MODERNISM
AND MODERNITY IN LITERATURE
March 22 and March 29, 2000
"What was modernism?" Forty years have passed since Harry Levin addressed that question in his famous essay. The answers and definitions continue to proliferate; not one of them has proven satisfactory, much less definitive. This seminar will examine a selection of major modernist texts by T.S. Eliot, Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf in an effort to gain a better understanding of this rich literary epoch.
“It was most exciting. We were treated as colleagues. We were not talked at, but to. It was like taking the ‘college class’ for pure enjoyment. I’d never have ‘met’ Virginia Woolf without this experience. Thank you to all involved in providing this experience. I wish more would know how good this was for us.”
- Karen Lohmuller
“I expected⁄hoped it would provide intellectual stimulation and was so pleased that it fulfilled and actually exceeded my expectations. [The seminar] has made me read more critically, give me a new approach to looking at literature, was pure enjoyment to discuss wonderful novels. Professor Buttigieg really made this such a wonderful experience!”
- Amy O’Brien
“Experience exceeded my expectations. I was unsure as to what to expect. It was worth every minute of the experience. It was inspiring! It's like recharging batteries. We need more of this.”
- Tom Gerencher
“Expectations were intellectual stimulation- learning parallels to help transform my own teaching and ways of reading and understanding- this, by far, surpassed my expectations! I have not enjoyed intense literary discourse like this in years- I loved it!”
- Bill Caparo
JOSEPH A. BUTTIGIEG is Professor of English. He is interested in modern literary theory and the relationship between culture and politics. His work has focused on modernist aesthetics and Antonio Gramsci's political analysis of culture. He is currently editing and translating The Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci, in five volumes.
“The TAS seminar was an extremely gratifying experience for me. It provided me with a rare opportunity to exchange views and ideas with individuals whose keen interest in literature is coupled with an intellectual maturity one rarely encounters in ‘normal’ class situations. I was enriched by the experience, and I look forward to conducting another TAS seminar.”
- Joseph Buttigieg