Make it New - Literary Modernism
Undergraduate
LTU-ENG3RSM 2026Course information for 2026 intake View information for 2025 course intake
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Enrol by
- 5 July 2026
- Entry requirements
- Prior study needed
- Duration
- 12 weeks
- Price from
- $592
- Upfront cost
- $0
- Loan available
- HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP available
Make it New - Literary Modernism
About this subject
On successful completion you will be able to:
- Demonstrate effective and critical essay writing skills
- Apply research skills appropriate to the field.
- Evaluate and apply key terms and concepts in modernist studies and literary studies more broadly.
- Describe and discuss the literary, cultural and historical contexts of the prescribed texts.
- Defining Modernism
- Modernist Works
- Modernism in its Time
- European Modernism
- North American Modernism
- Modernism in Art, Performance and Music
- Trends in Modernist Scholarship
- Modernist Contexts
Early 20th-century writers produced some of the most innovative and exciting literary works in English. In this subject, we’ll examine just why modernists around the world declared it was time to reject tradition and “make it new!” Together we’ll explore their revolutionary fictions and manifestos, sound poems, experimental plays and ground-breaking films. Moving between centres of modernist writing, we’ll travel to London, Zurich, Paris, Berlin and New York, encountering key literary figures and artistic groups who all tried to break new ground in different ways. We’ll treat modernism as an umbrella term for a multitude of literary responses to modern life – varied, contradictory and contested – and introduce central concepts used in modernist studies. Our examination will include postcolonial perspectives and gender politics, our own academic practices and the literary canon. We’ll explore the creative tensions between tradition and experiment, discuss high- and middlebrow reading pleasures and discover the great beauty and fun to be found amongst amidst the perceived 'difficulty' of modernist writing. Throughout the subject, we will read modernist writing in the context of political & cultural events, as well as contemporary developments in art, film and music. This is a level 3 subject. Please consider the subject pre-requisites before enrolling.
- Workbook (1000 word equiv) This assessment will be focused on central concepts and/or literary texts in the historical contexts of the subject and will be submitted in two parts. (25%)
- Workshop Exercise (1000 word equivalent) This assessment will be focused on central concepts and/or literary texts in the historical contexts of the subject. (25%)
- Final Essay (2000 words) Research essay in response to a set or self-chosen question. (50%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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Entry requirements
Others
Prerequisites: Students must have completed 60 credit points of Level two subjects.
Additional requirements
No additional requirements
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.
What to study next?
Once you’ve completed this subject it can be credited towards one of the following courses
Undergraduate
LAT-ART-DEGUndergraduate
LAT-BUS-DEGUndergraduate
LAT-HSC-DEGBachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Health Sciences
Undergraduate
LAT-AHS-DEGBachelor of Psychological Science
Undergraduate
LAT-PYS-DEGBachelor of Information Technology
Undergraduate
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