Course overview:
The definition of "Modernism" is still, a century later, a matter of debate. In this course, we will examine a series of possible approaches to defining this term as we read a range of authors, from Ibsen and Eliot to Stein and Woolf, and explore some of the avant-garde movements of the era (including Futurism, Imagism, and Surrealism) and their historical and social contexts. Students will be encouraged to explore the avenues and works which most interest them. We may have an evening or two of films if there is sufficient interest.
Marking scheme:
Evaluation will be based upon performance on one short essay (worth 25%), one long essay (35%), one seminar presentation (20%), and class participation (20%). This last refers to participation in both lectures and (focally) seminars. Students absent from more than three seminars (certified emergencies excepted) forfeit the full participation mark. Students will be notified of at least 15% of their course grade by October 27, and should note that the last day to drop a D2 course without academic penalty is November 4. Please note that completion of all assignments is required to pass the course.
Required texts:
John Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel
Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House
Lawrence Rainey, ed., Modernism: An Anthology
Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
Late Policy:
A penalty of two percent (2%) for each day late, including weekends, will be incurred in all cases except certified emergencies. Papers more than ten days late will not be accepted, and a mark of zero will be given for the assignment. Requests for extensions sent by email will not be entertained. All assigned work must be submitted in hard copy: emailed assignments will not be accepted.
Plagiarism:
Simply: don't even think about it. Students are referred to Brock University's official policy on plagiarism (see Undergraduate Calendar, Academic Regulations and University Policies, VII. Academic Misconduct), and they are further advised that the instructor has an especially low view of such behaviour. Decisions for penalties in such cases are made by the Associate Dean, but the instructor will recommend a minimum penalty of a grade of zero for the assignment.
Medical Emergencies:
All students should familiarize themselves with Brock's Medical Exemption policy and follow its procedures if necessary (see http://www.brocku.ca/healthservices/exemption.php).
Schedule
September 8 course introduction
September 13 Ibsen, A Doll's House
September 15 Ibsen, A Doll's House
seminar (September 12-16): Yeats, "The Tower" (310-14)
September 20 Pound, "In a Station of the Metro" (43)
H. D., "Garden" (443)
readings on Imagism (94-97) and Vorticism (97-99)
September 22 Pound, Cantos I (62-64) and LXXXI (89-93)
Fenollosa and Pound, "The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry" (99-112)
seminar (September 19-23): Yeats, "Among School Children" (327-28)
Pound, "Portrait d'une Femme" (41-42)
September 27 Marinetti, "The Founding and the Manifesto of Futurism" (3-6),
"Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature" (15-19)
and "Destruction of Syntax—Wireless Imagination—Words-in-Freedom" (27-34)
Loy, "Aphorisms on Futurism" (427-28)
September 29 Stein, Tender Buttons (373-99)
seminar (September 26-30): Loy, "Human Cylinders" (421-22)
and "Brancusi's
Golden Bird" (424-25)
October 4 Stein, Tender Buttons (373-99)
and “Composition as Explanation”
(407-11)
October 7 [No lecture]
seminar (October 3-7): Tzara, “Dada Manifesto 1918” (479-84)
New York Dada (493-97)
October 11 Joyce, “A Little Cloud” (215-23)
October 13 Eliot, The Waste Land (124-43)
seminar (October 10-14): Joyce, “Araby” (212-15)
Richardson, “Death” (580-81)
October 18 Eliot, The Waste Land
October 20 Eliot, The Waste Land
seminar (October 17-21): Eliot, “Tradition and the Individual Talent” (152-56)
discussion of The Waste Land
October 25 Williams, Spring and All (500-37)
October 27 Williams, Spring and All
seminar (October 24-28): selected passages from Spring and All
November 1 Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
November 3 Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
seminar (October 31-November 4): selected passages from Mrs Dalloway
November 8 Crane, “Voyages” (816-19)
November 10 Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel (1-103)
seminar (November 7-11): Moore, “New York” (651-52)
Stevens, “The Idea of Order at Key West” (614-15)
November 15 Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel (104-236)
November 17 Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel (237-323)
seminar (November 14-18): selected passages from The 42nd Parallel
November 22& Breton, Manifesto of Surrealism (1924) (718-41)
Desnos, “Midnight at Two O’Clock” (746-49)
Adorno, “Looking Back on Surrealism” (1113-16)
November 24 Beckett, Endgame (1035-61)
seminar (November 21-25): discussion of Endgame
November 29 & Beckett, Endgame; course review
Due Dates
| October 11 | Short essay due (4-6 pages) |
| December 6 | Long essay due (10-12 pages)
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Seminars
Seminars are designed for group discussion, offering students greater opportunity to express and exchange their own ideas than lectures allow. Students should arrive at seminars having read the work assigned and prepared to talk about it: mere attendance is not synonymous with participation.
