Expand+Academic Year 2021/2022

'Make it new' was Ezra Pound's view of the fundamental role of the Modernist writer, yet it is an indication of the complexity of American Modernism that the writers involved approach the 'new' in radically different ways. ...

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'Make it new' was Ezra Pound's view of the fundamental role of the Modernist writer, yet it is an indication of the complexity of American Modernism that the writers involved approach the 'new' in radically different ways. The course will introduce and develop an understanding of American modernism, both in terms of the particularities of American culture in the early twentieth century, and in relation to its complex relationship with Europe. Particular attention will be paid to concepts of race/ethnicity, gender, politics and social activism as ways of emphasising the plurality of American modernism, as well as the diverse aesthetic forms which give it expression. In its geographical reach, the course encompasses writing from the American West, rural Wisconsin, New York (from Harlem to the Jewish American community of the Lower East Side), the American South, and expatriate experience in post-war Britain and France.

At the core of the course is an exploration of the complex, shifting and dynamic nature of American Modernism, both in terms of the creative output of its writers, and in relation to the critics and theorists who attempt to define it.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Demonstrate a critical understanding of American Modernism, one that is alert to its complexity and diversity.

2. Engage with key critical and theoretical concepts such as race/ethnicity, gender, and the dynamic and shifting nature of cultural forms and national identities.

3. Develop an understanding of the historical and cultural contexts from which modernist writing emerges.

4. Apply such concepts and contexts to close anlaysis of poetic and narrative form.

5. Develop an ability to engage in discussion of course texts and themes in the workshops accompanying the lectures for this module.

6. Develop and write a research essay on a topic related to this module.

7. Complete an examination at the end of the semester.

Indicative Module Content:
The key focus of the course is the diversity and complexity of American Modernism. Consequently the course examines a range of male and female writers across varied ethnic and regional perspectives, and engages with innovations in both narrative and poetic practice.

Topics and writers may include (subject to amendment):

Introduction to the Themes and Contexts of American Modernism

The Waste Land: The Poet in the Modern City

Moving Toward Modernity: Edith Wharton, 'Ethan Frome'

William Carlos Williams and Imagism

The Harlem Renaissance: Constructing Black Modernity

Langston Hughes: Modernity, the Blues and Jazz

Zora Neale Hurston/Nella Larsen: Blackness, Modernity and the Woman Writer

Willa Cather: Regional and Rural Modernisms

Anzia Yezierska: Vernacular Modernism and the Urban Immigration Novel

Lorine Niedecker’s Poetics: Folk / Avant garde Modernism