General

This course will be conducted online via zoom.  We will meet on Tuesdays and Fridays from 2:40 to 4:00pm. Here is the zoom link to connect to the class on those days and times: 

Join URL: 

https://brynmawr-edu.zoom.us/j/98479739226 

and if your computer isn't working, you can phone in to class, using one of the phone numbers here and putting in the "meeting id" when you connect:

Dial by your location

        +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)

        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

        +1 646 558 8656 US (New York)

        +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)

        +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)

        +1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)

Meeting ID: 984 7973 9226

Here is a link to fill out an evaluation of this course:

ENGL-B290-001             Modernisms      https://brynmawr.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3CwGhHK65eaxPFz

If you have any questions about the course please contact me at mtratner@brynmawr.edu and I will set up a zoom session for us to talk. 

The course will examine a range of works (novels, poems, paintings, and movies) that have been called “Modernist” from around the world—in general, these are works that are plotless, characterless, fragmented, eerie or just plain strange.  The central question we will be exploring is, why did artists decide to create such distinctly unrealistic works? The course is organized as an exploration of many different lenses through which to view what was going on in the early twentieth century when modernism emerged; each lens presents a different vision of why new literary forms emerged.   

Many of the readings on available on Moodle: just click on the title.  There are four books I suggest you buy, all available at the college bookstore, or seek out copies online:

Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot

Passing, by Nella Larsen

The Waves, by Virginia Woolf

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston. 

There are three assignments in the course, one due October 13, one due November 20, and the final one due at the end of exam period.   One must be an 8 page paper; the other two may be five page papers or you may choose to do a journal or a creative work instead.  You can only do one creative work or one journal.  Directions for these alternative assignments:

a) a journal consists of comments on 5 different works on the syllabus (either literary works or critical essays), one page (double-spaced) devoted to each.  The goal of a journal is to briefly note down an interesting insight you have had about one of the works--it can be an interpretation of a short passage, an idea that could be the basis of a full essay, a critique of some interpretation provided by someone else (from the reading or from class discussion), etc.

b) a creative work still aims at saying something that might have been put into a critical essay--but you feel your point can be better expressed using a structure other than an essay.  You might, for example, write a parody of one of the poems we read; or create a “missing part” of one of the works; or create a video that suggests how Modernist ideas might be different in a different medium; or make something that simply rejects Modernism as a mistaken artistic project. Your work can take the form of a drawing, a video, a poem, a musical composition, a satiric essay, etc.,   You MUST ALSO INCLUDE a set of footnotes that help a viewer understand your work--especially explaining how your work is an act of criticism, a reaction to something we read.  To add footnotes to a creative work without distracting, I suggest you make a copy of the work, which might take the form of a photograph of a drawing or a xerox of a poem; on the copy, put numbers that indicate spots which footnotes explain.  Then attach a set of notes that explain what you "mean" to be communicating at each of those spots and how some or all of those spots provide reactions to something we read.    

You can also meet with me during the term if you wish to discuss any of the assignments.

              If you need an extension for any of the interim deadlines, please contact me before the date (either tell me after class or email me).     The final deadline cannot be extended except by contacting your dean and arranging an incomplete in the course.

Students with disabilities are welcome in the class.  The Access Services office in Guild Hall provides support and reasonable accommodations for eligible students with disabilities. Individuals who think they may need accommodations because of a learning, physical, or psychological disability are encouraged to contact the Coordinator of Access Services as early as possible to discuss their concerns. 

                                                                                                        Access Services

Bryn Mawr College
Eugenia Chase Guild Hall 
101 N. Merion Ave.
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
Deb Alder, Coordinator

email: dalder@brynmawr.edu

Telephone: 610-526-7351 

Content Warnings:  If you wish to see content warnings for works we are reading in this course, click here.