Modernism and Material Culture
| Module title | Modernism and Material Culture |
|---|---|
| Module code | EASM151 |
| Academic year | 2019/0 |
| Credits | 30 |
| Module staff | Professor Felicity Gee (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 15 |
|---|
Module description
This module will explore questions of materiality in modernism. Ranging across modernist poetry, novels and drama, as well as the films, and avant-garde movements of the period, it will investigate the objects and things highlighted by modernist writers, artists and directors, the ways in which they describe the materiality of everyday life (including examining clothes, houses, the weather, modernist technologies and commercial objects), and matters relating to the body, phenomenology, and modernist language. Offering an opportunity to investigate a range of texts and films, this module will also engage with important theories of ‘things’ and materiality. Through thinking in depth about material culture, the module will provide you with a close, sophisticated knowledge of the composition of modernism and of early twentieth-century life; it will also introduce you to exciting recent developments in modernist studies, suggesting avenues for further research.
Module aims - intentions of the module
The module aims to consider modernism’s relationship to the material world. You will gain a sophisticated knowledge of modernist literary texts, and will be enabled to make connections between modernist literature and film, theories of materiality, and the historical and cultural contexts of the early twentieth century. The course will be structured by theme rather than chronology, allowing the development of a sophisticated conceptual understanding of the materiality of modernism.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Demonstrate an advanced, detailed appreciation of specific works, films and authors of the modernist period
- 2. Demonstrate an advanced capacity to relate modernist texts to their literary, cultural and historical contexts
- 3. Demonstrate a sophisticated and intellectually mature ability to analyse the literature and film of the early twentieth-century and to relate its concerns and its modes of expression to its historical and other contexts
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 4. Demonstrate an advanced and autonomous ability to understand and analyse relevant theoretical ideas, and to apply these ideas to literary texts.
- 5. Demonstrate an advanced and autonomous ability to understand and analyse relevant theoretical ideas, and to apply these ideas to literary texts.
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 6. Through seminar work, demonstrate advanced communication skills, and an ability to articulate your views convincingly both individually and in groups.
- 7. Through essay-writing and other assignments, demonstrate advanced research and bibliographic skills, an advanced and intellectually mature capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument and to write clear and correct prose.
- 8. Through the planning and organisation of research projects, demonstrate independence of thought and confidence in developing ideas and formulating questions.
- 9. Through the writing of research projects, demonstrate an ability to construct work of substantial length, detail, and some originality.
Syllabus plan
Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:
An indicative list of taught materials, although subject to change.
Part I: Objects, Things, Collections:
- An Introduction to Modernist Objects: Virginia Woolf’s ‘Solid Objects’ (1919), Wallace Stevens’ ‘Anecdote of the Jar’ (1920), Bill Brown on ‘thing theory’
- Objects and the Natural Environment: Willa Cather’s My Antonia (1918)
- Collections and Collecting: James Joyce, ‘Ithaca’ episode from Ulysses (1922)
- Modernism and Mass Technologies: A selection of films from the 1910s – 1920s.
- Modernist Exhibitions
Part II: Houses and the Materiality of Everyday Life:
- Houses and the Modernist Novel: E.M. Forster’s Howards End (1910)
- Modernism and the Weather: Short stories by Katherine Mansfield and D.H. Lawrence
- The Surreal House – A radical alternative to domesticity – Barbican Gallery, London, 2010. – ‘Down Below’ Leonora Carrington.
Part III: Avant-Garde and Surrealist Materiality:
- Materiality and the Medium: 1920s Avant-Garde Film: A selection of short avant-garde films, including works by Hans Richter, Marcel Duchamp, Germaine Dulac and Robert Florey
- Radical Modernism: Man Ray, Automatism and the Moving Image: A selection of texts and films by Man Ray and Robert Desnos.
Part IV: Bodies, Clothes, and Language
- Bodies, Movement and Touch: D.H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow (1915)
- Modernism and Fashion: Elizabeth Bowen, To the North (1932) and ‘Dress’ (1937)
- Modernism, Objects, and Language: Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days (1961)
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 278 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 22 | Seminars |
| Guided Independent Study | 33 | Study group meetings and preparation |
| Guided Independent Study | 70 | Seminar preparation (independent) |
| Guided Independent Study | 175 | Reading, research and essay preparation |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Research Report | 25 | 2500 words | 1-6, 8-10 | Feedback sheet with opportunity for tutorial follow-up |
| Essay | 75 | 5000 words | 1-6, 8-10 | Feedback sheet with opportunity for tutorial follow-up |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Research Report | Research Report | 1-6, 8-10 | Referral/Deferral Period |
| Essay | Essay | 1-6, 8-10 | Referral/Deferral Period |
Re-assessment notes
Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.
Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
Basic reading:
Core Reading:
- Elizabeth Bowen, To the North, ed. Hugh Haughton (London: Vintage, 1999).
- Willa Cather, My Antonia , ed. Janet Sharistanian(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
- E.M. Forster, Howards End (Norton Critical Edition)
- James Joyce, ‘Ithaca’ from Ulysses: The Corrected Text, ed. Hans Walter Gabler (New York: Vintage, 1986).
- D.H. Lawrence, The Rainbow , ed. Kate Flint (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
- —, Selected Stories (London: Penguin, 2007)
- Katherine Mansfield, Selected Stories , ed. Angela Smith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
- Samuel Beckett, Happy Days: A Play in Two Acts (Faber & Faber)
- Virginia Woolf, Selected Short Stories , ed. Sandra Kemp (London: Penguin, 2000)
- Leonora Carrington, Down Below, ed. Marina Warner, New York Review Books, 2017
Core Viewing:
- D W Griffth The Lonely Villa (1909)
- Lois Weber Suspense (1913)
- Germain Dulac, The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928)
- Vitaphone short films
- Alfred Hitchcock Blackmail (1929)
- Man Ray, L’Etoile de mer, (1928)
- Man Ray, Mysteres du Chateau de De (1929)
- Anemic Cinema ((Marcel Duchamp, 1926)
- Ballet Mecanique (Fernand Leger, 1924)
- Rhythmus 21 (Hans Richter, 1921)
Secondary Reading:
- Brown, Bill. ‘Thing Theory,’ Critical Inquiry 28: 1 (2001), 1-22.
- Mao, Douglas. Solid Objects: Modernism and the Test of Production (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998).
- Stewart, Susan. On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1993)
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
| Credit value | 30 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 15 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 7 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | May 2013 |
| Last revision date | 21/05/2019 |
