HL8027 Visions of the Modern: An Interdisciplinary Approach
This course will introduce the texts and contexts of literary and film art in the late nineteenth
to twentieth-century. We will focus on the influence of the rise and implementation of mass
technology and science, which affects all aspects of life, including artistic and cultural output
and expression. Students will study how rapid industrial and technological changes affect
modern living and how literature and film respond to and are driven by these changes. The
course will include short stories, novels, films and plays.
Core Texts:
FICTION
Stephen Crane, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. (Penguin, 2008)
Selection of short stories from Stephen Crane, Prose and Poetry. (Viking Press, 1984)
Selected short fiction from Virginia Woolf, The Complete Shorter Fiction of Virginia Woolf.
2nd Ed. (Harcourt Inc., 1989)
Excerpts from Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse. (Penguin, 2000)
Gertrude Stein. Tender Buttons: Objects, Food, Rooms. (Nuvision Publications, 2010)
Selected short fiction from Italo Calvino, The Complete Cosmicomics. (Penguin, 2010)
John Banville, The Newton Letter. (Picador, 2006)
FILMS
Modern Times. Dir. Charlie Chaplin. United Artists, 1936.
Shoulder Arms. Dir. Charlie Chaplin. First National Pictures, 1918
(Films will be made available for viewing at the NTU Media Library)
ESSAYS
Selected essays from Charles Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays.
Trans. Jonathan Mayne. London: Phaidon Press, 1995
Selected chapters from Malcolm Bradbury and James Water McFarlane, Modernism, 18901930. London: Penguin Books, 1991
Excerpts from Virginia Woolf, On Being Ill. (Paris Press, 2002)
Selected essays from Virginia Woolf, Moments of Being. (Pimlico, 2002)
Selected essays from Viriginia Woolf, The Common Reader Vol. I. (Vintage, 2003)
Selected essays from Viriginia Woolf, The Common Reader Vol. II. (Vintage, 2003)
Excerpts from Virginia Woolf, A Writer’s Diary: being extracts from the diary of Virginia Woolf
(Harcourt, Brace, Jonavich, 1982)
Selected essays from Italo Calvino, The Literature Machine: Essays. (Vintage, 1997)
Assessment
Research Essay (1000 words)
Exam
50%
50%
Course Outline
Week
1
Topics
Readings
2
Defining the Modern:
Intellectual, artistic and
cultural contexts
Excerpts: Charles
Baudelaire; Malcolm
Bradbury.
3
3
The Modern Condition and
the Self I
Charlie Chaplin’s
Modern Times
(1936)
3
4
The Modern Condition and
the Self II
Stephen Crane’s
Maggie (1893).
3
5
The Modern Condition and
War I
Charlie Chaplin’s
Shoulder Arms
(1918)
3
6
The Modern Condition and
War II
Selection of excerpts
from Stephen
Crane’s short stories
3
7
The Modern Condition and
the Crisis of Consciousness I
3
8
The Modern Condition and
the Crisis of Consciousness
II
Selection of essays,
short stories and
excerpts From To
the Lighthouse
(1927) from Virginia
Woolf
Virginia Woolf;
Gertrude Stein’s
Tender Buttons:
Objects, Food,
Rooms (1914)
9
The Modern Condition and
the Crisis of Consciousness
III
Gertrude Stein’s
Tender Buttons:
Objects, Food,
Rooms (1914)
3
10
The Modern Condition and
Science I
Selection of essays
and short stories by
Italo Calvino
3
11
The Modern Condition and
Science II
John Banville’s The
Newton Letter (1986)
3
12
The Modern Condition and
Science III
John Banville’s The
Newton Letter (1986)
3
13
Conclusion/ Revision
Introduction to Module
Lecture Hours
3
3
3