American and Transatlantic Modernism

elective courses

Classroom
Remote learning

Modernism was an international movement, with nodes in Paris, London and New York, but the range of aesthetic influences on Modernist writers and painters was global and extended from Japan and China through Africa to the Caribbean. The specifics of this interrelatedness will be our focus in this course. Initially, we will examine the actvities of the New York Dadaists (Duchamp, Ray, and the poets their grouping attracted).Then we will consider some of the main literary events of the next two decades: the Harlem Renaissance (basing on the work of Nella Larsen and Langston Hughes), and the reactions of American writers to the cultural "otherness" of Paris, a city to which they flocked in the inter-war years (basing on Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer"). Nezt comes the spread of totalitarian regimes and writers' reaction to this new threat to freedom: Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and W.H.Auden's and Ezra Pound's poetry of that period.

The discovery of African art by European artists, most importantly Pablo Picasso, was arguably the first step in the Modernist revolution in painting and sculpture. One indirect result of this fascination with ‘’primitive art” was the development of Cubism, and this approach to pictorial representation influenced literary style, initially and most famously in the work of Gertrude Stein. The growing popularity of early forms of jazz drew the attention of both writers and visual artists to its roots in African American and Caribbean culture as a whole, playing an important role in the emergence of the Harlem Renaissance and the impact it had on American Modernism. For examples of this, we will consider fiction by Nella Larsen and poems by Langston Hughes Their work is also relevant to the questions of race and gender, to which we will be alert throughout the course.

The Dadaist movement, which flourished in Zurich in the years 1916-1920, gained a foothold in New York thanks to the presence of Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia. Included in their circle were the young William Carlos Williams and Wallace Stevens, whose early work we will peruse in search of Dada inspirations. Also in this circle was the English poet Mina Loy, whose earlier association with the Italian Futurists enabled her to see how their technological understanding of vitalism could go hand in hand with programmatic misogyny. We will study some of her poems, as well as her ‘’Feminist Manifesto” and Marinetti’s ‘’Futurist Manifesto”. We will also analyze the reactions of American writers who moved to Paris in the 1920's to the vanguard art and way of life in that metropolis, taking for our example Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer". Finally, we will takee a look at the work of W.H. AUden, the English modernist who fled to the US to escape the war in Europe, and whose writing was by that time an important influence on vanguard American poets. Bur before that, we will consider the effect the spread of totalitarian regimes across Europe in the 1930 had on the literature of that decade, taking for our main example Ernest Hemingway's "For Whon the Bell Tolls" and Ezra Pound's "Cantos"

Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer (selections)

Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

Nella Larsen, Passing

Gertrude Stein, Melancth )fragments)

Selected poems and critical writings by Langston Hughes, Mina Loy, Ezra Pound ,H.D., Filippo Marinetti, Andre Breton, Tristan Tzara,, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Getrude Stien, W.H. Auden,

The student:

knows how to present one's knowledge in a logical and clear manner, both orally and in writing

- can appreciate the diversity of opinions presented in readings and discussions and use them as a source of inspiration

- recognizes the nature of dilemmas, problems and conflicts; seeks the best solutions for them

- In class discussions, students acquire skills of expressing their thoughts in a clear, coherent, logical and precise manner, with the use of language whiich is correct grammatically, lexically and phonetically

Language acquisition at level B2+ minimum.

Attendance and participation in class discussions; maximum number of absences: 3; fnal written exam (in the case of in-class teaching). Retake exam: written. The form and criteria of the final exam may change if the epidemiological situation so requires. Equivalent terms for determining final grades will then be established in accordance with University of Warsaw guidelines.