Teaching Strategies For

THE AGE OF ANXIETY AND BEYOND

1945–

Teaching Strategies and Suggestions

Because of the press of time, the instructor often must either omit or condense material at the end of the term. The tendency, therefore, is to rush through the last class lectures without much thought to the teaching model. Yet, these last lectures sometimes demand the most care in determining teaching strategies. The instructor should not fall into the trap of simply giving an encyclopedic listing of events and names just to “cover” the material in the final chapter. A minimum of three lectures should be scheduled for the last chapter.

Since the time frame in Chapter 21 is approximately fifty years, the instructor need not begin with the standard Historical Overview but can open the final set of lectures regarding Late Modernism and Post-Modernism with either the Spirit of the Age or the Comparison/Contrast approach. The Patterns of Change model and/or the Diffusion model can then be used effectively with two major topics: first, the distinctions between Late Modernism and Post-Modernism, and second, the globalization of bad culture, particularly under Post-Modernism. In the closing lecture, the instructor can use the Reflections/Connections approach to make some educated guesses about the future of the emerging global culture. Such remarks must, of necessity, be guarded and can touch on such matters as impending directions of political, social, and economic trends; the projected influence of such trends on intellectual, literary, and artistic developments; and finally, the continuing relationship between the world today and the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt where Western civilization arose almost 5,000 years ago.

Lecture Outline

I. Characteristics of the Age of Anxiety and Beyond:

Late Modernism and Post-Modernism

II.From a European to a World Civilization

A.The era of the superpowers, 1945–1970

1.Postwar recovery and the new world order

a)Divisions and alliances in Western Europe

and around the globe

b)The Soviet Union

c)The United States

2.The cold war

a)Division of East and West in Europe

b)Spreads to other parts of world

c)Military conflicts and international tensions

3.Emergence of the Third World

a)The end of colonialism

b)New states and new economic systems

B. Toward a new global order, 1970–1994

1. National issues and international realignment

a)Economic trends and crises

b)Domestic challenges and changes

in the United States and Soviet Union

2. Problems with a global dimension

a)Exploding populations

b)Growing environmental issues

C. The post-cold war world

1. The emergence of the United States as the only superpower

a)Survey of other global power

b)Resurgence of late-nineteenth-century trends:

nationalism and ethnic violence

c)The global economy and regional economic alliances

2. Post-Modernism and American culture

III. The End of Modernism and the Birth of Post-Modernism

A.Philosophical, political, and social thought

1. Existentialism

2. Structuralism

3. Feminism

4. Black consciousness movement

B. Science and technology

1. Communications, computers, and the Internet

2. Medical discoveries

3. Advances in the biological sciences

C. The literature of Late Modernism: fiction, poetry, and drama

1. Existentialist writings

a)Sartre

b)Camus

2. Black literature

a)Wright

b)Baldwin

3.The novel and other literary forms

a)Mailer

b)Lessing

c)Solzhenitsyn

d)Thomas

e)Ginsberg

f)Beckett

D.The literature of Post-Modernism

1. Latin American writers

a)Borges

b)García Márquez

2. Eastern European writers—Milan Kundera

3. African American writers

a)Walker

b)Morrison

4.Chinese-American writer—Maxine Hong Kingston

E. Late Modernism and the arts

1. Painting

a)Pollock

b)Rothko

c)Frankenthaler

d)Johns

e)Rauschenberg

f)Warhol

2. Sculpture

a)Smith

b)Nevelson

c)Segal

3. Architecture—Mies van der Rohe

F.Post-Modernism and the arts

1.Painting

a)Pearlstein

b)Kiefer

c)Coe

d)Blake

e)Stella

2.Sculpture

a)De Andrea

b)Whiteread

3.Installation art

a)Definition

b)Hamilton

4.Video art

a)Definition

b)Paik

5.Architecture

a)Venturi

b)Rogers and Piano

c)Johnson

d)Gehry

G.Late Modern and Post-Modern music

1.Stravinsky

2.Penderecki

3.Cage

4.Glass

5.Wilson

6.Adams

H.Performance art

1.Anderson

2.Sherman

I.Mass culture

1.More technology and communication

2.Popular music

IV. A Summing Up

NON-

WESTERN EVENTS

1945–

345

In Africa, the transformation

of Europe’s African

colonies into independent

states, ruled by Africans,

1950–1970; riots in

Johannesburg against

apartheid, 1950;

