Modern Literature & Culture Research Centre & Gallery

Where: Toronto Metropolitan University
Instructor: Dr. Irene Gammel
Contact: gammel@torontomu.ca

Course Description 

In this course, students study American literatures related to the #MeToo Movement, which has had a profound impact in the United States and beyond, with memoirs and non-fiction books and stories able to effect social change. Works to be read include Susan Choi’s novel Trust Exercise (2019), Ronan Farrow’s Catch and Kill (2020), Chanel Miller’s memoir Know My Name (2019), and Kate Elizabeth Russell’s My Dark Vanessa (2020), which are concerned with harassment and sexual assault, as well as dating, sexuality, and power in contemporary American society. The course also studies some earlier American literatures such as Theodore Dreiser’s The Financier (1912) to explore historical literary representations of the intersections of sex and power and reveal the inscription of predatory behavior in literature. To contextualize this literature, students consider the intersection of sex and power in cultural narratives. In addition to class discussions, this course includes guest lectures by and discussions with #MeToo authors.

Download or view the course syllabus (PDF)

Download or view the Student Colloquium Series (PDF)

Course Goal

In engaged discussion, colloquia, and critical response papers, students demonstrate proficiency in the discipline of English studies by applying advanced research methods, critical thinking, and persuasive communication skills to a specialized topic of study.

 

The Great War in Literature and Visual Culture

MLC Themes

The Great War in Literature and Visual Culture

Amid the unprecedented social change of World War I, women renegotiated their identities by dramatically changing the way they engaged with the arts. But how did they do so? And how did everyday citizens engage with the war?
Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

MLC Themes

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, considered by many to be the mother of Dada, was a daringly innovative poet and an early creator of junk sculpture. “The Baroness” was best known for her sexually charged, often controversial performances.
Modernism in the World

MLC Themes

Modernism in the World

Recent research has departed from the Euro-centric and national view of Modernism to include approaches and methods studying Modernism across national boundaries and across different art forms to include fashion, dance, performance, technology, and visual culture.
Lucy Maud Montgomery

MLC Themes

Lucy Maud Montgomery

L.M. Montgomery is perhaps Canada's most important literary export. She was prolific writer of over 500 short stories and poems, and twenty novels, including the beloved Anne of Green Gables.
Canadian Modernism

MLC Themes

Canadian Modernism

The works of numerous Canadian authors who lived during the modernist era may well constitute the most central and experimental articulation of Canadian modernism in prose, allowing authors to stage cross-cultural, controversial, and even conflicted identities.
Modernist Biography and Life Writing

MLC Themes

Modernist Biography and Life Writing

Life writing, including autobiographical accounts, diaries, letters and testimonials written or told by women and men whose political, literary or philosophical purposes are central to their lives, has become a standard tool for communication and the dissemination of information.