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Latest Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026

Module Title Modernism & Postmodernism
Module Code LIT1026 (ITS: EL205)
Faculty English School Humanities & Social Sciences
NFQ level 8 Credit Rating 5
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


WorkloadFull time hours per semester
TypeHoursDescription
Lecture21Lectures
Independent Study104Independent Learning
Total Workload: 125
Section Breakdown
CRN20651Part of TermSemester 2
Coursework0%Examination Weight0%
Grade Scale40PASSPass Both ElementsY
Resit CategoryRC1Best MarkN
Module Co-ordinatorJack QuinModule TeacherMichael Hinds, Paula Murphy
Assessment Breakdown
TypeDescription% of totalAssessment Date
EssayEssay25%n/a
Formal ExaminationExam75%End-of-Semester
Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories;
RC1: A resit is available for both* components of the module.
RC2: No resit is available for a 100% coursework module.
RC3: No resit is available for the coursework component where there is a coursework and summative examination element.

* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a coursework/summative examination split; where the module is 100% coursework, there will also be a resit of the assessment

Pre-requisite None
Co-requisite None
Compatibles None
Incompatibles None

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

Indicative Reading List

Books:
  • 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,


Articles:
  • T.S. Eliot: 0, Selected Essays,
Other Resources

None

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