As a critical introduction to cultural contexts and ideological tensions in the modern world, this interdisciplinary course examines the intersections of literature, the arts, philosophy, and politics to investigate what it means to be modern and how the modern era has reshaped and redefined the human experience. The course will compare literary, visual, and aural texts from different global traditions to de-link the concept of the modern from “the West” in its investigation of how societies have negotiated, registered, and expressed the experience of modernity.