27650 Literary Modernism and the Cinema

The increasing popularity of cinema alternately attracted and alarmed Modernist writers, who looked to the emerging art form both as an inspiration and as a foil for their own work. This course explores the influence that the recording, editing and exhibition of film had on the literary practices of Modernist writers. We will look at the fiction of writers such as Woolf, Joyce and Elizabeth Bowen; and at Modernist writers’ essays on the medium. How did cinematic experiences of glamor, temporality, anonymity and technology affect the experiments of writers who wanted to innovate their own medium? How can the emergence of cinema help us think about literary Modernism's approach to narrative and subjectivity? (G)

Sophie Withers
2016-2017 Spring