Modernism/Modernity in Theory, Part 2

Two more books explored as part of the my online discussion of Modernism and the critical analysis and periodization of this cultural phenomenon.  First we examine Poggioli's work on the Avant-garde and its role as the knife edge of Modernism, then moving on to Berman's broader discussion of Modernity as a phenomenon emergent in the 17th and 18th Centuries, achieving maturity in the 19th, and falling into a kind of ossified decadence in the 20th, it's discomforting fatuity in the hands of the Postmodernists at the end of that century.  

  

Modernism/Modernity in Theory, Part 1

In the following undergraduate online discussions I explain a number of essays on Modernism, Modernity, Symbolism and the Avant-garde.  The essays are, first, Edmund Wilson's "Symbolism" from Axel's Castle; then Malcolm Bradbury and James McFarlane's "The Name and Nature of Modernism" in their anthology entitled just Modernism; then Renato Poggioli's introductory chapters to The Theory of the Avant-Garde; and finally, Marshall Berman's introductory chapter to his book, All That Is Solid Melts into Air.  I cleave pretty closely to the texts for the sake of student comprehension.  The first essay begins with students reading passages that they selected from the Wilson, Bradbury and McFarlane essays.  I've clipped the videos at points where the connection for our online discussion broke down or where we struggled to bring up documents to share.  #EdmundWilson, #RenatoPoggioli, #MarshallBerman, #modernism, #modernity, #thesymbolists, #theavantgarde 

The Shift to Modernism: Modern European Art

As I've had little time to write because of my teaching schedule this year, I've decided to post clips from some of the online lectures I did for my students at Pace University and at SVA this past semester (Spring 2020).   Though the course below is about interdisciplinary writing and research on literature and the the arts, in the following lectures I focus on the "tradition of the new" in painting and the radical shift away from figurative or representational work to the more abstract or dehumanized art of the Twentieth Century.  I've appropriated Robert Hughes's "Shock of the New" phrase as the title of the PowerPoint presented here.  It begins with an impromptu discussion of poet Guillaume Apollinaire and the significance of collage to modern art in the first clip.  Other clips cover works by artists from Delacroix and Manet to Picasso and the Cubists; then from the Futurists, Orphists, and Duchamp to the Dadaists; then from the Surrealists to the Abstract Expressionists.  The connection to the Blackboard server broke off at different points during the lecture, which conveniently provided opportunities to make the following five video clips.