The Modernist Object听
Readers have traditionally prioritized human characters in literature, finding in those figures a correlative for our own experience of the world. In doing so they have affirmed a subject/object binary in which people exercise varying degrees of control over an allegedly inert material world. However, recent work in literary and cultural studies, philosophy, sociology and anthropology has worked to trouble this opposition. In complex and intriguing ways, contemporary 鈥渢hing theory鈥� and associated schools of thought have suggested that objects act and constitute human subjects in ways we have only begun to recognize. This听course听will introduce students to some of the core theoretical arguments in the multidisciplinary field of object studies. We will also read a selection of short stories and four novels published in Britain during the interwar period that feature compelling, strange, or disturbing objects. Among our questions will be: what is the correlation between objects and sensation? How do we apprehend things? What happens to objects in the absence of a human observer? Under what circumstances might objects become more important than people?
Students will post weekly to Canvas, give two oral presentations, and write one seminar paper which we will workshop at the end of the semester. Required texts (in addition to a听course听reader that I will compile):听Candlin and Guins,听The Object Reader;听Virginia Woolf,听Orlando;听Lytton Strachey,听Elizabeth and Essex; Jean Rhys,听Good Morning Midnight;听Daphne du Maurier,听Rebecca.
Studies special topics that focus on a theme, genre, or theoretical issue not limited to a specific period or national tradition. Topics vary each semester.
Repeatable:听Repeatable for up to 9.00 total credit hours.
Requisites:听Restricted to English (ENGL) and English Lit- Creative Writing (CRWR) graduate students only.
Additional Information:Departmental Category: Graduate Courses
Taught by Jane Garrity.