Topics in Culture and Society (492-0-20)

Instructors

Christopher Bush
847/491-5493
1860 S. Campus Drive, Crowe Hall #2-135

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-435: Wed 2:00PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

This seminar offers a graduate-level introduction to literary and critical theory via a range of avant-gardes movements from the early twentieth century. Each week we will read primary texts from a different avant-garde movement, accompanied by critical and theoretical works, ranging from that period to today. (These primary readings emphasize manifestos and literary texts, but will also touch on the visual arts and film.)

Our first unit analyzes the aestheticization of politics and the politicization of aesthetics in Italian futurism, Russian and early Soviet avant-gardes, and Dada. The second unit explores the dynamics of cultural appropriation and re-appropriation, primarily through the theme of primitivism in German expressionism, Brazilian anthropophagy, and the négritude movement. Our final unit focuses on the global spread of surrealism, with an emphasis on the movements' resistance to fascism, and on its contradictory and controversial reimagining of gender and sexuality.

All readings will be available as pdfs via Canvas and will be available in English, but original-language texts will be provided as well. There will be assigned readings for the first meeting, so students who plan to take the course but are not yet enrolled by then should contact the instructor.

Class Materials (Required)

Class materials will be made available on Canvas.

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: REASON: Pre-registration is not allowed for this class. Please try again during regular registration.