Modernism and Theory boldly asks what – if any – role theory has to play in the new modernist studies. Separated into three sections, each with a clear introduction, this collection of new essays from leading critics outlines ongoing debates on the nature of modernist culture.
This collection
- examines aesthetic and methodological links between modernist literature and theory.
- addresses questions of the importance of theory to our understanding of ‘modernism’ and modernism as a literary category.
- considers intersections of modernism and theory within ethics, ecocriticism and the avant-garde.
Concluding with an afterword from Fredric Jameson, the book makes use of an innovative dialogic format, offering a direct and engaging experience of the current debate in modernist studies.
Contributors include: Charles F. Altieri, C.D. Blanton, Ian Buchanan, Pamela Caughie, Melba Cuddy-Keane, Thomas S. Davis, Oleg Gelikman, Jane Goldman, Ben Highmore, Fredric Jameson, Martin Jay, Bonnie Kime Scott, Neil Levi, Anneleen Masschelein, Scott McCracken, Andrew John Miller, Stephen Ross, Roger Rothman, Morag Shiach, Susan Stanford Friedman, Allan Stoekl, Hilary Thompson and Glenn Willmott.
Introduction: The Missing Link - Stephen Ross Part One – The Modernism of Theory: Concrete Connections Rip the Veil of the Old Vision Across, and Walk Through the Rent: Thinking Through Affect in D. H. Lawrence and Deleuze and Guattari - Anneleen Masschelein Deleuze and His Sources - Ian Buchanan Modernism, Postmodernism, and the Two Sublimes of Surrealism - Roger Rothman The Two Sublimes, Fourth Time Around - Allan Stoekl What true project has been lost?’ Modern Art and Henri Lefebvre’s Critique of Everyday Life - Thomas S. Davis Disdained Everyday Fields (A Response to T. Davis) - Ben Highmore Time and Its Countermeasures: Modern Messianisms in Woolf, Benjamin, and Agamben - Hilary Thompson Time’s Exception: A Response to Hilary Thompson - Pamela Caughie Part Two – The Theory of Modernism: Abstract Affiliations Late Modernist Form in the Postmodern Period - Neil Levi In the Time of Theory, The Timeliness of Modernism - Glenn Willmott Invisible Times: Modernism as Ruptural Unity - C. D. Blanton ‘More than a hint of desperation’: Modernism, Theory and Rupture - Morag Shiach The Friendliness of Fate: Modernism and the Re-Orientation of Aesthetics - Oleg Gelikman What’s New? On Gelikman on Adorno and the Modernist Aesthetics of Novelty - Martin Jay Fables of Progression: Modernism, Modernity, Narrative - Andrew John Miller Modernism and the Moment of Defeat: A Response to Miller - Scott McCracken Part Three – Forum Aesthetics - Charles Altieri Ethics - Melba Cuddy-Keane Green - Bonnie Kime Scott Theory - Susan Stanford Friedman Branding - Jennifer Wicke Avant-garde - Jane Goldman Afterword - Fredric Jameson
Biography
Stephen Ross