Modernism

by Childs, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780415196482
• ISBN10: 0415196485
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-08-08
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Summary

With its battle cry of 'Make it New', the modernist movement shook the foundations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century literary establishment. Modernism offers an outstanding analysis of this literary and cultural revolution.Peter Childs' immensely readable account:* details the origins of the modernist movement and the influence of thinkers such as Darwin, Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, Saussure and Einstein* explores the radical changes which occurred in the literature, drama, art and film of the period* traces 'modernism at work' in the writing of Joyce, Woolf, Mansfield, Forster, Yeats, Ford, Eliot, Conrad, Beckett and other key literary figures* reflects upon the shift from modernism to postmodernism.Engaging, lucid and critically informed, this book takes the reader from the basics to an advanced understanding of one of the most important cultural movements of the last hundred years.

Table of Contents

Series Editor's Preface	ix
Acknowledgements	xi
Introduction	1	(1)
Answering the Question: What is Modernism?	1	(3)
Plunging In	4	(8)
Words, Words, Words: Modern, Modernism, Modernity	12	(6)
Periods, Genres, Models	18	(8)
Interpreting and Changing	26	(46)
Marx (1818--83)	27	(8)
Darwin (1809--82)	35	(12)
Freud (1856--1939)	47	(7)
Nietzsche (1844--1900)	54	(7)
Saussure (1857--1913)	61	(4)
Einstein (1879--1955)	65	(7)
Genres, Art and Film	72	(57)
Novel	73	(11)
Short Story	84	(10)
Poetry	94	(8)
Drama	102	(6)
Art Movements	108	(15)
Film	123	(6)
Texts, Contexts, Intertexts	129	(79)
`The Struggle of Becoming': Freedom and Gender	130	(15)
`It Seems to Me I Am Trying to Tell You a Dream': Epistemology and Narration	145	(16)
`These Fragments I Have Shored Against My Ruins': Identity and War	161	(25)
`History is a Nightmare': Symbolism and Language	186	(22)
Glossary	208	(5)
Bibliography	213	(7)
Index	220