Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism

by Gere, Cathy

• ISBN13: 9780226289533
• ISBN10: 0226289532
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-05-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

In the spring of 1900, British archaeologist Arthur Evans began to excavate the palace of Knossos on Crete, bringing ancient Greek legends to life just as a new century dawned amid far-reaching questions about human history, art, and culture. Over the next three decades, Evans engaged in an unprecedented reconstruction project, creating a complex of concrete buildings on the site that owed at least as much to modernist architecture as they did to Bronze Age remains. In the process, he fired the imaginations of a whole generation of intellectuals and artists, whose work would drive movements as disparate as fascism and pacifism, feminism and psychoanalysis. WithKnossos and the Prophets of Modernism, Cathy Gere relates the fascinating story of Evans's excavation and its long-term effects on Western culture. Gere shows how Evans's often-fanciful account of ancient Minoan society captivated a generation riven by serious doubts about the fundamental values of European civilization. After the First World War left the Enlightenment dream in tatters, the lost paradise that Evans offered in the concrete labyrinthpacifist and matriarchal, pagan and cosmicseemed to offer a new way forward for writers, artists, and thinkers such as Freud, James Joyce, Georgio de Chirico, Robert Graves, Hilda Doolittle, all of whom emerge as forceful characters in Gere's account. Assembling a brilliant, talented, and eccentric cast at a moment of tremendous intellectual vitality and wrenching change, Cathy Gere paints an unforgettable portrait of the age of concrete and the birth of modernism.

Author Biography

Cathy Gere is assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego, and the author of The Tomb of Agamemnon.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The Birth of Tragedy, 1822-1897	p. 17
An Archaeology of Heroes	p. 18
A Prophecy of Tragedy	p. 27
Fascism's Greek Prehistory	p. 38
What Ariadne Is	p. 44
Stand-Up Tragedy, 1851-1899	p. 49
The Dry Smell of Time	p. 50
Eastern Questions	p. 56
The Road to the Labyrinth	p. 63
Greek Defeat	p. 68
Reconstructing the Nation	p. 71
Ariadne's Lament, 1900-1913	p. 75
Ariadne's Throne	p. 76
The Great Cretan Mother	p. 79
Ariadne's Dancing Floor	p. 81
The Making of a Goddess	p. 86
The Villa Ariadne	p. 91
Cretan Victory	p. 95
Ariadne in Chirico City	p. 98
The Concrete Labyrinth, 1914-1935	p. 105
The Throne Room Complex	p. 106
Captain of the Blacks	p. 111
Court Ladies	p. 117
Priest-King and Cowgirls	p. 119
Lost Boys	p. 123
The Lady of Sports	p. 129
The Magic Ring	p. 132
The Psyche Element	p. 135
Little Souls	p. 137
Psyche's Labyrinth, 1919-1941	p. 141
Mythical Method	p. 142
The Decline of Crete	p. 147
Achilles' Shield	p. 150
Freudian Archaeology	p. 153
Psyche's Muse	p. 160
Crete on the Couch	p. 164
The Battle of Crete	p. 171
The Rebirth of Comedy, 1942-1949	p. 177
Psyche Reborn	p. 178
Paradise before Eve	p. 186
Psyche Rewritten	p. 189
The Consort	p. 194
New Crete	p. 200
The Birth of Farce, 1950-2000	p. 209
Romantic Revivals	p. 210
The White Goddess	p. 215
Black Athena	p. 217
The Road Back to War	p. 220
Conclusion	p. 227
Notes	p. 235
Bibliography	p. 261
Index	p. 271
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