Comparative Culture
1. 履修条件・注意事項 = Requirements for registration
Good English and an interest in discussion.
2. 授業の目的 = Course purpose
This course introduces students to Literary Modernism. As works such as those by Freud,Darwin, Marx, and Nietzsche began to change the world’s ideas in the 19th Century, worksof literature around the world underwent a great transformation. Writers such as Woolf, Eliot,Joyce, and Kafka presented revolutionary ideas about aesthetics, creativity, gender, culture
and society. Through readings of these and other authors, students will compare and contrast
the cultural changes that took place. Although literature is the main focus we will also
explore Modernism in other media. All reading and discussion will be conducted in English.
Students are welcome to consult translated texts in their original language, but the version
used for class discussion will be in English. At the end of this course, students will have athorough understanding of multiple approaches to literary modernism, and experience ofclose reading of a multitude of texts.
3. 授業の内容・方法 = Content
1. Introduction
2. Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (1899) (extracts).
3. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles, The Communist Manifesto (1848) (extracts) and CharlesDarwin, The Origin of the Species (1859) (extracts).
4. Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883–5) (extracts).
5. Knut Hamsun, Hunger (1890).
6. Ezra Pound, Make It New (1934) (extracts) and Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own(1929) (extracts).
7. T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922).
8. André Breton, The Surrealist Manifesto (1924) (extracts).
9. Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis (1915).
10. James Joyce, Ulysses (1922) (extracts).
11. William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (1929) (extracts).
12. Samuel Beckett, Endgame (1957).
13. Susan Friedman, Planetary Modernisms: Provocations on Modernity Across Time (2015)(extracts).
14. Jessica Pressman, Digital Modernism (2013) (extracts).
15. Conclusion.
4. 教科書・テキスト = Textbooks
All reading will be provided. All reading will be in English. In cases in which texts wereoriginally written in different languages, we will be reading English translations. However,students are welcome to read these texts in their original language if they wish.
5. 参考書 = References

Additional useful texts (note: this is not compulsory reading):Levenson, M. (Ed.). (1999). The Cambridge Companion to Modernism (Cambridge
Companions to Literature). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6. 受講生の自宅学習 = Preparation and Review
Students are advised to acquaint themselves with the set texts.
7. 成績評価の方法と基準 = Evaluation
Assessment will be via a presentation where students lead discussion (20%) and two written
assignments – a series of short answer responses (30%) and a final comparative essay(written in English) (40%). Students will also be required to participate on-line (10%).
Students are expected to write using correct English, and display a deep knowledge of thetheory and texts covered in class.
8. 連絡方法 = Contact information
If you have any questions please email Dr. David Thomas Henry Wright (AssociateProfessor, Graduate School of Humanities, Nagoya University) on
davidthwright@gmail.com. This outline may be subject to change.