Precarious Perceptions 1900-1930: Modernist Literature, Film and Photography

Module coordinator: Prof Anne Fuchs

Teaching arrangements: Trimester 2, Wednesdays 2-4pm (option)

Photography, the telephone, film, and the gramophone – these are some of the pivotal technological innovations in the second machine age, which disrupted established notions of coherence, context and familiarity in favour of the not-yet-seen and the not-yet-heard. Engaging with this revolution of perception in the period from 1900 to 1930, this module explores the ‘senses of modernism’ in essays, literature, photography and film. We will ask how social commentators, writers, and artists addressed the urgent question whether and how the modern subject would cope with the rate of change and the experience of social and technological acceleration.  We will also discuss contemporary debates about human attention and distraction and their aesthetic manifestation in short prose, novellas, modernist novels, and silent film. All texts will be discussed in English translation. Readers of German are encouraged to use the German originals.