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Ambivalent Modernism: Technology and the Literary Imaginaton
DozentIn: Prof. Dr. phil. Peter Schneck
Veranstaltungstyp: Seminar
Ort: 11/211: Di. 16:00 - 18:00 (13x), 01/214: Di. 16:00 - 18:00 (1x)
Zeiten: Di. 16:00 - 18:00 (wöchentlich), Ort: 11/211, 01/214
Beschreibung: Technological progress is often regarded as an essential element of modernization, modern societies and cultures are thus regarded as being shaped, even made possible only by certain technologies, e.g. communication technologies like telegraph, telephone, new mass media technologies, e.g. photography, film, radio and television. Moreover, technological progress as modernization has been emphatically linked to urbanization and city life, as well as changes in modes of production and consumption. Modern life itself may be said to be determined by technology - however broadly defined.
If modernization and modernity are the result of changes brought about by new technologies, these changes have met by contrasting and ambivalent cultural responses between enthusiasm and anxiety, modern life also brought about conflicts and resulted in struggles which are still reflected in current intense debates about the social and political benefits and downsides of new technologies.
Early 19th-century American Modernism in the arts and especially literature may be seen as a response to technological progress and its inherent ambivalence and conflicts. This response can be observed both in terms themes and topics but also in terms of form and modes of expression. in fact, in the context of modernization as a larger, more general transformation towards a technological culture, the arts themselves are compelled to reflect on their own 'technological' dimensions, indeed, as ambivalent technologies in their own rights.
The course discussions and readings will evolve around these critical constellations, as they may be detected and interpreted in various forms of modernist expression, both visual and literary. The interest will be two-fold, looking specifically at poetry and narrative fiction, both in terms of their thematic concerns with and formal response to modernity as a form of life shaped by technologies.
