Modern Literary Studies - Winter 1999

LTMO 103 ("Constructions of the Modern") will examine the origins, the substance, and the significance of literary and cultural "Modernism." "Modernism" is probably the most important single strand in definingliterature since the late 19th century.

The course will consider the artistic development of "Modernism" both in itself, and in relation to the social and political background that helped to form the doctrines and writing practices by which we still know it. Since "Modernism" was a distinctly international phenomenon, the reading list for the course includes works from France, England, Germany andthe United States. All works will be read and discussed in English.

Among the texts to be read:

Baudelaire: "The Painter of Modern Life"; selected poetry

T.S. Eliot: selected poetry

Rainer Maria Rilke: selected poetry

Flaubert: Madame Bovary

Proust: Swann's Way

Woolf: To the Lighthouse

Faulkner: Light in August

This three-unit course will consider the fundamental elements of literary criticism that have emerged out of the tradition of Marxist philosophy and social theory since the 19th century. We will begin by reading several texts by Karl Marx that have important implications for literary analysis. Then we will look at influential examples of literary criticism done in the Marxist vein, and consider the fundamental implications of Marxian insights about culture for current critical modes and methodologies. All readings and discussion in English.

Required books:

Karl Marx: Selected Writings (David McLellan, ed.)

Raymond Williams: Marxism and Literature

Terry Eagleton: Marxism and Literary Criticism

Revised 7/27/04.