106-412 Modernism, Fascism, Communism

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Subject Description

An examination of the links between the aesthetic doctrines and practices of early twentieth-century modernism and the political ideologies of fascism and communism. The subject provides an introduction to the political contexts in which modernist programmes of aesthetic innovations were developed in the Inter-war period; a familiarity with Marxist and Nazi debates about the political 'tendencies' of modernist aesthetics; and an understanding of how certain canonical modernist writers and film-makers have been critically positioned in relation to fascist and socialist causes.

Assessment

Written work of not more than 6000 words.

Prescribed Texts

Course reader available from the department. Any edition of the following texts:

• G Adair, Death of the Author.
• D Barnes, Nightwood.
• B Brecht, The Measures Taken.
• M Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita.
• T S Eliot, Collected Poems.
• D H Lawrence, Three Novellas.
• W Lewis, The Revenge for Love.
• Films: S Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin.
• F Lang, Metropolis.
• L Riefenstahl, Triumph of the Will.