Modernism and Its Critics

This course explores how European writers interpreted modern art and manners between 1850 and 1940. As a crucial figure in emerging modern world, the cultural critic aimed to explain the meaning of style for society. Consequently, cultural critics created rich primary resources for understanding politics, beliefs, and everyday life activities. We will especially focus on anxiety about modern life expressed in controversies over avant garde movements from impressionists to expressionists, realists to the surrealists. We will cover issues like hysteria, men’s fashion, music, vacations, sexuality, and advertising. In addition to lesser known figures, selected readings include Baudelaire, Nietzsche, Benjamin, Kafka.