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Module Specifications.

Current Academic Year 2024 - 2025

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Date posted: September 2024

Module Title Modernism & Postmodernism
Module Code EL205 (ITS) / LIT1026 (Banner)
Faculty Humanities & Social Sciences School English
Module Co-ordinatorMichael Hinds
Module TeachersPaula Murphy
NFQ level 8 Credit Rating 5
Pre-requisite Not Available
Co-requisite Not Available
Compatibles Not Available
Incompatibles Not Available
None
Description

This module will both describe and explore the intellectual history of Modernism and Postmodernism, and also differentiate between those concepts and what is described as modern and postmodern style. The sessions will focus on the political contexts in which modernism and postmodernism become active, and also engage with the aesthetic implications of the terms. There will also be a particular focus on the difference between a modern and postmodern reader, with a due sense of the social context in which all readings occur.

Learning Outcomes

1. Discuss the problematic conceptual history of Modernism and Postmodernism
2. Know the various social and cultural contexts in which Modernism and Postmodernism emerged
3. Understand the various generic and formal manifestations of modernism and postmodernism in poetry, fiction and dramatic arts
4. Assess the ongoing status of terms such as modern and postmodern
5. Appreciate the relationship of modernism and postmodernism to radical change in society, both national and transnational
6. Interrogate radical and challenging texts



Workload Full-time hours per semester
Type Hours Description
Lecture21Lectures
Independent Study104Independent Learning
Total Workload: 125

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Modernist Poetics
W.B. Yeats, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, D.H. Lawrence, T.S. Eliot

Modernist Politics
Yeats and the Nation State

Modernist Film
Leni Riefenstahl Triumph of the Will, Hitchcock

Modernist Fiction
Joyce, Woolf, Faulkner, Krazy Kat

Postmodern Fictions
Samuel Beckett, Donald Barthelme, Toni Morrison, Don de Lillo, Philip Roth, John Kennedy Toole, Eimear Mac Bride

Postmodern Poetics
Allen Ginsberg, Frank O’Hara, The Beatles, Hip-Hop, Medbh McGuckian, Performance Poetry

Postmodern Cinema

New Forms
Video Games, Hypertext, The Graphic Novel

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment100% Examination Weight0%
Course Work Breakdown
TypeDescription% of totalAssessment Date
EssayEssay25%n/a
Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories:
Resit category 1: A resit is available for both* components of the module.
Resit category 2: No resit is available for a 100% continuous assessment module.
Resit category 3: No resit is available for the continuous assessment component where there is a continuous assessment and examination element.
* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a Continuous Assessment/Examination split; where the module is 100% continuous assessment, there will also be a resit of the assessment
This module is category 1
Indicative Reading List

  • Derek Attridge, ed.: 1999, The Cambridge Companion to Joyce, UP Cambridge, Cambridge,
  • Rachel Bowlby: 1999, Feminist Destinations and Further Essays on Virginia Woolf, Edinburgh UP, Edinburgh,
  • Michael Bradbury and James McFarlane: 1976, Modernism: 1890-1930, Penguin, New York,
  • Frederic Jameson: 1996, Postmodernism, Duke, NC,
  • Jean Francois Lyotard: 0, The Postmodern Condition, University of Minnesota,
  • Moretti, Franco: 2004, The Novel (2 vols), Princeton, New York,
  • Marjore Perloff: 2012, Unoriginal Genius,
  • Marjore Perloff: 1998, Postmodern Genres, Oklahoma UP, Oklahoma,
Other Resources

None

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