Module: ENG6115-20 Shock of the New

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor:  Elizabeth Wright

Module Tutor Contact Details:  e.wright@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

From the early decades of the twentieth century, the phenomenon we call ‘Modernism’ swept through all disciplines and across every continent. It responded to, but also shaped, the condition of modernity, as it was understood and expressed by a diverse body of authors, artists, dramatists, choreographers and theatre practitioners. Modernism transformed the aesthetic scene of the time, but it has also presented scholars with an enduring challenge -- how to track the effect this mercurial movement had on later 20th century artists, theatre practitioners, thinkers and writers. This module maps some of the many relationships between the modernists and their successors across the 20th century. 

In this module we will study several modernist texts in conjunction with more recent responses and reworkings either critical, biographical, artistic, dramatic or literary. Indicative connections could include: the legacy of Vorticism and the magazine BLAST ; Alfred Jarry with Eugene Ionesco; the resurrection of the modernist writer in works such as Maggie Gee’s Woolf in Manhattan, Amy Rosenthal’s On the Rocks (2008) or Lorae Parry’s Bloomsbury Women & The Wild Colonial Girl: A Play about Katherine Mansfield (2010); adaptations of modernist work such as Woolf’s The Waves rei magined in dramatic form by Kate Mitchell, or John Akomfrah’s short film The Nine Muses , which repurposes modernist texts to allude to the experience of migration and exile; or the afterlives of the Jewish-Polish writer and artist, Bruno Schulz, in post-war literature and film.

The website assessment enables you to connect your arguments to other forms of media such as video, podcasts, images etc. The assessment also allows you to demonstrate your digital prowess and enables you to show your ability to build a successful website to future employers. Technical experts will be on hand to help you with this project.

2. Outline syllabus: 

Introduction: New Modernisms : Introducing the new modernist studies post-2005, and theories of influence (such as Harold Bloom’s The Anxiety of Influence and Anatomy of Influence).

Part 1 - Reinventing form.

From Modernist little magazines and their global influence to the radical rethinking of theatre in the early 20th century and its links to recent production designs.

Project workshops . Presentations, feedback, and digital training.

Part 2 - Resurrecting modernism.

From the adaptation of modernist works – such as Kate Mitchell’s stage version of Woolf’s The Waves or John Akomfrah’s films, The Nine Muses (2012) or The Last Angel of History (1996) – to the ‘afterlives’ of modernist authors rewritten as characters in biofiction and novels, such as Bruno Schulz in David Grossman’s See Under: Love (1986).

 3. Teaching and learning activities: 

The module will be taught through lectures, seminars, workshops, tutor supervision of independent projects and field trips.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description: Website (5000 words)

• % Weighting: 100