OSUN Theme: Arts and Society
Modernism
Term: January 22, 2024 – May 11, 2024Levels: 300-Level; 400-Level
Day/Time: Tuesday; Thursday 5:45 PM - 7:00 PM EST
Instructor: Sean Homer, American University in Bulgaria
This course introduces students to one of the most important literary and artistic movements of the twentieth century, modernism. The course focuses on European and North American modernism stressing the international dimension of modernism. We will cover the period from approximately the late nineteenth century and the emergence of modernism through the period of "high modernism" (1910-1925) to modernism's final exhaustion in the mid-twentieth century and the experiments of the French "nouveau roman". The course will emphasize the cultural diversity of this movement drawing upon a variety of literary texts including the critical essay, the literary manifesto, the short story, poetry, drama, the novel as well as painting and film. Finally, the course will contextualize these texts in terms of the social, historical, and political events of the time, paying particular attention to the transformation of subjectivity, time, and space.
Prerequisites: Completion of a composition class and one introductory-level Literature class.
Credits: 4 US / 8 ECTS