DECONSTRUCTING THE 20TH CENTURY

Catalog description

In the second half of the 20th century, something shifted in the American culture. This shift marked the post-WWII progression from modernity to post-modernity, which was widely reflected by changes in society, culture, and art. This course offers an accessible survey of the cultural, critical, technological, economic, and aesthetic foundations of postmodernism. We will particularly examine the postmodern challenge to traditional ideas of progress, authority, authenticity, knowledge, power, and language with its playful mixing of forms and high and low culture. We will progress through the course with a central question that asks if a positive pragmatic potential can be detected within the postmodern sensibility. Prerequisite: completion of an English sequence (4 credits)