Modernism: Evolution of an Idea

(Hardback)

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What exactly is 'modernism' And how has the critical definition of the word changed Exploring shifting understandings of modernism from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day, this is a concise critical history of modernist criticism. Taking an accessible chronological approach, Modernism: Evolution of An Idea covers such topics as: Early debates, from Calinescu's Five Faces of Modernity to The New Age magazine and writer-critics such as T.S. Eliot and Cyril Connolly New Criticism and the forming of the modernist canon The rise of Theory - from Derrida and Houston Baker to the Frankfurt School New modernist studies and contemporary approaches: from international modernisms to engagements with race, sexuality and gender With annotated guides to further reading throughout and a companion website with additional resources, this is an essential survey for students and scholars working in modernist studies at all levels.

Reviews

"An ambitious project ... tracing the evolution of the term "modernism" from a cultural buzzword to a consolidated ... signifier of a particular set of artistic conventions and works ... It would not be surprisingto see this study on any modernist's bookshelf." - Make It New (The Ezra Pound Society)

"An excellent account of the development of the idea of Modernism, with a useful glossary and a very good critical bibliography." - Ian Patterson, University of Cambridge, UK

"Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers." - CHOICE

"The writers display deep and wide expertise as they move nimbly over more than a century's worth of fraught material. They offer students and colleagues a thorough overview of the debates that have constituted the field they call "modernist studies."" - boundary 2

"Sean Latham and Gayle Rogers offer a perfectly timed history ... that will be of immediate interest to anyone who studies modernism and twentieth-century literary history ... They offer a succinct, often fascinating account of how and why it has become impossible to offer a tidy definition of modernism ... The picture that emerges from Latham and Rogers's narrative is one of incredible complexity and variety ... With this condensed, lucid, compelling history, Latham and Rogers enable their readers ... to learn what has been accomplished in the last century of interrogating modernism and then discover what tasks remain. Because of the significant critical generosity that underwrites this study, we can conclude, with Pound, Latham, and Rogers, that there is still much to do." - James Joyce Quarterly

Author Bio

Sean Latham is Professor and Pauline Walter Chair of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Tulsa, USA. He is a former President of the Modernist Studies Association, current Editor of the James Joyce Quarterly and Co-Directory of the Modernist Journals Project (http://dl.lib.brown.edu/mjp/). His many publications include The Art of Scandal: Modernism, Libel Law and the Roman a Clef (OUP, 2009) and, as Editor, The Cambridge Companion to Ulysses (CUP, 2013). Gayle Rogers is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. He is the author of Modernism and the New Spain: Britain, Cosmopolitan Europe and Literary History (OUP, 2012).