Georgia Southern University
ENGL 7630-A (CRN 15611 -- Graduate Seminar in World and Comparative Literature) - Spring 2004
"Il faut être absolument moderne." --Arthur Rimbaud
The 20th Century Avant-Garde in Literature and Everywhere Else
-----------Dr.
David W. Robinson-----------
What
Does "Modern" Mean a Century Later?This is the general question that
will guide our journey through the many early twentieth century
artistic movements that touted themselves as modern. The desire to
embrace the new, and to detach oneself from the past - together with
the impossibility of doing so - will be one theme. Another will be the
multilayered tangle of art and politics that is so characteristic of
the period. 
"Comparative Literature"? What's That?
Comparative Literature examines literature with an international, interdisciplinary approach. No other orientation serves as well for studying a transnational movement such as Modernism. We will dip into the national literatures of the United Kingdom, Ireland, America, Soviet Russia, France, Italy, Bohemia, and several different manifestations of Germany. For the foreign language works we will employ English translations as necessary.
Who Are Some of the Authors We Will Read?
Guillaume Apollinaire Hugo Ball Bertolt Brecht André Breton Mikhail Bulgakov Hart Crane e.e. cummings T.S. Eliot James Joyce Franz Kafka Wyndham Lewis Stephan Mallarmé F.T. Marinetti Vladimir Mayakovsky Marcel Proust Gertrude Stein Tristan Tzara Virginia Woolf W.B. Yeats and more.
What are the Nuts and Bolts?
We will read poetry, fiction, drama, theory, and much stranger things. We will watch movies, look at art, and listen to music. The grading will be based on a short paper, a long paper, an oral presentation, a final exam, and participation in an on-line discussion forum. As much of the reading (and other stuff) as possible will be distributed on CD-ROMs for convenience and economy.
You will be writing a short (maximum 5-page) paper
examining the work of an author you find on the Ubuweb site or CD-ROMs.
A research project (12-20 pages) will be required at the end of the
term; the topic will be announced. Part of this assignment is to submit
a written prospectus once you have arrived at your topic. The balance
of the grade will derive from Participation (specifically, the quality
of your contributions to the on-line forum plus your class
participation) and the Final Examination. I guarantee there will be a
question about Ulysses on there!
Short Paper
15%
Participation
10%
Research Paper
45%
Final Examination
30%
| Week 1 | ||
| Monday | Jan. 5 | Introductory remarks. Survey of the field. |
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| Week 2 | ||
| Monday | Jan. 12 | Begin Joyce's Ulysses, Chaps. 1-3 (Telemachus, Nestor, Proteus). French Symbolist Poetry and manifestos (available on-line). |
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| Week MLK | ||
| Monday | Jan. 19 | MARTIN LUTHER KING HOLIDAY. Class does not meet. However, we will use this week to get a jump on the Ulysses reading, and we will discuss the assigned chapters on-line. Ulysses, Chaps. 4-5 (Calypso, Lotus Eaters). |
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| Week 3 | ||
| Monday | Jan. 26 | Ulysses, Chaps. 6-7 (Hades, Aeolus). Discussion of T.S. Eliot poems (available on-line). |
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| Week 4 | ||
| Monday | Feb. 2 | Ulysses, Chap. 8 (Lestrygonians). Italian Futurism (readings from the Apollonio book, plus goodies from Ubuweb). |
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| Week 5 | ||
| Monday | Feb. 9 | Ulysses, Chap.
9 (Scylla & Charybdis). Dada, Surrealism,
Sound Poetry (Ubuweb and other on-line material). |
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| Week 6 | ||
| Monday | Feb. 16 | Ulysses, Chap. 10 (Wandering Rocks).
Russian Futurism: Mayakovsky. |
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| Week 7 | ||
| Monday | Feb. 23 | Ulysses, Chap. 11 (Sirens). SHORT PAPER DUE, ALONG WITH BRIEF PRESENTATIONS. |
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| Week 8 | ||
| Monday | March 1 | Ulysses, Chap. 12 (Cyclops). Bulgakov,The Master and Margarita. |
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| Week 9 | ||
| Monday | March 8 | Ulysses, Chap. 13 (Nausicaa).
Gertrude Stein (available on-line). |
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| Spring Break 3-15 to 3-19 | ||
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| Week 10 | ||
| Monday | March 22 | Ulysses, Chap. 14 (Oxen of the Sun). Time: Proust, Bergson (available on-line). FINAL PAPER PROSPECTUS DUE. |
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| Week 11 | ||
| Monday | March 29 | Ulysses, Chap. 15 (Circe). Kafka, stories. FINAL PAPER WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE. |
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| Week 12 | ||
| Monday | April 5 | Ulysses, Chap. 16 (Eumaeus). Brecht, The Measures Taken. |
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| Week 13 | ||
| Monday | April 12 | Ulysses, Chap. 17 (Ithaca).
Additional Joyce: Finnegans
Wake excerpts (available on-line). |
| Week 14 | ||
| Monday | April 19 | Ulysses, Chap. 18 (Penelope). FINAL
PAPERS DUE (ALONG WITH BRIEF PRESENTATIONS). |
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| Week 15 | ||
| Monday | April 26 | Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway.
Movie: The Hours. |
Final Examination: Adminstered on-line; time TBA.