This document discusses key topics relating to English identity, modernism, race and sexuality. It provides an overview of modernism and postmodernism, exploring how modernist works examined issues of race, sexuality and representations of reality and the city. It analyzes E.M. Forster's Howards End in the context of debates around English identity and discusses how modernist and postmodernist thinkers approached issues of essentialism and sexuality. The document aims to consolidate understanding of these literary periods and explore related issues of race, sexuality and national identity.
Here is a brief presentation on the text "A Tale of Tub" by Johnathan Swift. Swift's First work and one of the Influential Satire in 18th Century and today as well.
This presentation (solely a draft right now) talks about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, how it affects theatre and the global stance that artists and playwrights have taken with this subject.
Here is a brief presentation on the text "A Tale of Tub" by Johnathan Swift. Swift's First work and one of the Influential Satire in 18th Century and today as well.
This presentation (solely a draft right now) talks about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, how it affects theatre and the global stance that artists and playwrights have taken with this subject.
Examine Australian and Canadian Literature in the light of the statement that ‘English literature outside Britain have been considered as individual, national enterprises forming and reflecting each country’s culture’. You should discuss the work of two writers.
A Brief introduction about Feminist literary Criticism- It's History, Criticism as literature and the the role of Female writer and it's Creations-Creative Writings and comparison.
Examine Australian and Canadian Literature in the light of the statement that ‘English literature outside Britain have been considered as individual, national enterprises forming and reflecting each country’s culture’. You should discuss the work of two writers.
A Brief introduction about Feminist literary Criticism- It's History, Criticism as literature and the the role of Female writer and it's Creations-Creative Writings and comparison.
This is a tool used by me to talk to children about identity.
As much as you might believe that your age, gender, or race is irrelevant, they affect how others perceive you. In fact, they even affect how you perceive yourself.
Presented at the International Conference on Identity Studies in Vienna, Austria.
http://socialsciencesandhumanities.com/upcoming-conferences-call-for-papers/international-conference-on-identity-studies/index.html
Impression management Techniques and TacticsDEEPAK J
Impression management -The process of portraying yourself to others in a manner that creates a desired impression. Need of Impressions, Impression Management Techniques and Strategies, Disadvantages.
Presentation of Erving Goffman`s dramaturgical approach.
SEMINAR FOR FIRST-YEAR PHD/EDD STUDENTS - FALL 2009 & WINTER 2010 University of Calgary
I will be happy to share the full text for this presentation if you need it. Contact me avatarnadezda@gmail.com
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1.Discussion postFor the AlbionsSeed, you will find a chapter.docxpaynetawnya
1.
Discussion post:
For the AlbionsSeed, you will find a chapter of David Hackett Fisher's landmark study of colonial America, Albion's Seed. Fisher . . . "traces the migration of cultures from four distinct regions of the British Isles and explains how each imparted its own distinctive character to the portion of America they made their own."
The AlbionsSeed excerpt focuses on the ways that these four different waves have influenced America's multi-varied cultural concept of "liberty," certainly a necessary path of inquiry to anyone interested in American culture then and now.
Discussion Board Post:
Looking at the different explanations of the idea of "liberty," which one do you think was most important to early European settlers of the colonies? Explain why.
Which category do you think is closest to your own idea of liberty? Do you think that your definition of the word is one still commonly held in our culture? Describe how it is differs from Fisher's categories.
250 words.
2. (make sure write where is this quote from into beginning of explanation) (you can find a quote from reading in first assignment).
Students will choose a short excerpt / quote from one of the readings of that week, type it in, then add a short (150 words or so) explanation for your choice. Was your selection important because it:
1. is an example of beautiful or striking language?
1. exemplifies a particular theme or character?
1. makes the reader think about something in a new way?
1. reflects a particular aspect of French culture?
1. was just something that you liked?
For example:
"Whoever gets knowledge from God, science,
and a talent for speech, eloquence,
Shouldn't shut up or hide away;
No, that person should gladly display." Marie de France
explanation:
In the opening lines to the Prologue to the Lays, Marie de France is providing her readers with an explanation for writing these stories down. This is a very common and traditional rhetorical move informing readers about the ethos or qualifications of the speaker. In this case, Marie is claiming that she is knowledgeable and eloquent and that these gifts come from God and therefore should be used. I think it goes further than that; Marie, like most women of her day,* would have been expected to "shut up" and "hide away" as a matter of course, since women's voices were not welcomed in the public sphere. By opening her work in this way, she preempts criticism about the appropriateness of her authorship.
