About this course: This course examines how the idea of "the modern" develops at the end of the 18th century in European philosophy and literature, and how being modern (or progressive, or hip) became one of the crucial criteria for understanding and evaluating cultural change. Are we still in modernity, or have we moved beyond the modern to the postmodern?
Created by: Wesleyan University
Taught by: Michael Roth
| Commitment | 3-5 hours/week |
| Language | English |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Course Pages
“The Modern and the Postmodern Part I” covers the first half of a full semester course on European history, literature and philosophy. We begin with Immanuel Kant and Jean Jacques Rousseau and conclude with Friedrich Nietzsche and Charles Baudelaire and a ver...
2 readings
Philosophy, Modernity, and Intellectual History
Why is philosophy relevant to modernity?
Through reading Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant, we examine philosophy as a reflection on modernity and progress.
2 videos, 1 reading
WEEK 2
What is Enlightenment?
Using Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, we study how the pursuit of knowledge is related to the politics of inequality.
4 videos, 1 reading
WEEK 3
From Enlightenment to Revolution
Karl Marx is our focus here as we move from a consideration of ideas to a confrontation with alienation, class struggle and revolution.
5 videos, 1 reading
Graded: First Writing Assignment
WEEK 4
Modernism and Art for Art's Sake
We read Flaubert’s Madame Bovary as a reflection on convention, stupidity and art in the wake of the failures of mid-19th century revolution.
4 videos, 1 reading
Graded: Second Writing Assignment
WEEK 5
Re-imagining the World
We situate Charles Darwin’s great achievement in the context of the English Enlightenment traditions and reimaging the world without a goal for change.
4 videos, 1 reading
WEEK 6
From Struggle to Intensity
Through an examination of Charles Baudelaire and Friedrich Nietzsche, we focus on an aesthetic embrace of intensity instead of search for the “really real.”
6 videos, 1 reading
Graded: Third Writing Assignment
WEEK 7
Paintings
A Quick Survey of how advanced painting moved toward a consideration of the surface of the canvas and away from a quest for the most realistic representation of the world.
2 videos
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Wesleyan University
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