Spring 2016 Topic: Modernist Texts and 20th Century Revolutions in Art and Society—An Interdisciplinary Approach

Students will explore the dynamic period at the turn of the last century in order to experience and explore the ways in which art, science, and social revolution are deeply interconnected in many surprising, exciting, and critically meaningful ways. While the focus will be on literary texts from the Western tradition, especially such figures as Joyce, Woolf, Beckett, and Rhys, students will also look at the modernist aesthetic in painting, music, cinema, and photography as well. By semester’s end, students will have a solid grasp of the history of modernism, and an understanding of genre and aesthetic movements with an eye toward post-modernism and contemporary questions of the relationships among art and societies.