Modernism and Its Global Inheritors (ENGL 43270)
Professors Holmes and Spitzer
icglobalmodernism.weebly.com
Syllabus
COURSE DESCRIPTION: The artistic movement known as Modernism has died and been reborn enough times in the 20th and 21st centuries to qualify as the literary undead. Framed historically by the world wars in the West, Modernism grew from trauma and discontent into one of the most productive periods of literary innovation since the Renaissance. Modernist literature is marked by an aesthetic avant garde that baffled some and bewitched others, spawning imitators and outgrowths all over the world. Since its historical moment of prominence in the first half of the Twentieth-Century, Modernism's exact geographical, temporal, linguistic, and cultural lineage has come into question. New progenitors of the British and American models have been located and brought into the fold, while other "bad modernisms" have been dissected with glee. This course will begin with the understanding that the literary field of Modernism can and should be understood as always already influenced by its global inheritance and inheritors, and that studying the global forms of Modernism will radically impact how we read contemporary literatures. We will start by studying the literature and theory of Anglo-American Modernism and its most recognizable practitioners according to what Virginia Woolf called their "new forms for our new sensations." This will lead us to examine texts that break our geographical and temporal expectations of what Modernism can be or do. Our study will include questions of 1. radical temporality and the problem of space 2. aesthetic self-consciousness 3. formal adventurousness and difficulty/obscurity 4. fascination with authenticity and the futility of that compulsion 5. inter/nationalisms. Authors may include: Woolf, Faulkner, Maddox Ford, Ondaatje, Coetzee, and etc. This advanced seminar is designed to correspond with a conference on Global Modernism (icglobalmodernism.weebly.com) to be held at IC this April. Students should expect to present a paper as part of the conference, and to attend the panels and speakers over the two-day event (April 3-4). Willingness to engage with difficult theory and literature, to present work publicly, and engage in seminar discussions with uncommon intellect is a must.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Seminar Discussion and Conference Presentation
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Exceptional engagement in all aspects of class discussion; one conference-style paper 6 pages and the development of that paper into a research paper of approx. 15 pages.
Daily Writing: for each seminar session, you will be doing some informal writing to prepare for our discussion. You are expected to prepare two questions for each class, one for the novel and one for the secondary source material (criticism, theory, etc.). The questions must reference the text directly, ie you have to use a quote from the novel/essay in forming your question. Like all good literary questions you must avoid those with a yes or no answer, eschewing that sort for a question of broader consequence. For example, a bad question for Sound and the Fury would be “Why is Jason so cruel to Caddy?”, while a more interesting permutation might be: “What are some of the gender implications implicit in the language Jason uses to demean Caddy?” Secondly, as writing practice, you must write a one or two paragraph argument or claim about one or more of the readings for that class. Think of it as a micro-paper, a concentrated argument that seeks to understand how or why a text is doing, performing, or asking something for us.
Computers: you may not use a computer in class, unless previously assigned by the professors to do so. Electronic copies of books are not acceptable—you must have the paper copy for each seminar session. The kind of reading you’ll be expected to do requires marking up a material text, and, frankly, a Kindling, not matter how “paper-white,” will just not suffice. Failure to bring your pulpy copy to class is a failure to prepare, and will be treated as such.
Do not plagiarize! You must take the following tutorial that familiarizes you with the basics of citation and plagiarism, and complete the exercises at the end of the tutorial: http://plagiarism.arts.cornell.edu/tutorial/principles.cfm. After completing the tutorial, please sign the following and turn in just this small section of this syllabus page.
Print and Sign your name: __________________________________________________
Your signature commits you to IC’s rules and regulations about plagiarism. It also marks your awareness of our policy that any plagiarized work will be a 0 for that assignment, with the possibility of failure in the course. Any case of plagiarism may be brought to IC’s judicial committee for further review and censure.
Course Texts
Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier [1914] (978-0393927924)
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse [1927] (9780156907392)
William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury [1929] (978-0679732242)
J.M. Coetzee, Foe (978-8420424965)
Roberto Bolano, The Savage Detectives (978-0312427481)
Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient (978-0679745204)
*All secondary readings can be found on the course/symposium website
Week One: Weds, Jan. 22nd
Introduction
Week Two: Weds, Jan. 29 (possible Tuesday Meeting, Jan. 28)
Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier (1915)
Bradbury and McFarlane, “The Name and Nature of Modernism”, from Modernism a Guide to European Literature, 1890-1930
Week Three: Weds, Feb. 5
Ford, The Good Soldier
Raymond Williams “When Was Modernism” and “Metropolitan Perceptions and the Emergence of Modernism” from Politics of Modernism
Week Four: Weds, Feb. 12
Virginia Woolf, To The Lighthouse (1927)
Rita Felski, “Introduction” and “Chapter 1” to The Gender of Modernity
Week Five: Weds, Feb. 19
Woolf, To The Lighthouse
Rebecca Walkowitz, “Woolf’s Evasion,” Cosmopolitan Style: Modernism Beyond the Nation
Week Six: Weds, Feb. 26
William Faulkner, The Sound and The Fury (1929)
Add another here
Week Seven: Weds, Mar. 5
Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
Daniel Joseph Singal, “Towards a Definition of American Modernism,” American Quarterly 39 (Spring 1987), 7-26. On JSTOR.
