Fall 2008

Anglo-American Literary Modernism and Postmodernism

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W. B. Yeats

"Always historicize!"
                              Fredric Jameson

For the fall semester 2008 this course will explore the theoretical constructs of Modernism and Postmodernism as expressed in the literary production of Anglo-American authors of the pat 100 years or so. The readings will focus on primary literary works and non-fiction essays by such authors as Pound, Eliot, Stein, Loy, and Beckett.

The theoretical component of the course is mainly based upon the work of Fredric Jameson, particularly his A Singular Modernity, The Modernist Papers, and Postmodernism, or the cultural logic of late capitalism. The insights of other critics such as Walter Benjamin, Raymond Williams, T. W. Adorno, Pierre Bourdieu, Frances Mulhern, Peter Nicholls, Tyrus Miller, Linda Hutcheon, Brian McHale, and Stuart Moulthrop will also be interrogated.

Final Examination: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Exam instructions and essay options

Handouts
Jameson on Cultural Logic of the PM: Lecture Outline

Bourdieu Chart:  Social Space and Symblic Space

Phases of Capitalism and Concomitant Developments in the Arts

A Beginner's Guide to the Problem of Form

Supplemental Material
Jameson, Introduction to Modernist Papers

The system of Yeats' A Vision

Links
Perspectives in American Literature: Modernism

Modernism/Modernity  [useful scholarly journal; university ID needed for access]

Rhetorical and Cultural Studies, Univ. of Iowa

theory.org

ctheory.net

Marxist Internet Archive

Fredric Jameson

"The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism"

T. W. Adorno
 

Pierre Bourdieu

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Raymond Williams

Cultural Studies Central