot (Short Stories-Speculative Fiction)
Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead/Ethan Hawke’s Hamlet/Mel Gibson’s Hamlet/Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet (Hamlet)
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