**Conference Paper Due Before You Leave For Break** (Electronic Form)**
Professors Holmes and Spitzer will provide feedback electronically over the break
in preparation for revisions. Spring Break will be an important period of writing and revising.
March Break:Mar. 8-16th
Week Seven: Weds, Mar. 19
Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
Mao and Walkowitz, "The New Modernist Studies," PMLA
Week Eight: Weds, Mar. 26
Ondaatje, The English Patient
Susan Stanford Friedman, “Periodizing Modernism: Postcolonial Modernities and the
Space/Time Borders of Modernist Studies," Modernism/modernity
Andreas Huyssen. ‘Geographies of modernism in a globalizing world’, in Geographies of
Modernism, eds. Peter Brooker and Andrew Thacker (London: Routledge, 2005) 6-18
Week Nine: Weds, April 2
Ondaatje, The English Patient
Jessica Berman, “Introduction,” Modernist Commitments: Ethics, Politics, and Transnational Modernism
Walkowitz, Rebecca. “Critical Cosmopolitanism and Modernist Narrative.” Introduction to Cosmopolitan Style: Modernism beyond the Nation.
**Symposium Thurs-Fri, April 3, 4
Week Ten: Weds, April 9
Coetzee, Foe
David Atwell, “Introduction,” Rewriting Modernity: Studies in Black South African Literary History
David James, “Introduction,” Modernist Futures: Innovation and Inheritance in the Contemporary Novel
Week Eleven: Weds, April 16
Coetzee, Foe
Benita Parry, “Speech and Silence in the Fictions of J.M. Coetzee”
Mike Marais, “Disarming Silence: Ethical Resistance in J.M. Coetzee’s Foe”
Week Twelve: **Tues, April 22**
Bolano, Savage Detectives
Daniel Zalewski, “Vagabonds,” The New Yorker
The New Voices Festival April 23-25th (readings, panels, and performances by young writers at the top of their fields) IthacaNewVoicesFestival.com
Week Thirteen: Wed, April 30
Bolano, Savage Detectives
Emilio Sauri, “‘A la pinche modernidad’ Literary Form and the End of History in Roberto Bolaño's Los detectives salvajes”
Week Fourteen: Wed, May 7
Bolano, Savage Detectives
**Final Paper Due**
Professors Holmes and Spitzer
icglobalmodernism.weebly.com
Syllabus
COURSE DESCRIPTION: The artistic movement known as Modernism has died and been reborn enough times in the 20th and 21st centuries to qualify as the literary undead. Framed historically by the world wars in the West, Modernism grew from trauma and discontent into one of the most productive periods of literary innovation since the Renaissance. Modernist literature is marked by an aesthetic avant garde that baffled some and bewitched others, spawning imitators and outgrowths all over the world. Since its historical moment of prominence in the first half of the Twentieth-Century, Modernism's exact geographical, temporal, linguistic, and cultural lineage has come into question. New progenitors of the British and American models have been located and brought into the fold, while other "bad modernisms" have been dissected with glee. This course will begin with the understanding that the literary field of Modernism can and should be understood as always already influenced by its global inheritance and inheritors, and that studying the global forms of Modernism will radically impact how we read contemporary literatures. We will start by studying the literature and theory of Anglo-American Modernism and its most recognizable practitioners according to what Virginia Woolf called their "new forms for our new sensations." This will lead us to examine texts that break our geographical and temporal expectations of what Modernism can be or do. Our study will include questions of 1. radical temporality and the problem of space 2. aesthetic self-consciousness 3. formal adventurousness and difficulty/obscurity 4. fascination with authenticity and the futility of that compulsion 5. inter/nationalisms. Authors may include: Woolf, Faulkner, Maddox Ford, Ondaatje, Coetzee, and etc. This advanced seminar is designed to correspond with a conference on Global Modernism (icglobalmodernism.weebly.com) to be held at IC this April. Students should expect to present a paper as part of the conference, and to attend the panels and speakers over the two-day event (April 3-4). Willingness to engage with difficult theory and literature, to present work publicly, and engage in seminar discussions with uncommon intellect is a must.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Seminar Discussion and Conference Presentation
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Exceptional engagement in all aspects of class discussion; one conference-style paper 6 pages and the development of that paper into a research paper of approx. 15 pages.
Daily Writing: for each seminar session, you will be doing some informal writing to prepare for our discussion. You are expected to prepare two questions for each class, one for the novel and one for the secondary source material (criticism, theory, etc.). The questions must reference the text directly, ie you have to use a quote from the novel/essay in forming your question. Like all good literary questions you must avoid those with a yes or no answer, eschewing that sort for a question of broader consequence. For example, a bad question for Sound and the Fury would be “Why is Jason so cruel to Caddy?”, while a more interesting permutation might be: “What are some of the gender implications implicit in the language Jason uses to demean Caddy?” Secondly, as writing practice, you must write a one or two paragraph argument or claim about one or more of the readings for that class. Think of it as a micro-paper, a concentrated argument that seeks to understand how or why a text is doing, performing, or asking something for us.