PURITAN LIBERTY MASSACHUSSETTS
ordered liberty
· Collective liberty w/close restraints on individuals
· Liberties – specific exemptions from prior restraints
· Soul (Christian) liberty – freedom to serve God in the world (= obligation) Freedom of the “true” faith; consistent w/persecution of other faiths
· Freedom from circumstance – want, fear
ANGLICAN LIBERTY VIRGINIA
hegemonic liberty
· Dominion over others
· Dominion over self
· Power to rule
· Hierarchical /aristocratic ...
2. Learning objectives
• To revisit/revise some of the key
issues/theories/texts brought up so far
• To consolidate our ideas about post-c0lonialism
and post-modernism
• To explore some of the issues connected with
race and sexuality within the context of
modernist and postmodernist thinkers and
writers;
3. Recap
• What are some of things you‟ve learnt on this
course so far?
• What has interested you the most? Why?
• What have you found challenging and why?
4. What do you know?
• What do you know about modernism and post-
modernism?
8. Modernist representations of the city
• Unreal City,
• Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
• A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
• I had not thought death had undone so many.
• Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
• And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
• Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
• To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
• With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.
• There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying “Stetson!
• You who were with me in the ships at Mylae!
• That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
• Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?”
9. Key ideas
• A concentration upon new forms of
representation
• An obsession with “form”:
poetic, architectural, artistic, musical
• A rejection of “realist” depictions of the world
• An exploration of multiple forms of alienation
• A terrible sense of alienation from the industrial
modern world
• A tendency to romanticise the past; to seek
spiritual salvation there, eg Forster
10. Your thoughts…
• Do you have any particular thoughts or views on
race and racism? Have you read any writers that
are striking in this regard?
11. Modernism: Truth, race and elitism
• A fascination and belief that art can unearth
fundamental truths about the world
• A distinct hierarchy in culture
• High art is very distinct from popular culture
• A belief that there is an elite that can have access to
the truth
• This elite is always alienated from the mainstream
society
• A profound interest in “race”; that there are
“essential” racial identities, eg Forster, Yeats, Eliot
12. Your thoughts
• Do you have any views about sexuality? How
important is sexuality in defining oneself? What
role does it play in shaping one‟s identity?
13. Sexuality and modernism
• There is a growing frankness about human
sexuality; an exploration of Freud‟s ideas in the
writings of DH Lawrence; James Joyce; even
Eliot.
• But there is much that is still “taboo”:
homosexuality
• A fear of female sexuality permeates much of the
literature
14. Activity
• What do you think modernism is?
• How would you define it?
• Have you experienced it in your own life/reading
etc?
• Why do you think so many modernist were both
sexist and possibly racist in their views?
• Why did many flirt with or explicitly support
fascism?
15. Forster: the modernist?
• Pg 172: “she would double her kingdom by
opening the door that concealed the stairs.
• Not she thought of the map of Africa; of empires;
of her father; of the two supreme
nations, streams of whose life warmed her
blood, but, mingling, had cooled her brain. She
paced back into the hall, and as she did so the
house reverberated.”
• What does this passage tell us about the context
of the time?
16. Realizing England at Howards End
• Pg 174: “She recaptured her sense of space, which is
the basis of all earthly beauty, and, starting from
Howards End she attempted to realize England. She
failed…But an unexpected love of the island awoke
in her, connecting on this side with the joys of the
flesh, on that with the inconceivable. Helen and her
father had known this love, poor Leonard Bast was
groping after it, but it had been hidden from
Margaret until this afternoon.”
• What does Howards End awaken in Margaret? Why
does Forster focus upon this moment?
17. Contextual factors
• Len Platt, „Germanism, the Modern and
“England” – 1880–1930: a literary overview‟
in Modernism and Race (2011).
• Pg 32, Platt: “HE…worries away about defining
culture in an age of degeneration.”
18. Literary and cultural background
• “Aryanised Celticism”
• 1853, Grammatica Celtica, Johann Caspar
Zeuss, trying to prove the Celtic language was
Indo-European and therefore “Aryan”.
