This course is actually quite new to Trent’s English program, first introduced in 2010, I believe. Certainly, this year is the first time the course has been offered in Oshawa, which means this course has been a challenge and a pleasure to invent and create.
I have taught a number of courses in American and continental modernisms, in which we touched on British modernists, but to have the opportunity to focus on British modernism as its own entity and movement is a fantastic opportunity. British modernism takes on a different character from continental modernism and, yet, it is intimately caught up in the modernist project to find new means to represent the seismic shifts in politics, culture, and technology that erupted in the early twentieth century.
I am very glad that the course is a full year so we can look at the backlash against modernism by, for example, the Angries, but also explore the influence of modernism in contemporary works. Because art in all forms narrates and shapes cultural, political, and social practice (influencing how people think, fantasize, and behave), we can track the path of “Britishness” as it moved from a colonial stance to postcolonial - a radical shift that has left the nation in a wounded condition both economically and socially. Paul Gilroy has called this condition “postcolonial melancholia.” It is interesting that much of current British lit combines classic realism with modernist and postmodernist strategies, perhaps as a way to construct different versions of “Britishness” that are creolized. I am not sure. However, there will always be the “Irving Welshs’ who will powerfully represent those who suffer in strict class systems that breed little else but despair.
I have encouraged students to explore British modernism, antimodernism, and postmodernism in blogs that will allow them to explore a topic using text, video and audio, which better reflects the diversity of expression we’ve encountered in the course. These blogs are works-in-progress until the end of March.
Sara, did I link you too my BritMod blog? I don’t see it up here, but I know my CRT blog is posted.
Thanks for reminding me, but send stuff that isn’t related to my blog but to courses to the course email or my Trent Mail – thanks.