Making No Apologies for Difficulty: Putting Modernist Form at the Center of Classroom Discussions

In this paper, I recount my experiences teaching an undergraduate seminar on non-linear modernist narratives and discuss the ways in which such a framework makes it possible both to introduce students to trademark characteristics of modernism and to subject those elements to critique. Putting form at the center of a modernism course also provides an opening into larger issues of literary interpretation; students have an opportunity to consider critically the novelistic conventions that are defamiliarized, criticized, and skirted by modernists. Emphasis on form leads to important conversations regarding modernists’ relations with other media as well, particularly visual art and popular magazines. I draw on recent studies in psychology and pedagogy to consider the ways in which modernist difficulty offers initial roadblocks for new readers, but then improves readers’ engagement and memory over the long term.