This interdisciplinary course is about the history of ideas, and it hopes to take you on an intellectual journey to the roots of what is known as European modernity. Together we will examine the origin of modernism and its heady flowering in the beginning of the last century in the fields of art, music, literature, philosophy, theater, and other areas of our intellectual history. This course explores fundamental questions about the nature of humanity, its relation to the natural world, and the cosmos, to history itself as well as humanity’s response to the revolutionary notions inaugurated by science and technology. In the course of this journey, I hope, you will have an opportunity to know and ask questions about the world you have inherited and continue to shape.            

 

The most important requirements for this class are regular homework and attendance. You must read carefully each assignment and write journal entries about them on loose sheets of paper that you will insert in your homework folder with pockets. Please mark clearly the title of the reading. I am interested in your personal, emotional as well as intellectual, response to the works and ideas you will read and hear about in class.   You should take notes in class and engage with the ideas that strike you in your entries. You will be required to visit a museum and complete a report about the visit.

You will write short essays and there will be a final comprehensive exam. We will see many videos during the semester and you will write about them. You should also be prepared for group work, unannounced quizzes, and short writing assignments in class. You are always welcome to see me during my office hours.

 

Attendance is crucial in this class. Missing classes will throw you off the track as ideas will be built upon each other. If you have to miss a class, make sure to have an arrangement with a classmate to share notes and discuss assignments. Three absences will negatively affect your grade; four or more will lead to failure.

 

Grades: Essays 36%, Homework 25%, Class work 24%, Final exam 15%

Texts: Sevick, Joan, The Making of the Modern Mind  II (M)

            Fiero, Gloria, The Humanistic Tradition (H) 5^th edition

            Beckett, Samuel, Waiting for Godot                           

MDC102                                                                                                         Dr. Saxena

“The poem of the mind in the act of finding

What will suffice. It has not always had

To find: the scene was set; it repeated what

Was in the script.

Then the theater was changed

To something else. Its past was souvenir.”

Wallace Stevens, “Of Modern Poetry”

 

MDC102: Assignments are due on the dates listed unless specified otherwise. You must finish the readings and have the homework signed on a daily basis. There will be handouts and other assignments besides the readings from the two main texts, M=Making, H=Humanistic.

1/24: Course introduction: Shifting paradigms and perspectives. Rent and watch the video The Name of the Rose this weekend and write about it for your next class.

1/28: Introduction continues

1/31: What is modernism? M 1-10, H 1-10

 

2/4:  M 11-21, Video:  Picasso and Braque

2/7: H 11-25, Picasso continues, nature of time

2/11: Go to a museum Website e.g. Louvre, Paris and find two classical paintings, before the 1800’s, copy them and write about their qualities.

2/14: Alienation and fragmentation – “Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock” M 23-27

2/20: Monday schedule: Prufrock continues

2/21: Stream of Consciousness, M 38-46

2/25:  Video “The Rite of Spring,” M 28-37

2/28:  Modernist music and dance: discussion on “The Rite…” Choose a classical music piece and a modern one, e.g. Rock and Roll and compare them.

3/3: H 26-34, M 56-68: Freud and Jung,

3/6: Essay 1 on Modernism due Video on Frida Kahlo

3/10: M 47-55, Kafka

3/13: M 79-85, H 35-48, Surrealism, and Dada (See the feature film Frida on your own)

3/17: H 49-56, H 57-68, Things Fall Apart

3/20:  Holidays begin

3/31: “The Wasteland”

4/3: “The Wasteland”

4/7: Museum assignment due, M 87-92, 110-113

4/10: The quest for meaning H 69-81 Existentialism

 

4/17: The Seventh Seal

4/28: East West Dialogue: Tagore and Einstein. Essay 2 due

5/1: Harlem Renaissance H 91-109, M 115-132 

5/5: M 153-167, Gender trouble H 109-119, M 168-174       

5/8: Video Georgia O’ Keefe Homework folders due