Modernism and Its Others0

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Tanya Fernando Office: Bartlett 289

University of Massachusetts, Amherst Office Hours: Wed 2:30-4:30English 307 or by appointment

Fall 2011 M-W: 4:40-5:55

Modernism and its OthersWe are looking at modernism as an aesthetic intervention that began in the middle of the

nineteenth century and fully came to fruition around the turn of the last century. Artists

and thinkers engaged in this new aesthetic to negate the alienating effects of the modernage; they understood modernism as an attitude towards modern life. As Charles

Baudelaire states, it is the ephemeral, the fleeting, and the contingent, the half of art

whose other half is the eternal and the immutable. Modernism and its partner, the avant-

garde, deal with questions of freedom, time consciousness, and the relationship betweenaesthetics and politics. We will pursue these three avenues of thought throughout the

course. The class will spend a considerable time on theoretical and philosophical

sources, especially thinkers like Charles Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin, before turningto European art and literature from the beginning decades of the twentieth century,

especially the Post-Impressionists, the Dadaists and Surrealists, Virginia Woolf, and

James Joyce. Essential to an understanding of the literature on modernism is the ways inwhich a Euro-American modernism was fractured both by the inside and the outside, by

other modernisms. We look at the ways in which European modernism and the avant-

garde are not singular, but are contested in different ways, especially by the HarlemRenaissance and during the time of decolonization by writers such as Frantz Fanon, Aime

Cesaire, and an international surrealism.

Week 1: (Wed, 9/7)Introduction

The Ballets Russes, The Rite of Spring(1913)

Week 2:(Mon, 9/12)Charles Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern Life S

Michel Foucault, What is Enlightenment? S

(Wed, 9/14)Raymond Williams, The Politics of Modernism, pp.1-63

Week 3:(Mon, 9/19)Edgar Allan Poe, The Man in the Crowd S

WalterBenjamin, On Some Motifs in Baudelaire inIlluminations

(Wed, 9/21)Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction in

IlluminationsF.T. Marinetti, Futurist Manifesto S

Presentation: Futurism


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Week 4: (Mon 9/26)

Tristan Tzara, Dada Manifesto 1918 SRussian Constructivism: Declaration of the International Fraction of Constructivists of

the First International Congress of Progressive Artists and Programme of the First

Working Group of Constructivists S

Presentations:

Dadaism

Russian Constructivism

(Wed, 9/28)

Andre Breton,Manifesto of Surrealism (1924), pp.1-47

Andr Breton,Nadja

Week 5: (Mon 10/3)Breton,Nadja

Presentation: Surrealism

(Wed 10/5)

Nadja

Week 6: (Mon, 10/10)Roger Fry, The Post-Impressionist Exhibition and On Negro Sculpture S

(Wed, 10/12)Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

Week 7: (Mon, 10/17)Woolf, To the Lighthouse

Presentation: Bloomsbury Group

(Wed, 10/19)

Erich Auerbach, The Brown Stocking fromMimesis S

Weeks 8 and 9: (10/24-11/2)James Joyce, The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man

Mon: pp.5-89

Wed: pp.89-127


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(Mon, 10/31)

pp. 128-223

Presentation: Irish modernism

Wed, 11/2: Fredric Jameson, Modernism and Imperialism S

Week 10 and 11:

(Mon, 11/7)

Frantz Fanon,Black Skins, White MasksThe Fact of Blackness chapter

Abstract for final paper due

(Wed, 11/9 and Week 11)Aime Cesaire, The Tempest

The entire play

Week 12 and 13:

(Mon, 11/21)Richard Wright

Uncle Toms Children

Presentation: Harlem Renaissance

Wed, 11/23

No class

(Mon, 11/28)

Presentation: Jazz and modernism

Week 14:Last week of classes

(Wed, 12/7)Final paper due

Readings:Many of the texts will need to be bought. Please buy the designated editions (check

Spire). They can be found at Amherst Books. Other readings are available online. On

the syllabus, S is Spark. All readings must be printed out and brought to class. Please donot come to class without hardcopies of the readings.

Walter Benjamin,Illuminations (Schocken)Andre Breton,Manifestoes of Surrealism (University of Michigan Press)Andre Breton,Nadja (Grove Press)


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Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (Harcourt)

James Joyce, The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man (Norton)

Aime Cesaire, The Tempest (Theater Communications Group)Frantz Fanon,Black Skins, White Masks

Raymond Williams, The Politics of Modernism (Verso)

James Weldon Johnson,Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (Random House)

Requirements:

Pop Quizzes: There will be pop quizzes throughout the term to check for reading.

There are absolutely no make-up quizzes for any reason, so please do not ask for one.Because of this the lowest two quiz grades will be dropped.

Collaborative Presentations and Papers: Each student will be asked to choose a groupproject to work on. The class presentations should be half an hour. The presentations

should be a digital multi-media project. Be original and have fun, but please make sure

that you cover the history of the group you are presenting on, and how they haveinfluenced modernism. You will also be asked to write a collaborative paper discussing

the importance of the group by looking at one theoretical piece. Identify a critical text for

the group, whether it be a manifesto or an aesthetic text from any of the arts forms, andengage critically with the text, telling us why and how it is important to the movement

and for the history of modernism. Please talk about both the formal and thematic

elements. Please make sure that your paper is argument based. The paper should be 8-10

pages in length.

Final Paper: You will be asked to write a final paper on a topic of your own choosing.

It should address the questions that the class focuses on. It should focus on one text,

from any of the art forms (literary, visual, performing, film). Again, please make surethat it is a critical paper, with an argument that you follow throughout the paper. It

should also engage the aesthetic text in both thematic and formal ways. You should be

looking at other theoretical sources also, with a minimum of eight different sources. Anabstract (1 paragraph) will be due on Monday, November 7. The final paper should be 8

pages long.

The papers must be written properly, with complete thoughts, sentences, and paragraphs.Attention should be paid to grammar, punctuation, and spelling. They should be double

spaced, in 12-point Times or Times New Roman, with regular margins. Please cite all

sources using MLA format.

The paper will be due on December 7 at the beginning of class. No extensions will be

granted. For each day the paper is late, the grade will drop a third: A to A-. If your paperis late, your grade will be recorded much later, and you will receive an incomplete during

the interim.


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Participation and Attendance:

Class discussion will be 10% of your grade. Please come to class prepared to discuss thereadings in a meaningful manner.

Class attendance is mandatory. Three unexcused absences will result in a drop in yourfinal grade: A to A-, etc. Please be on time. The doors will be closed when class begins.

If you are late twice, it will count as one unexcused absence, etc.

No food, computers, cell phones, or other electronic devices allowed in class.

Evaluation:

Class discussion 10%Pop quizzes 30%

Presentation and collaborative paper 25%

Final paper 35%

Modernism and Its Others0

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