THIRD PAPER ASSIGNMENT:
The third paper for Writing in the Disciplines must be 7-8 full pages, double-spaced, of standard margins and type size.

In each of the essays on modern literary or art movements that we have read for this class, a historicist view has been taken that identifies Modernism and Modernist practitioners (of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries) as radically different from any kind of movement that preceded it.  Whether in Edmund Wilson’s essay on the Symbolists, Malcolm Bradbury’s and James McFarlane’s essay on the Modernists, or Renato Poggioli’s essay on the Avant-Garde, a bold but perhaps debatable argument is made that the aesthetic movements of the last century stand apart as evidence of a cultural crisis that existed at no other time in Western history.   In your essay, I want you to select two poets or artists (or a combination) discussed in any of these essays and to write a research paper explaining what is so radically new about their work.  You are expected to take a considerable initiative in this essay and develop a thesis that is of particular interest to you as a scholar of Modernism and modern cultural developments.  You may also, if you choose, make connections with reputable contemporary writers or artists (i.e., postmillennials) for whom such modernist works have relevance.

You must use at least three to four secondary sources and you must discuss at least two of each writer’s or artist’s works.  Your essay MUST include an annotated bibliography that describes each source that you use.  Failure to identify the required sources will automatically result in a reduced grade.  You should try to develop an argument that is consistent and well documented.  Cite all sources according to MLA or Chicago Manual of Style.