One of the great highlights of this spring’s symposium at Monmouth was Kristin Bluemel’s keynote address. Toni and I, along with our adviser [Nothing to link to. Ahem. (Hey, it worked with Toni! Heh.)], decided to pick Dr. Bluemel for a number of reasons. I can safely say that one of the major highlights of my graduate school career has been the classes I have had with Dr. Bluemel. She has been a valued friend, mentor, and teacher.  Her course on Intermodernism was easily my favorite course at Monmouth.

That said, here are my bullet pointed notes for her keynote address Inventing Intermodernism. I know Toni also took notes, and a few others, so hopefully they will upload their own notes soon.

  • Dr. Bluemel taught a class on Intermodernism in the fall of 2007
  • Before coining the term, the existing categories and vocabulary were not good enough
  • Modernism, postmodernism, “lost generation,” none of this was sufficient and was limiting and damaging
  • Mulk Raj Anand, George Orwell, and Stevie Smith were the most interesting writers
  • So if Dr. Bluemel wasn’t a modernist scholar, then what?
  • Mostly interested in women writers
  • Found Stevie Smith while studying for oral exams
  • Stevie Smith has fictional portrayals of Anand and Orwell
  • Intermodernism, the concept and category, helped to design a new map between modernism and postmodernism
  • Dr. Bluemel next offers a case study of On The Side Of The Angels by Betty Miller
  • Socially conformist
  • Complex psychological effects of World War II
  • Interdisciplinary: The practice of everyday life
  • Place differs from space
  • Place=Street Space=People on it
  • Reading is a particular place
  • Women novels can become space
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