Course
Course 7.5 credits • ILHB24
Teaching – spring semester 2021
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to affect our education and most of the teaching must take place completely digitally until further notice. Pay attention to the information in the schedule and/or in Canvas – the information is continuously adjusted based on current decisions and recommendations.
Modernism and postmodernism are well-known concepts characterizing the period from 1789 to the present. Modernism in general includes the ideas behind empirical sciences, anti-idealistic philosophy, liberal democracy, secularism and belief in reason that has emerged since the Enlightenment. Conventionally, modernism and postmodernism are separated into scientific and artistic enterprises.
This course focuses on the cognitive links between what Foucault called the “human sciences” and aesthetic modernism in the arts including literary criticism. In the dynamic culture of modernism a move towards greater subjectivity was a common feature, however in the human sciences it was modified by a devotion to rationality and scientific progress. In its first phase postmodernism opposed modernism and regarded self and culture as linguistic constructs. Currently a move towards universalism, tradition and religion is articulated among thinkers such as Giorgio Agamben and Slavoj i ek.
The course views modernism and postmodernism primarily as modes of thinking that affirm the power of human beings to create, improve and remake their environment with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and art and thus reshape the world. These modes of thinking and the ideas that constitute them are presented in a historical context.
Study period:
spring semester 2021
Type of education:
only online
Study period:
2021-05-03 – 2021-06-04
Language of instruction:
English
Eligibility:
General requirements for university studies in Sweden
Type of studies:
full time,
evening
Application code:
LU-E5611
Type of studies:
full time,
distance course
Application code:
LU-71231
Course coordinator:
Victoria Höög