COML 4221

COML 4221

Course information provided by the 2019-2020 Catalog.

What is "modern"? What is "primitive"? Through the lens of contemporary debates, this course will examine the complex conjuncture of art, literature, anthropology and colonial racism in the early decades of the twentieth century, from Cubist painting to surrealism. Of central concern will be the figure of the "fetish" in its artifactual, economic and psychic dimensions and also the richly paradoxical position of artists and thinkers of color caught in the nexus of "primitivism" and "modernism."  Authors may include Pablo Picasso, Josephine Baker, Lydia Cabrera, Claude McKay, Lucien Levy-Bruhl, James Clifford, Sigmund Freud, Joseph Conrad, Langston Hughes, Karl Marx, André Breton, Pierre Mabille, Wifredo Lam, Leopold Sédar Senghor.


Permission Note Enrollment preference given to: Comparative Literature majors. Enrollment limited to: 15 undergraduate students.

Distribution Category (LA-AS)

When Offered Fall.

Satisfies Requirement Core Course for Comparative Literature majors.

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session. 

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 17618 COML 4221   SEM 101

  • Instruction Mode: In Person