The Global Experimental: Modernism and Beyond

Catalog description

Modernism is a 20th-century literary, artistic, intellectual, and theoretical movement. It started in the West from 1890 as a reaction to major socio-cultural, political, intellectual, economic, scientific, and technological developments that left many feeling unsettled, lost, and disillusioned. Modernism and modernist literature also took off in other locations in the world but not necessarily during the same period of 1890 to the 1940s. Furthermore, modernism in the West has arguably witnessed a comeback. This 200-level course covers the rise of modernism as a global phenomenon of thematic, generic, and stylistic experimentation and will draw attention to canonical writers from across the globe such as William Faulkner, Langston Hughes, Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, Frantz Kafka, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Lu Xun, and Tayeb Salih. We will also situate literary modernism in relation to nineteenth-century literary realism, the subsequent postmodernism, and, where relevant, postcolonialism. Students will be exposed to different genres: these may include short stories, poems, visual arts, film, plays, novels, and theory; and as needed we will examine how visual culture, architecture, and popular culture interacted with, influenced, and were shaped by, modernist aesthetics. The course will unpack major thematic, generic, and stylistic elements found in modernist literature and artistic and visual forms. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Humanities Introductory Course; Humanities Minor.