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Organization, Regulations, and Courses 2022-23


HUM 4.01 From Modernism to Postmodernism

Fredric Jameson once described postmodernity as “the effort to take the temperature of the age without instruments and in a situation in which we are not even sure there is so coherent a thing as an ‘age,’ or ‘zeitgeist’ any longer.” Taking the temperature of the age through a comparative reading of modern and postmodern texts, we will try to seize the change from one era and movement to the other by way of elucidating a number of modern and postmodern concepts such as “representation” or “literary self-reflexivity,” “the world as text,” “the death of the author” or “the end of meta-narratives.” Movies, art works, essays and some theoretical texts will enhance the literary readings, which include texts by modern and postmodern writers such as Abish, Fowles, James, Stein, and Woolf. The feature that characterizes and associates the two movements best is their awareness for how form impacts content, or, as Gertrude Stein said, “how writing is written.” The world comes into being and takes shape in the words we use, the texts we write, the images we produce, the movies we shoot, or the maps we draw to name only some of the signifying systems that give the universe a form.

Instructor

Milich

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:LIT; WCult:W

The Timetable of Class Meetings contains the most up-to-date information about a course. It includes not only the meeting time and instructor, but also its official distributive and/or world culture designation. This information supersedes any information you may see elsewhere, to include what may appear in this ORC/Catalog or on a department/program website. Note that course attributes may change term to term therefore those in effect are those (only) during the term in which you enroll in the course.