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Modernism and Avant Garde (ENGL20022)
Undergraduate level 2Points: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
For information about the University’s phased return to campus and in-person activity in Winter and Semester 2, please refer to the on-campus subjects page.
About this subject
- Overview
- Eligibility and requirements
- Assessment
- Dates and times
- Further information
- Timetable(opens in new window)
Contact information
Semester 2
Please refer to the LMS for up-to-date subject information, including assessment and participation requirements, for subjects being offered in 2020.
Overview
Availability | Semester 2 |
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Fees | Look up fees |
This subject examines modernism, a revolution in literature and other arts that took place between roughly 1890 and 1950. Modernism was an international and experimental enterprise, at once highly local and truly global, emerging in sites as diverse as Paris, Tokyo, New York, and Buenos Aires — as well as between them. In lieu of surveying every major modernist writer, we will emphasize a number of significant figures and movements. Students will learn about movements and contexts such as Dada, Futurism, Surrealism, the Harlem Renaissance, the Francophone Négritude movement, and the queer enclaves of Paris’s Left Bank. Course readings will be drawn from a range of genres, including novels, short fiction, essays, poetry, plays, and manifestos by writers such as Walter Benjamin, Aimé Césaire, Sigmund Freud, James Joyce, and Gertrude Stein, and will touch on other arts, such as cinema, music, and painting.
Intended learning outcomes
On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:
- demonstrate a detailed knowledge and understanding of representative examples of Modernist and Avant-Garde texts;
- articulate the relationship between modernist literary works and the social, historical and cultural contexts that produced them;
- apply high-level analysis, conceptual sophistication, and critical thinking to the study of Modernist and Avant-Garde texts and the controversies they engendered;
- contribute to the understanding of Modernist and Avant-Garde texts in ways that engage the interests of the discipline of literary studies;
- effectively communicate an understanding of Modernist and Avant-Garde texts and their contexts in both written and oral formats; and
- have gained an understanding of how to act as critically informed participants within a community of literature scholars, as citizens and in the work force at large.
Generic skills
At the completion of this subject, students should gain the following generic skills:
- be able to apply research skills and critical methods to a field of inquiry;
- be able to develop persuasive arguments on a given topic; and
- be able to communicate oral and written arguments and ideas effectively and articulately.
Last updated: 19 March 2024
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
None
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
106-227 Modernism and Avant Garde
Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.
Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home
Last updated: 19 March 2024
Assessment
Due to the impact of COVID-19, assessment may differ from that published in the Handbook. Students are reminded to check the subject assessment requirements published in the subject outline on the LMS
Description | Timing | Percentage |
---|---|---|
An essay
| Mid semester | 35% |
An in-class presentation and write-up
| During the teaching period | 15% |
An essay
| During the examination period | 50% |
Hurdle requirement: This subject has a minimum hurdle requirement of 80% attendance and regular participation in tutorials. All pieces of assessment must be completed to pass this subject. | Throughout the semester | N/A |
Additional details
Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per day. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked.
Last updated: 19 March 2024
Dates & times
- Semester 2
Principal coordinator Justin Clemens Mode of delivery On Campus (Parkville) Contact hours Total time commitment 170 hours Teaching period 3 August 2020 to 1 November 2020 Last self-enrol date 14 August 2020 Census date 21 September 2020 Last date to withdraw without fail 16 October 2020 Assessment period ends 27 November 2020 Semester 2 contact information
Time commitment details
170 hours
Last updated: 19 March 2024
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
- Modernism and Avant-Garde 2020: Prescribed Texts
- A Subject Reader will be available on Canvas
- James Joyce, Ulysses (Oxford)
- Alain Locke, The New Negro (Touchstone)
- Gertrude Stein, Selected Writings (Vintage)
- Sigmund Freud, Civilisation and its Discontents (available online on PEP)
- H.D., Selected Poems (New Directions)
- Aimé Césaire, Notebook of a Return to the Native Land (Wesleyan UP)
- Jean Genet, The Maids and Deathwatch: Two Plays (Grove)
- Subject notes
Students who have completed 673-342 Modernism and Avant Garde are not eligible to enrol in this subject.
- Related Handbook entries
This subject contributes to the following:
Type Name Major English and Theatre Studies Specialisation (formal) English and Theatre Studies Minor European Studies Specialisation (formal) English and Theatre Studies - Breadth options
This subject is available as breadth in the following courses:
- Bachelor of Biomedicine
- Bachelor of Commerce
- Bachelor of Design
- Bachelor of Environments
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Animation)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Film and Television)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Screenwriting)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Theatre)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Art)
- Bachelor of Music
- Bachelor of Science
- Links to additional information
- Available through the Community Access Program
About the Community Access Program (CAP)
This subject is available through the Community Access Program (also called Single Subject Studies) which allows you to enrol in single subjects offered by the University of Melbourne, without the commitment required to complete a whole degree.
Entry requirements including prerequisites may apply. Please refer to the CAP applications page for further information.
- Available to Study Abroad and/or Study Exchange Students
This subject is available to students studying at the University from eligible overseas institutions on exchange and study abroad. Students are required to satisfy any listed requirements, such as pre- and co-requisites, for enrolment in the subject.
Last updated: 19 March 2024