Like our own age, early Twentieth-Century Britain was both infatuated with and alarmed by the notion of immediate experience—the state of pure presence without a sense of past or future. In this course we will look at several canonical texts through the lens of that period’s preoccupation with the pleasures—and dangers—of pure presence. Even as some writers depicted the blissful sense of oneness accompanying such a state, others were asking, what becomes of history and tradition if too great an emphasis is given to presence? What becomes of the other and the objective world? Readings will include
Ford’s The Good Soldier, Richardson’s Pointed Roofs, Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, excerpts from Joyce’s Ulysses, short stories by Katherine Mansfield and DH Lawrence, and poetry by Eliot and Yeats. In addition, we will read contemporaneous critical writing that dealt with the problem of time: Bergson’s account of the concept of duration, Lewis’ critique of duration in Time and Western Man, Eliot’s “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” and more (to be supplied in a course pack). Finally, we will consider the Modernist debate about pure presence in light of work by more contemporary theorists such as Frederick Jameson and Emmanuel Levinas.

Class members will have the opportunity to prepare a presentation on the Modernist author of their choice, and to write a substantial term paper tailored to their individual interests.