MDA 105yg: Literature and Modernity

MDA 105yg
Literature and Modernity

Spring 1997
9:00-10:50 TTh THH 121

Arthur Babcock
THH-126F, 740-3170
Office hours: TTh 11-12:00, and by appointment
babcock@mizar.usc.edu

Introduction| Texts | Schedule

Introduction

The purpose of this course is to enable students (and the professor, too!) to understand the cultural perspectives underlying many of the most urgent questions that we in late-twentieth-century America ask ourselves and each other. Some of these questions are:

Should the U.S. Constitution be interpreted strictly, or should it be adapted to serve the values of a particular generation? For example, can we argue that the death penalty is "cruel and unusual punishment" when the Constitution makes clear reference to it in other sections? Does the right to "keep and bear arms" make any sense in today's world?
Is "moral relativism" a bad thing, or should each age and each culture have the right to establish its own values? Are absolute values the only real values?

Any discussion of these and related issues can be improved by an understanding of the development of modernity in Western civilization. Beginning in the Renaissance and culminating in the twentieth century, the possibility that values, truth and reality itself can change over time has led different thinkers to different conclusions: some have welcomed this process of change; others have concluded that unchanging values should be sought and upheld. Now that modernity is perhaps coming to an end (we are now postmodern), these questions are being asked with increasing urgency.

In this course we will trace the rise of modernity through selected works of literature, philosophy, science and art from the sixteenth century to the present day.

Texts

Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness

Descartes, René. Discourse on Method

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis

Montaigne, Michel de. Essays

Pynchon, Thomas. The Crying of Lot 49

Sartre, Jean-Paul. No Exit and Three Other Plays

Shakespeare. King Lear

Voltaire. Candide, Zadig & Other Stories

Schedule

Jan. 9 Introduction

Jan. 14-30: The Threshold of Modernity

Jan. 14 King Lear

16 King Lear

21 King Lear

23 Essays

28 Essays

30 Essays; Discourse on Method

Feb. 4-13: Reason and Enlightenment
Feb. 4 Discourse on Method; First paper due: 6 Discourse on Method; 13 Candide
Feb. 18-Mar. 20 : The Modernist Self: 18 Heart of Darkness; 20 Heart of Darkness (film: Apocalypse Now); 25 Heart of Darkness; 27 Midterm Exam
Mar. 4 The Awakening: 6 The Awakening
March 10-15: Spring Break: 18 The Metamorphosis; 20 The Metamorphosis; Second paper due
Mar. 25-27: New Forms in Painting: 25 Cubism; 27 Cubism
April 1-10: Existentialism & the Absurd
Apr. 1 No Exit: 3 No Exit; 8 Waiting for Godot; 10 Waiting for Godot
Apr. 15-22: Postmodernism: 15 The Crying of Lot 49; 17 The Crying of Lot 49; 22 The Crying of Lot 49; Third paper due; 24 Review