| Seminar 1 | Wed 13:00-14:00 | MCJ 209 |
| Seminar 2 | Wed 13:00-14:00 | MCC 301 |
| Seminar 3 | Thur 13:00-14:00 | PL 411 |
Seminar Presentations
Students in each seminar will sign up for one of the provided seminar topics by no later than September 22 (students who do not sign up by this deadline will not be permitted to give a presentation, and forfeit the mark). Students who have signed up for a given text are expected to lead seminar discussion on that text on that day. This discussion, which should be roughly 20 minutes in length, should seek to include many seminar participants in a concerted effort to interpret the text in question and to try to usefully contextualize it within the larger frame of “modernism.”
Laptops and Other Devices:
Students may use laptop computers in lecture but are asked not to distract other students with these devices. In seminars, on the other hand, the use of laptops is discouraged. (Note that students whose disabilities require the use of a laptop should inform the instructor and seminar leader of this at the soonest opportunity.) Cell phones, blackberries, and other social media should be shut off during both lecture and seminar: use of such media in these settings is both disrespectful and demonstrative of poor attention to the course, and may be penalized in participation grades.
Supplementary Reading:
- Ann L. Ardis, Modernism and Cultural Conflict, 1880-1922 (Cambridge UP, 2002)
- Matei Calinescu, Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism (Duke UP, 1987)
- William R. Everdell, The First Moderns: Profiles in the Origins of Twentieth-Century Thought (U of Chicago P, 1998)
- Astradur Eysteinsson, The Concept of Modernism (Cornell UP, 1992)
- Peter Gay, Modernism: The Lure of Heresy (Norton, 2007)
- Fredric Jameson, The Modernist Papers (Verso, 2007)
- Hugh Kenner, The Pound Era (U of California P, 1971)
- Stephen Kern, The Culture of Time and Space, 1880-1918, 2nd ed. (Harvard UP, 2003)
- Marina MacKay, Modernism and World War II (Cambridge UP, 2010)
- Vicki Mahaffey, Modernist Literature: Challenging Fictions (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007)
- Peter Nicholls, Modernisms: A Literary Guide (U of California P, 1995)
- Marjorie Perloff, The Futurist Moment: Avant-Garde, Avant Guerre, and the Language of Rupture (U of Chicago P, 2003)
- Lawrence Rainey, Institutions of Modernism: Literary Elites and Public Cultures (Yale UP, 1998)
- Louis A. Sass, Madness and Modernism: Insanity in the Light of Modern Art, Literature, and Thought (Harvard UP, 1998)
- Daniel R. Schwarz, Reconfiguring Modernism: Explorations in the Relationship Between Modern Art and Modern Literature (Palgrave, 1997)
- Bonnie Kime Scott, ed., The Gender of Modernism (Indiana UP, 1990)
- Roger Shattuck, The Banquet Years: The Origins of the Avant-Garde in France, 1885 to World War I (Vintage, 1968)
- Vincent Sherry, The Great War and the Language of Modernism (Oxford UP, 2003)
Note that the Rainey anthology also offers a useful bibliography on particular authors and topics (1138-77).
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