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28840-01 - Seminar: Modernist American Prose and Poetry (3 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2011 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers | Philipp Schweighauser (ph.schweighauser@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | This seminar is geared primarily at BA students who have completed their 2nd year (including the paper), but Liz and MA students are welcome, too. This course invites you to an intense engagement with a moment in the history of U.S. literature that John Dos Passos called "an explosion ... that had an influence in its sphere comparable with that of the October revolution in social organization and politics." The links Dos Passos establishes between the literary and the social will be at the center of our course as we analyze the ways in which literary modernisms negotiate, affirm, critique, and intervene in the debates, conflicts and processes that constitute modernity (industrialization, WW I, urbanization, growing ethnic diversity, women's rights movements, and so on). We will take a close look at different forms of modernist prose and poetry and immerse ourselves in some of the critical debates surrounding the meaning, forms, and politics of modernist writing. We will be focusing on two different but related traditions of American modernism: that of Anglo-American modernism and the African-American modernism of the Harlem Renaissance. You are expected to purchase and read the following two representative texts from each tradition before the beginning of the semester: John Dos Passos's "Manhattan Transfer" and Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God". Additional poems (by T.S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, and others) and critical texts will be made available on ISIS. |
| Learning objectives | Through an in-depth study of a variety of modernist texts, you should gain a deeper understanding of the interplay between the forms of literary texts and the social and political issues they address. |
| Bibliography | John Dos Passos's "Manhattan Transfer" and Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God" need to be purchased and read in preparation of the semester. Additional texts are made available on ISIS. |
| Comments | Note that this seminar closely relates to my lecture course "American Literature Survey III/IV: Naturalism and Modernism" (28846). However, attendance of the lecture is not a prerequisite for this seminar. |
| Weblink | ISIS |
| Admission requirements | This seminar is geared primarily at BA students who have completed their 2nd year (including the paper), but Liz and MA students are welcome, too. |
| Course application | Please register on ISIS. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | Online, mandatory |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|
No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Modul English & American Literature (Master's degree subject: English) Modul Extending the View (Literary and Cultural Studies) (Bachelor's degree subject: Englisch) Modul Focusing on the Discipline (Literary and Cultural Studies) (Bachelor's degree subject: Englisch) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | t.b.a. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Englisches Seminar |