19. The Wilcox family
• Pg 32: “For all its authority, the mercantile
Wilcox identity is obviously limited and
compromised – even fragile.”
• The New Woman identity counters the Wilcox
identity; the feminised world of England is its
new identity?
• Modern, feminised and German…
20. Anglo-Saxon England
• Revisionist and Celtic?
• The true England is represented by Mrs Wilcox
and her country house with its path that the
Kings of Mercia travelled down and its “wych-
elm”?
• Invoking an ancient “Anglo-Saxon” identity for
England, linking it with its antique German past.
• Devoted to spiritualised vision of England‟s past;
belief in the ancient feudal order of England…
21. The attack on the suburbs
• Withering attack on Leonard Bast
• Mythologised feudalism
• Mysterious belief in the powers of a pseudo-
mystical landlordism…
• Vision of a revised past; not a new future…
22. Forster’s ideal English identity
• Pg 33: “For all the attempted assimilation of
commercial individualism to tradition and authentic
culture, it is clear that Forster‟s ideal social
organisation, and national identity, remain
essentially rooted in the past and firmly linked to
ideas about social obligation and distinction…Here a
contented neo-peasantry, the hybrid he despises as
„England‟s hope…half-clod hopper, half boardschool
prig‟, serves under those who have the „wisdom‟ to
worship the past, „that wisdom‟ Forster says, „that
we give the clumsy name of aristocracy.‟”
23. Activity
• What do you think of the attitudes implicit in
Forster‟s novel?
• Revisit your notes that you made on what
England means to you; do you have anything to
add to them? Any more thoughts?
24. Forster and sexuality
• Forster has a vision of a better “feminised”
England; a spiritual place which is “mothered”
by a Mrs Wilcox…
• He suppressed a major novel Maurice because it
explored the topic of homosexuality; it was
published after his death…
25. Sexuality and English identity
• Wide Sargasso Sea: Rochester is disgusted but
attracted by Antoinette‟s sexuality
• Small Island: Bernard disgusted by Queenie‟s
sexual desire
• Howards End: sexual attraction threatens the
very fabric of the society
26. Activity
• Is there a sexual component to English identity?
• What are these novels saying about sexuality do
you think?
• Race and sexuality: do these novels explore the
ways in which these two factors inter-sect?
30. Postmodernism
• Playful in its exploration of “form”
• Full of quotations from popular culture
• Rejecting distinction between “high” and “low” art
• Inter-textual
• A delight in “hybrid” identities: rejection of
“essentialism”
• Multiple voices
• Often political: postcolonial; feminist; queer
• Crossing boundaries/genres: the YouTube poem;
the novel that responds to another…
31. Questioning “essentialism”
• Is there any such thing as “literature”? What is
it?
Is there any subject thing as the “true self”? Are
we all social constructs?
• Are all our attitudes and beliefs “socially
constructed”?
• We are all “mediums” for a shared social
language
32. Important “postmodern” thinkers have
worked in the “postcolonial” field
• Lamming: the myth of English
supremacy, predicated upon certain cultural
assumptions that have subjugated colonial
subjects…
• Spivak – the impossibility of the subaltern
“speaking”, making their views known from a
position of equality; always the “Other”, the invisible
one…
• Said – the discourses of colonialism have filtered
into every sphere: science, anthropology, art
34. This is England
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8uAtsaPO-
E&feature=related
• What do you think makes this a post-modern
film?
35. Postmodern and sexuality
• Foucalt an important thinker
• A much greater openness and honesty about
sexuality
• An acknowledgement that sexuality is a key
component of an individual‟s and nation‟s
identity but that there are no easy definitions, eg
questioning the labels we give different sexual
groups…
36. Queer theory
• Foucault noted that a vague grouping of actions
were replaced by a group of sexual categories and
questioned whether this was justified or meaningful;
is it enough to speak of heterosexual and
homosexual or is this binary either/or not enough to
account for the varieties of human behaviour? Even
if we add other designations, the same question
remains: are we describing divisions that actually
exist or instead forcing individuals into moulds that
they do not fit? What are the consequences of the
latter, especially for those questioning their
sexuality? Queer theory studies these and other
similar questions.
37. Tying things together
• What are your views on modernism and
postmodernism?
• What do you think you have learnt about
race, sexuality and English identity from this
session?