Organization of African

Unity (OAS), 1963; in

Ghana, Africa’s best-known

woman writer, Ama Ata

Aidoo, Our Sister Killjoy,

a novel, 1977; in Ivory

Coast, the opening of Our

Lady of Peace, the tallest

church in Christendom,

Fakhoury and modeled

after St. Peter’s in Rome,

1989; in Kenya, A Grain

of Wheat, a novel by

Ngugi wa Thiong, 1967;

in Lagos, Antonio Olinto,

The Water House, 1981; the

woman writer Buchi

Emecheta, The Rape of

Shavi, a novel, 1986; in

Nigeria, People of the City,

a novel by Cyprian

Ekwenski, 1954; Things

Fall Apart, a novel by

Chinua Achebe, 1958;

Tutuola, b. 1920,

storyteller, Palm Wine

Drinkard, 1952; the woman

writer, Zaynab Alkali,

The Stillborn, a novel,

1984; Wole Soyinka, Nobel

Prize for literature, 1986;

in Senegal, “Chaka,” a

poem by Leopold Sedar

Senghor, 1956; O Pays, Mon

Beau Peuple, and Xala,

novels by Sembene

Ousmane, 1957 and 1976,

respectively; in South

Africa, Sarafina, a stage

musical by Mbongeni

Ngema, 1987; The

Wanderers, a novel by

Es’kia Mphahelele, 1971;

Fugard, Kani, Ntshona

write plays on treatment

of blacks; Nadine

Gordimer, Nobel Prize for

literature, 1991; Albert John

Luthuli, Nobel Peace Prize,

1960; Bishop Desmond

Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize,

1984; F. W. de Klerk and

Nelson Mandela, Nobel

Peace Prize, 1993

In Caribbean, in Cuba,

Paradise, a novel by José

Lezama Lima, 1966; in

Jamaica, “I Shot the

Sheriff,” a popular song

by reggae composer-

performer, Robert Nesta

“Bob” Marley, 1973; in St.

Lucia, Omeros, an epic

poem modeled on Homer,

by Derek Walcatt, 1990;

Derek Walcott, Nobel

Prize for literature, 1992;

in Trinidad, the novelist

V. S. Naipaul, b. 1932,

author of the novel A

House for Mr. Biswas, 1961

In Central America, in Costa

Rica, The President, a novel

by Miguel Asturias, 1946;

Oscar Arias Sanchez,

Nobel Peace Prize, 1987;

in Guatemala, Rigoberta

Menchu, Nobel Peace

Prize, 1992

In China, republic, 1912–1949;

civil war with Communists

victorious; Nationalists flee

to Taiwan after defeat;

Communist government

led by Mao Zedong, 1949–

1976; Great Leap Forward

virtually eliminated

houseflies, mosquitoes,

rats, and bedbugs

over wide areas, 1957;

culturalrevolution

of the 1960s had

disastrous impact on

traditional Chinese culture;

“Quotations of Chairman

Mao,” 1966; China

exploded a hydrogen

bomb, 1967; rapprochement

with United States, 1971;

ascendancy of Deng

Xiaoping, a pragmatic

leader, 1976–1989;

economic reform and

political retrenchment

since about 1978;

Beijing’s Fragrant Hills

Hotel, designed by

Chinese-American I. M.

Pei opens, 1982; Massacre

of Tiananmen Square,

Beijing, 1989; resurgence

of hard-liners, 1989–

In Himalaya region, Malla

dynasty, 1768–present;

Gurkhali-style architecture,

mixing archaic with French

and Italian influence; in

Tibet, Lamaistic state, about

1450 to 1950s, when

Chinese rule began; the

Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace

Prize, 1989

In Hong Kong, the Bank of

China Building, designed

by the Chinese American

I. M. Pei, 1989; transfer of

Hong Kong to China,

July 1, 1997

In India, end of British raj,

1947; partition of India

into modern countries of

India and Pakistan (East

and West); war between

the two Pakistans leads

to a separation into two

states, Pakistan and

Bangladesh, 1971; the age-

old “untouchability” caste

(15 percent of the

population) outlawed,

though vestiges remain,

1946; The Apu Trilogy,

films by Satyajit Ray,

1954-1958; The Middleman and