Modern and Postmodern:  Aesthetic Backgrounds                                                                     

PBDS 715

 

NOTE: This is representative of the syllabi for this course. It is not necessarily the syllabus being used in any one semester.      

 

 

Course Description & Objectives:  This course explores two cultural phases of the

20th century--modernism and postmodernism--and the intellectual and artistic changes that define in large part our understanding of those movements.  Without depending excessively on theoretical and sociological generalizations, we shall investigate the ways in which modern and postmodern works, in various media and genres, may be seen as responses to the tensions and contradictions brought about by larger cultural forces (eg., the city, the growth of secularization and of the media, changing conceptions of identity and representation).  As we examine some of the intellectual assumptions of modernism and postmodernism, we shall attempt to understand how these cultural movements have influenced and continue to shape our approaches to both verbal and visual expression.

 

 

Texts:

Christopher Butler, Early Modernism: Literature, Music and Painting in Europe 1900-1916

Paula Geyh, Fred Leebron, and Andrew Levy (eds.), Postmodern American Fiction

Brandon Taylor, Avant-Garde and After

 

 

Requirements:

Regular class attendance and participation in class discussions.

 

Reading response.  A brief (250-500 word) but thoughtful written response to one of the assigned readings, intended to sharpen your critical perception and judgment and to provoke discussion.  Your  response may consist of an observation or question (with elaboration) that focuses on some facet of the reading that is of particular interest or concern to you.  You must distribute copies of your response to the class on the day your reading is discussed.

 

Essay on modernism.  Due October 21.  An essay of about 1000 words in which you "answer" the question What does modernism look like?  (You may substitute comparable wording to make the question relevant to writing or music.)   

 

Project on postmodernism.  Due December 16.  This project may be critical, creative, or both.  It should explore by way of analysis and/or representation a key concept or tendency of postmodernism.

 

 

Grading:

In determining your grade for the course, the various aspects of your performance will be weighed as follows:

                                    Attendance, participation, and reading response    1/3

                                    Essay on modernism    1/3

                                    Project on postmodernism    1/3

 

 

Class Schedule and Assignments

 

Sep 2               Introduction to course

                        Specimens of the modern and the postmodern:  Picasso Les Demoiselles                 d'Avignon, Colescott Les Demoiselles d'Alabama; de Kooning Woman II,             Warhol Marilyn, Lichtenstein M-Maybe, Sherman Untitled Film Still; Brancusi                    Bird in Space, Duchamp Bottle Rack, Koons Yorkshire Terriers; Eliot The             Wasteland (I.), Ashbery Daffy Duck in Hollywood; Pound In a Station of the                      Metro, DeLillo White Noise ("the most photographed barn in America"); Mies                   van der Rohe Seagram Building, Philip Johnson AT&T Building; Stravinsky Le                  Sacre du printemps, SonicYouth Swimsuit Issue, Kool Thing, Propellerheads                      On Her Majesty's Secret Service

 

Sep 9               EM, Chapter 1 "The Dynamics of Change" (pp. 1-20) and Chapter 2 "The                         Development of a Modernist Aesthetic" (pp. 25-78)

 

Sep 16             EM, Chapter 3 "The Modernist Self" (pp. 89-123); T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "Preludes" (handout); James Joyce: objectivity and subjectivity (handout)                                         

 

Sep 23             EM, Chapter 4 "The City" (pp.133-196)

 

Sep 30             EM, Chapter 5 "London and the Reception of Modernist Ideas" (pp. 209-234) and Chapter 6 "Aspects of the Avant-Garde" (pp. 241-279)

 

Oct 7               Screen Blade Runner

                        Begin reading assignment for Oct 14

 

Oct 14             Discuss Blade Runner

            PAF, "Introduction" (pp. ix-xxx), Gibson (pp. 512-519), Hassan (pp. 585-593),                 Haraway (pp. 603-621), Baudrillard (pp. 631-637), Jameson (pp. 654-663)

 

Oct 21             PAF, "Breaking the Frame" (pp. 1-3), Pynchon (pp. 4-15), Barthelme (pp. 25-37), Reed (pp. 55-65), Vonnegut (pp. 85-93), Maso (pp. 111-115), Tillman (pp.120-123)

                       

Oct 28             AG, Chapter 1 "Tradition and Avant-Garde" (pp. 7-41), Chapter 2 "Painting and Politics" (pp. 43-71)

 

Nov 4              PAF, "Popular Culture and High Culture Collide" (pp. 193-195), Berube (pp.595-602), Cantor (pp. 196-211), Barry (pp. 211-215), Anderson (pp. 216-225), Leyner (p. 241-255), White (pp. 255-263), Cruz (pp. 263-270)

 

Nov 11                        AG, Chapter 3 "Stolen Forms" (pp. 73-103)

 

Nov 18                        PAF, "Revisiting History" (pp. 291-293), Mailer (pp. 141-145), Eco (pp. 622-624), Spiegelman (pp. 294-300), Daitch (pp. 338-341), Alexie (pp. 341-345), Wallace (pp. 362-391) PAF, "Revising Tradition" (pp. 393-395), Acker (pp. 409-415), Auster (pp. 443-449), Karasik and Mazzucchelli (pp. 449-457)

 

Nov 25                        AG, Chapter 4 "Art Within the Museum" (pp. 105-141), Chapter 5 "Narrating Identity" (pp. 143-169), PAF, Lorde (pp. 146-152), Cha (pp. 161-173), Anzaldua (pp. 183-191), Minh-ha (pp. 649-654)

 

Dec 2               PAF, "Technoculture" (pp. 509-511), DeLillo (526-536), Russ (pp. 537-547), Stephenson (pp. 561-568), Coupland (pp. 568-573), Douglas (573-576), Joyce (576-580), Harpold (pp. 637-648) 

 

Dec 9               In place of a conclusion

 

Dec 16             [project on postmodernism due]