AML 4453: Modernism & New York City
T 2-3/R 3 in TUR 2306   Professor S.A. Smith
Office: 4348 Turlington Hall      392-6650 x23  Office Hours: W 1:00-4:00

 

Gotham, The Big Apple, Manhattan. NYC established itself as a significant “metropolitan” seaport during the 19th century. Although Boston remained powerful as New York came to dominate industry and trade. By the 20th century it took its place as a “world trade center.” In the early part of the 20th century, a cultural experiment called “modernism” found a home here. We will take an in-depth look at the modernist movement in NYC, at how modernism defined the 20th century, and at how that history lingers and shapes our world, still. At the same time, we will work on our own abilities as writers and editors.

Overview Schedule
Unit I:        Creating the 20th Century: Riches and Rags
Unit II:       First Generation Modernisms
Unit III:     Second Generation Modernisms

Required Texts:
Axelrod, Steven Gould, Camille Roman and Thomas Travisano, eds. Modernisms 1900-1950
Melville, Herman. “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” at http://www.bartleby.com/129/
Wharton, Edith. Age of Innocence
Crane, Stephen. Maggie, Girl of the Streets
Malkiel, Theresa. The Diary of A Shirtwaist Striker
Weber, Katharine. Triangle
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, The Great Gatsby
Doctorow, E.L. Ragtime
Stansell, Christine, American Moderns: Bohemian New York and the Creation of a New Century

Suggested Readings and Other resources:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5664
a brief guide to modernism
http://www.case.edu/artsci/engl/VSALM/mod/ny.html
a contemporary “salon” dedicated to the modernist movement
http://www.newyorker.com
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, 1911 at
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/
Museum of the City of New York at http://www.mcny.org/
Burns, Ric. New York: A Documentary Film (1999)
Burrows, Edwin G. and Wallace, Mike. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898.
Cunningham, Michael. Specimen Days.
Chauncey, George. Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture and the
Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940
Douglas, Ann. Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920’s
Mushabae, Jane and Wigan, Jennifer. A Short and Remarkable History of New York City.
Nichols, Peter. Modernisms: A Literary Guide
Von Drehle, David. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America