Monthly Archives: November 2023

As an extension of our study of Modernism, you will be exploring Modernism in visual art through a visit to one of the NYC museums listed below.  All of these museums are currently requiring that visitors book their visit ahead of time, so be sure to go to their website and follow instructions to make a reservation before your visit. 

Museum of Modern Art (www.moma.org) 11 W.53rd Street

CUNY students can visit MoMA for free.  When booking your visit, click on the button that says “Reserve Affiliate Tickets”.

Neue Galerie (www.neue galerie.org) 1048 Fifth Avenue

This small museum focuses specifically on Austrian and German art.  It is housed in a beautiful mansion.  Admission is free on the first Friday of every month.  All other times, student admission is $12.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (www.metmuseum.org) 1000 Fifth Avenue

This museum is “pay as you wish” for full-time students in NY and for all NYC residents. There is a suggested price listed for students, but you can choose how much you want to pay for admission. However you may still need to make a reservation to book your visit!

At the museum, you will select one piece of work created between 1890 and the beginning of WWII in 1939 that you believe can be described as modernist.   It might be helpful to keep in mind that impressionism, expressionism, cubism, and surrealism are all streams of modernism. 

On our course blog, post an image of the work (preferably a photograph taken by you at the museum or an image found online) and a post of 400-500 words about the work.  If you consult any sources to complete this assignment, please include that information.  It’s fine to look up basic biographical information, but all description and thoughts about the work you’ve selected should be entirely your own.  Be sure to include the following elements:

–Basic information about the artist.

–A description of work you selected.

–An analysis of how this work reflects the aesthetic preferences associated with Modernism.

–A description of the context in which you encountered the work. 

–An explanation of what drew you to this piece.

–Any questions you have about the work.

***Your work must be posted to our course blog by Wednesday, Dec. 6th. Please retain proof of your visit and either email it to me (by taking a picture) or show it to me in class after your visit.

• The poem opens, “Let us go then, you and I….” Whom do you think the speaker is addressing here?
• What is Prufrock’s relationship to time?  How can you tell?
• Look at the description of the yellow smoke in the second and third stanzas of the poem. What do you make of this description?
• “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons,” laments Prufrock. What do you think this line means?
• Describe the overall mood of the poem. What feelings does it leave you with?
• In the final lines of the poem, the speaker shifts from “I” to “We.” How do we explain this shift?

–How does justice work in the world of “Punishment”?  What happens when one tells the truth? What happens when one lies?

–What do we make of Chandara’s choice to take responsibility for the death of her sister-in-law? Do you see her as a hero or as a victim?

–Explain the significance of the details Tagore offers about the marriage between Chandara and Chidam.  How do they help us understand the events of the story?

–How do you understand the title of the story?

–As she approaches death, Chandara both says, “to hell with him,” and maintains that she loves her husband.  How do you reconcile these two apparently contradictory statements?

The quote is “Ivan Llyich’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.” page 742.
I think that this quote means that Ivan lived a life simple just like everyone else, he did not create experiences, with the same daily routine without leaving the monotonous because he had a good job but he had it for meet the requirements of a society to cover family expenses. He lived to impress others that others were comfortable but he forgot about himself, but at the same time he was someone who only wanted to have a pleasant life but he sought that pleasure at work and in his social life but when he When it came to his wife and children, he saw it in a different way. He had a successful life professionally and in terms of the standards that a man must meet according to society, but he felt empty.

This week, rather than posting a list of questions for you to reflect on, I’d like you to do the following:

Choose a line or passage from the”The Death of Ivan Ilyich” that seems to you to be particularly interesting and important and share it in a comment on this post.

Once you’ve shared your quotation (and identified the page on which it appears), please do the following:

• Provide the context for your quotation.  This means sharing where this passage fits into the larger narrative.  What’s happening when this line appears?
• Share its meaning.  What do you think this quotation means?
• Discuss its significance.  Why do you think this is an important quotation? How is it related to the larger themes of “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”?

Please post your responses no later than Wednesday, November 8th at 2 pm.

What role does class play in Hedda Gabler?

The reader may understand from Hedda’s ignorance that social position does not have the power that society believes it has. Hedda tries to control and dominate people on her own terms of the moment, presumably to alleviate the terrible monotony of her life, and therefore causes others to suffer for no other reason than that she may.

Explain the significance of the text’s subtitle, “A Story of Wall Street”?

The text of Herman Melville’s short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener” is given a subtitle whose significance most readers will miss. When you look first at the title, you could suppose that the author included the subtitle to enlighten readers about the setting of the short story. Although this is one of the reasons behind the subtitle, there is much more to it than meets the eye. The subtitle uses the cost of going up capitalist culture, but it also speaks to the detention that walls provide.