Modernism Today

This book manifests at least four recent shifts and tendencies within Modernist studies in general that point at the expansion of this increasingly interdisciplinary field. First, Modernist studies has seen a temporal expansion, to the extent that scholars in the field have come to turn to both the pre- and posterior history of Modernism. Second, the field has witnessed a spatial expansion, in that increasingly so researchers have also come to scrutinize the Modernisms of regions at the fringes of Europe, and beyond. Thirdly, a vertical expansion too has marked Modernist studies in recent decades, not only by further expanding the canon of women writers and exploring the continuum between high- and lowbrow, but also by looking at the artistic and mediatized hierarchies and cross-fertilizations operative in the period. A fourth conceptual expansion of the field shows that whereas concepts such as "middlebrow", "arrière-garde", and to some extent even "avant-garde", were once exotic notions of at best marginal importance in European Modernist studies, they now form part and parcel of the field, complicating and expanding it conceptually. What modernism was and is: by way of an introduction / Sascha Bru and Dirk de Geest Towards modernism / Hans Bertens "The world is a fine adventurous place": Graham Greene in the 1930s / Peter Liebregts Sorties or entrenchment: Roussel, Crevel and Aragon between avant-garde and arrière-garde / Sjef Houppermans Intellectual scepticism versus avant-garde bragging: modernism in Dutch literature / Jacqueline Bel "The final Catholic": Paul van Ostaijen, and the Catholic Réveil around the First World War / Geert Buelens Arrière-garde perspectives on the history of modern literature: the case of the Netherlands (1880-1940) / Koen Rymenants, Tom Sintobin and Pieter Verstraeten How modernism disappeared from Fedor Gladkov's Cement between 1924 and 1958 / Arthur Langeveld Biocosmism and the Russian avant-garde: a literary cul-de-sac or the road to immortality? / Otto Boele Ten times Pessoa / Paulo de Medeiros Modernism in Greek literature (1910-1940) / Hero Hokwerda Fun home: Ithaca, Pennsylvania / Jan Baetens A modernist "attempt at cinema": the "impurity" of Pierrot le Fou / Peter Verstraten Modernism and the art of printing: transition and Carolus Verhulst / Peter de Voogd The (post)modern music of Edgard Varèse / Marcel Cobussen. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents What Modernism Was and Is: By Way of an Introduction Towards Modernism "The World Is a Fine Adventurous Place": Graham Greene in the 1930s Sorties or Entrenchment: Roussel, Crevel and Aragon between Avant-garde and Arrière-garde Intellectual Scepticism versus Avant-garde Bragging: Modernism in Dutch Literature "The Final Catholic": Paul van Ostaijen, and the Catholic Réveil around the First World War Arrière-garde Perspectives on the History of Modern Literature: The Case of the Netherlands (1880-1940) How Modernism Disappeared from Fedor Gladkov's Cement between 1924 and 1958 Biocosmism and the Russian Avant-garde: A Literary Cul-de-sac or the Road to Immortality? Ten Times Pessoa Modernism in Greek Literature (1910-1940) Fun Home: Ithaca, Pennsylvania A Modernist "Attempt at Cinema": The "Impurity" of Pierrot le Fou Modernism and the Art of Printing: transition and Carolus Verhulst The (Post)Modern Music of Edgard Varèse Notes on Contributors Index