Master
2019/2020
The Modern and the Postmodern (Part 1)
Type:
Elective course (Visual Culture)
Area of studies:
Cultural Studies
Delivered by:
School of Cultural Studies
Where:
Faculty of Humanities
When:
2 year, 1-3 module
Mode of studies:
distance learning
Instructors:
Ilya Inishev
Master’s programme:
Визуальная культура
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
4
Contact hours:
2
Course Syllabus
Abstract
This course examines how the idea of "the modern" develops at the end of the 18th century in European philosophy and literature, and how being modern (or progressive, or hip) became one of the crucial criteria for understanding and evaluating cultural change. Are we still in modernity, or have we moved beyond the modern to the postmodern? This discipline uses massive open-online course 'The Modern and the Postmodern, part one', created by Wesleyan University via Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/learn/modern-postmodern-1.
Learning Objectives
- This course will form an original intellectual navigation system in the cultural space of XIX–XX cc. It will follow the dynamics of movement from modern to postmodern, leaning on such figures as Kant, Marx, Nietzsche, Flaubert, Jameson and Avant Garde artists.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- You will learn what is relationship between concepts of “Modernity” and “Modern”, “Modern” and “Revolution”, what is Counter-Enlightenment and if Darwin was a modern thinker or a modernist writer.
- Know how to study modernity through philosophy
Course Contents
- What is Enlightenment?Using Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, we study how the pursuit of knowledge is related to the politics of inequality. This theme is learned by students on MOOC 'The Modern and the Postmodern, part one'.
- From Enlightenment to RevolutionKarl Marx is our focus here as we move from a consideration of ideas to a confrontation with alienation, class struggle and revolution. This theme is learned by students on MOOC 'The Modern and the Postmodern, part one'.
- Modernism and Art for Art's SakeWe read Flaubert’s Madame Bovary as a reflection on convention, stupidity and art in the wake of the failures of mid-19th century revolution. This theme is learned by students on MOOC 'The Modern and the Postmodern, part one'.
- Re-imagining the WorldWe situate Charles Darwin’s great achievement in the context of the English Enlightenment traditions and reimaging the world without a goal for change. This theme is learned by students on MOOC 'The Modern and the Postmodern, part one'.
- From Struggle to IntensityThrough an examination of Charles Baudelaire and Friedrich Nietzsche, we focus on an aesthetic embrace of intensity instead of search for the “really real.” This theme is learned by students on MOOC 'The Modern and the Postmodern, part one'.
- PaintingsA Quick Survey of how advanced painting moved toward a consideration of the surface of the canvas and away from a quest for the most realistic representation of the world. This theme is learned by students on MOOC 'The Modern and the Postmodern, part one'.
- Philosophy, Modernity, and Intellectual HistoryWhy is philosophy relevant to modernity? Through reading Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant, we examine philosophy as a reflection on modernity and progress.
Interim Assessment
- Interim assessment (3 module)0.3 * interview with academic supervisor + 0.7 * Online-course grade
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Jervis, J. (2018). Modernity Theory : Modern Experience, Modernist Consciousness, Reflexive Thinking. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1363041
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Buchanan, D. (2017). Acts of Modernity : The Historical Novel and Effective Communication, 1814–1901 (Vol. First edition). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1588507
- Evrard, A. Y., & Appadurai, A. (2017). Modernity at Large : Cultural Dimensions of Globalisation. London: Macat Library. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1564340