1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910452059403321

Autore

Scholes Robert <1929-2016.>

Titolo

Paradoxy of modernism [[electronic resource] /] / Robert Scholes

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven [Conn.], : Yale University Press, c2006

ISBN

1-281-72918-3

9786611729189

0-300-12884-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (1 online resource (xiv, 295 p.) ) : ill

Disciplina

700/.4112

Soggetti

Modernism (Art)

Modernism (Literature)

Arts, Modern - 20th century

Criticism - History - 20th century

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [281]-284) and index.

Nota di contenuto

High and low in Modernist criticism -- Old and new in Modernist art -- Poetry and rhetoric in the Modernist montage -- Hard and soft : Joyce and others -- Durable fluff : the importance of not being earnest -- Iridescent mediocrity : Dornford Yates and others -- Formulaic creativity : Simenon's Maigret novels -- Model artists in Paris : Hastings, Hammett, and Kiki -- The aesthete in the brothel : Proust and others.

Sommario/riassunto

In this lively, personal book, Robert Scholes intervenes in ongoing discussions about modernism in the arts during the crucial half-century from 1895 to 1945. While critics of and apologists for modernism have defined modern art and literature in terms of binary oppositions-high/low, old/new, hard/soft, poetry/rhetoric-Scholes contends that these distinctions are in fact confused and misleading. Such oppositions are instances of "paradoxy"-an apparent clarity that covers real confusion.Closely examining specific literary texts, drawings, critical writings, and memoirs, Scholes seeks to complicate the neat polar oppositions attributed to modernism. He argues for the rehabilitation of works in the middle ground that have been trivialized



in previous evaluations, and he fights orthodoxy with such paradoxes as "durable fluff," "formulaic creativity," and "iridescent mediocrity." The book reconsiders major figures like James Joyce while underscoring the value of minor figures and addressing new attention to others rarely studied. It includes twenty-two illustrations of the artworks discussed. Filled with the observations of a personable and witty guide, this is a book that opens up for a reader's delight the rich cultural terrain of modernism.