Computers: you may not use a computer in class, unless previously assigned by the professors to do so. Electronic copies of books are not acceptable—you must have the paper copy for each seminar session. The kind of reading you’ll be expected to do requires marking up a material text, and, frankly, a Kindling, not matter how “paper-white,” will just not suffice. Failure to bring your pulpy copy to class is a failure to prepare, and will be treated as such.
Do not plagiarize! You must take the following tutorial that familiarizes you with the basics of citation and plagiarism, and complete the exercises at the end of the tutorial: http://plagiarism.arts.cornell.edu/tutorial/principles.cfm. After completing the tutorial, please sign the following and turn in just this small section of this syllabus page.
Print and Sign your name: __________________________________________________
Your signature commits you to IC’s rules and regulations about plagiarism. It also marks your awareness of our policy that any plagiarized work will be a 0 for that assignment, with the possibility of failure in the course. Any case of plagiarism may be brought to IC’s judicial committee for further review and censure.
Course Texts
Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier [1914] (978-0393927924)
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse [1927] (9780156907392)
William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury [1929] (978-0679732242)
J.M. Coetzee, Foe (978-8420424965)
Roberto Bolano, The Savage Detectives (978-0312427481)
Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient (978-0679745204)
*All secondary readings can be found on the course/symposium website
Week One: Weds, Jan. 22nd
Introduction
Week Two: Weds, Jan. 29 (possible Tuesday Meeting, Jan. 28)
Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier (1915)
Bradbury and McFarlane, “The Name and Nature of Modernism”, from Modernism a Guide to European Literature, 1890-1930
Week Three: Weds, Feb. 5
Ford, The Good Soldier
Raymond Williams “When Was Modernism” and “Metropolitan Perceptions and the Emergence of Modernism” from Politics of Modernism
Week Four: Weds, Feb. 12
Virginia Woolf, To The Lighthouse (1927)
Rita Felski, “Introduction” and “Chapter 1” to The Gender of Modernity
Week Five: Weds, Feb. 19
Woolf, To The Lighthouse
Rebecca Walkowitz, “Woolf’s Evasion,” Cosmopolitan Style: Modernism Beyond the Nation
Week Six: Weds, Feb. 26
William Faulkner, The Sound and The Fury (1929)
Add another here
Week Seven: Weds, Mar. 5
Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
Daniel Joseph Singal, “Towards a Definition of American Modernism,” American Quarterly 39 (Spring 1987), 7-26. On JSTOR.
**Conference Paper Due Before You Leave For Break** (Electronic Form)**
Professors Holmes and Spitzer will provide feedback electronically over the break
in preparation for revisions. Spring Break will be an important period of writing and revising.
March Break:Mar. 8-16th
Week Seven: Weds, Mar. 19
Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
Mao and Walkowitz, "The New Modernist Studies," PMLA
Week Eight: Weds, Mar. 26
Ondaatje, The English Patient
Susan Stanford Friedman, “Periodizing Modernism: Postcolonial Modernities and the
Space/Time Borders of Modernist Studies," Modernism/modernity
Andreas Huyssen. ‘Geographies of modernism in a globalizing world’, in Geographies of
Modernism, eds. Peter Brooker and Andrew Thacker (London: Routledge, 2005) 6-18
Week Nine: Weds, April 2
Ondaatje, The English Patient
Jessica Berman, “Introduction,” Modernist Commitments: Ethics, Politics, and Transnational Modernism
Walkowitz, Rebecca. “Critical Cosmopolitanism and Modernist Narrative.” Introduction to Cosmopolitan Style: Modernism beyond the Nation.
**Symposium Thurs-Fri, April 3, 4
Week Ten: Weds, April 9
Coetzee, Foe
David Atwell, “Introduction,” Rewriting Modernity: Studies in Black South African Literary History
David James, “Introduction,” Modernist Futures: Innovation and Inheritance in the Contemporary Novel
Week Eleven: Weds, April 16
Coetzee, Foe
Benita Parry, “Speech and Silence in the Fictions of J.M. Coetzee”
Mike Marais, “Disarming Silence: Ethical Resistance in J.M. Coetzee’s Foe”
Week Twelve: **Tues, April 22**
Bolano, Savage Detectives
Daniel Zalewski, “Vagabonds,” The New Yorker
The New Voices Festival April 23-25th (readings, panels, and performances by young writers at the top of their fields) IthacaNewVoicesFestival.com
Week Thirteen: Wed, April 30
Bolano, Savage Detectives
Emilio Sauri, “‘A la pinche modernidad’ Literary Form and the End of History in Roberto Bolaño's Los detectives salvajes”
Week Fourteen: Wed, May 7
Bolano, Savage Detectives
**Final Paper Due**