Modernisms

Modernism is best understood as a cultural and artistic response to the changing conditions of modernity in the early twentieth century, a period marked by World War One, increasing urbanisation and industrialisation, struggles for labour rights and women's rights, decolonisation, and the emergence of mass culture and advanced technologies. This course examines the emergence of literary Modernism, predominantly in Europe and North America, but it will also touch on Modernist texts from New Zealand and Australia. One of the key themes of the course is that different strands of Modernism arose at different times across different locations, hence the title Modernisms. Text to be studied include short stories by Katherine Mansfield, a novella by Franz Kafka, the ballet The Rite of Spring, novels by James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, and poetry by T.S. Eliot, Mina Loy and 'Ern Malley'. We will study how these texts interpret and express the sometimes confusing experience of modernity, showing a range of ideas concerning politics and aesthetics, tradition and the avant-garde, gender, identity and nation. We will explore the impact of new ideas about time, the mind and language on literature, as well as charting ways in which Modernist writers reacted to, reflected on, or tried to give shape to the social and political tumult of their times.