Modern Literature & Culture Research Centre & Gallery

Where: Toronto Metropolitan University
Instructor: Dr. Irene Gammel
Contact: gammel@torontomu.ca

Course Description

How does fashion and clothing figure in modern cultural stories of identity? This course explores the interrelationship between fashion, literature, and modern culture. Students examine how fashion—beyond mere clothing—interacts with and influences narrative structures, character development, and thematic expressions in literature. Through literary, cultural, and theoretical texts from the 20th century to contemporary works, students discover how sartorial choices serve as both thematic elements and storytelling tools, ultimately fashioning radical styles and modern culture. Readings include fashion theories, criticism, fiction, and personal writings. In addition to class discussions, this course also features guest lectures by discussions with eminent scholars in the fields of fashion and literature. 

Course Delivery and Goals

Fashion, Modernity, Storytelling is a seminar-style course focused on developing advanced research, analytical and writing skills through a focused exploration of the intersections of fashion, literature and culture. The course is experiental inviting students to network with leading scholars and writers in the field. 

The Great War in Literature and Visual Culture

MLC Themes

The Great War in Literature and Visual Culture

Amid the unprecedented social change of World War I, women renegotiated their identities by dramatically changing the way they engaged with the arts. But how did they do so? And how did everyday citizens engage with the war?
Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

MLC Themes

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, considered by many to be the mother of Dada, was a daringly innovative poet and an early creator of junk sculpture. “The Baroness” was best known for her sexually charged, often controversial performances.
Modernism in the World

MLC Themes

Modernism in the World

Recent research has departed from the Euro-centric and national view of Modernism to include approaches and methods studying Modernism across national boundaries and across different art forms to include fashion, dance, performance, technology, and visual culture.
Lucy Maud Montgomery

MLC Themes

Lucy Maud Montgomery

L.M. Montgomery is perhaps Canada's most important literary export. She was prolific writer of over 500 short stories and poems, and twenty novels, including the beloved Anne of Green Gables.
Canadian Modernism

MLC Themes

Canadian Modernism

The works of numerous Canadian authors who lived during the modernist era may well constitute the most central and experimental articulation of Canadian modernism in prose, allowing authors to stage cross-cultural, controversial, and even conflicted identities.
Modernist Biography and Life Writing

MLC Themes

Modernist Biography and Life Writing

Life writing, including autobiographical accounts, diaries, letters and testimonials written or told by women and men whose political, literary or philosophical purposes are central to their lives, has become a standard tool for communication and the dissemination of information.