Innovation is a key feature of modernism as a literary movement. We see innovation in form—for example, stream-of-consciousness narration—as well as innovation in ideas. During the modernist period, the world saw sweeping social, scientific, and technological advancements, and writers were keen on examining the human experience from all possible angles. Pick one author and discuss some of the ways in which their work pushed boundaries. You will need to support your points with examples. I would recommend concentrating on either form or ideas, though you are welcome to address how form contributes to meaning. Authors from which you can choose include Virginia Woolf, W. B. Yeats, Rainer Maria Rilke, T. S. Eliot, or Jorge Luis Borges.
2. Of course, not everything that happened during the modernist period was an “advancement.” The era was also filled with death and destruction, which had a deleterious effect on the collective Western consciousness. Western civilization experienced a period of crisis generated from within. This is captured in the work of T. S. Eliot. What are some of the problems in Western society that Eliot shines a light on? Does he present any kind of solution? You can discuss either work that we read, though The Waste Land might prove to be more fertile ground.
3. If the first half of the 20th century was marked by great progress alongside great destruction, the second half of the 20th century was marked by a different kind of reckoning. A number of countries in Europe had to come to terms with the harm they had wrought around the world through colonization, dispossessing peoples of their lands, disrupting cultures and instituting their own forms of governance, and often exploiting native populations and the environment. Many of the problems created by colonization have not yet been satisfactorily solved. What are some of the issues raised by our authors in the countries on which they focus? Choose one author and discuss their work. Possibilities include Doris Lessing, Albert Camus, Seamus Heaney, and Salman Rushdie. (We can include Heaney here because, in many ways, Ireland is Britain’s first colony.)
4. How was the text “The Second Coming” By Yeats, the most intellectually and why? You need to develop reasons and go into detail. Demonstrate how much you have thought about the text.
