Proceedings of Modern, Fall 2023, taught by James Bloom.

In 1983, U.S. Poet Laureate-to-be W.S. Merwin asked his readers, “what is modern?”: a question that has remained unanswered but repeatedly asked over the course of the past three centuries. Crossing both genre boundaries and national boundaries, this seminar revisited this question by examining writing by both celebrated and neglected modern (as well as “modernist”) writers and address encompassing questions about literary generations and cultural “movements.”