Seminar Make It New Tenets and Poetry of Modernism

The seminar will explore fundamental concepts and theories which mark the period demonimated in retrospect as -Modernism-. It was a complex and diverse movement, hence we will read widely, not only primary literature, but also criticism and literary theory. One of the interesting aspects of the movement is that many of the artists of the time did not only practice art but also wrote about the concepts of -modern- art and its function (like Pound, Hulme, Auden, Eliot) and we will look at several of their essays. Poetry offers a very dondensed but also very varied and multifarious exemplification of these tenets and concepts and is the reason why we will place our focus on poetry during the term. Undaunted by T. S. Eliot's (in?)famous dictum that -poets in our civilisation [...]must be difficult-, we will not only explore poetry of the best known Modern poets, but include poetry written by lesser known but highly influential poets of both genders. We will also situate Modernism and its poetry in the wider context of the 'cultural' histories of ideas, arts, and science as well as that of historical events and technologies and deal with Modernism's mans --isms-, such as symbolism, imagism, cubism, individualism - to name only a few. And in connection to last terms seminar: WWI poetry forma a seminal part of the literary poetic output, but is hardly ever read as representing Modern tenets - something I would like to explore with you during our time together. We will also look at two short stories dealing with WWI which represent the changing narrative concept of the time. Abschlussprüfungen may be done either as a written paper, orally, or as a paper during the -Master Studierendenkonferenz-. Englisch Comp. Stud. Engl. Amer. (Master, PO 2011) Universität Düsseldorf WiSe 2016/17 Dr. Wolter Ingrid Charlotte