Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Introduces ways of comparing modern world literatures across time and space. May explore topics such as revolution, technology, or existentialism. Writing/Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

Not only did the global upheavals of the early 20th century upend the ways in which human nature was understood, but in that larger era of turbulent historical, technological, and cultural transformation, literature and art came to reflect new notions of human value and identity. As our first text implies, however, the “modernist” revolution in human nature was not entirely new – not least where Hamlet suggests how individual consciousness can appear as a force for change in modernity.

Pursued by that prince’s self-interrogating presence, and with much reference to painting and photography, we move on to Strindberg’s play on the fault lines of class, feminism, and the individual (Miss Julie 1888), Mu Shiying’s stream-of-consciousness Chinese short stories (1938), and Mulk Raj Anand’s novel concerning an outcaste youth in pre-independence India (Untouchable 1935). In order to consider how the moral “image” of the feminine carries ethical weight, we will also watch the famous 1930s Shanghai movie, The Goddess (神女), and discuss excerpts from the works of Anna Akhmatova and Clarice Lispector.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

• Introductory understanding of World Literature and Modernism as academic disciplines
• Basic comprehension of terms and concepts of literary criticism
• Ability to compare literary texts as social discourses across different cultural eras & media
• Improved university writing ability with a focus on literary criticism

WL C104W is a “W” writing course, and skills learned across the term help students to craft arguments in all faculties. As per the W requirements, students receive appropriate feedback & response to their writing that is based on explicit criteria and is directed at improving the quality of their writing. At least half the grade is based on written work for which students receive feedback before submitting a revised version of their assignments.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: