The concept of “modernity” implies a sense of temporal relativism. Whatever the characteristics of “modernity,” they didn’t exist in the “past”; they are proper to the “present.” As modernism and postmodernism are cultural movements that engage or express features of “modernity” or “post-modernity,” these movements are inevitably preoccupied with the experience of time, the relationship of the past to the present, and the possibilities of a futurity that is “new.”

Thus, in this class we will use temporality as our heuristic device, exploring how modernism and post-modernism variously imagine time -- and modern times. One of our central objectives will be to dismantle the definitional crutch that simplifies both modernism and post-modernism as mere efforts to fly in the face of historical precedent. While certainly, these movements encompass cultural objects that attempt as much, this is not the whole story. Although we’ll examine those efforts to “make it new,” in the words of Ezra Pound, we’ll also keep in mind that Pound’s famous motto was purloined from an inscription on a millennia-old bathtub. Less cryptically, in this class we’ll read texts that insist upon various forms of historical relationship as well as texts that explore the possibilities of historical rupture. Although we’ll read texts that celebrate the “advances” of the modern present, we’ll also read texts that call notions of modern “progress” radically into question. We’ll read texts that predict the obsolescence of the future’s past, texts that forecast the endless rehearsal of present circumstance, and texts that suggest that excavating the past is the very means of creating an alternative futurity. In the process, we will hopefully both complicate and clarify our understandings of modernism, post-modernism, and that definitional morass known as (post)modernity.

Speaking of time, the reading for this class will occupy much of yours, so do consider before signing on. The course texts listed below are subject to change. Bookstore editions are recommended, but alternative editions are acceptable. A course pack with additional readings will be required.

Cather, Willa The Professor’s House (1925) 1604595124 / 978-1604595123
DeLillo, Don White Noise (1985) 0143105981 / 978-0143105985
Larsen, Nella Quicksand (1928) 1604599936 / 978-1604599930
Morrison, Toni, Beloved (1987) 1400033411 / 978-1400033416
Woolf, Virginia To the Lighthouse (1927) 0156030470 / 978-0156030472