Modernist Literature
Challenging Fictions?
December 2006
268 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
ISBN:
978-0-631-21306-2
John Wiley & Sons
This inclusive guide to Modernist literature considers the
'high' Modernist writers such as Eliot, Joyce, Pound
and Yeats alongside women writers and writers of the Harlem
Renaissance.
* * Challenges the idea that Modernism was conservative and
reactionary.
* Relates the modernist impulse to broader cultural and
historical crises and movements.
* Covers a wide range of authors up to the outbreak of World War
II, among them Oscar Wilde, Joseph Conrad, Henry James, Langston
Hughes, Samuel Beckett, HD, Virginia Woolf, Djuna Barnes, and Jean
Rhys.
* Includes coverage of women writers and gay and lesbian
writers.
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
Part I: Introduction.
1. Why Read Challenging Literature?.
Part II: Readings.
2. Partnering: Holmes and Watson, Author and Reader, Lover and
Loved, Man and Wife.
3. Window Painting: The Art of Blocking Understanding.
4. Watchman, What of the Night?.
Conclusion.
Notes.
Bibliography.
Index.
Acknowledgments.
Part I: Introduction.
1. Why Read Challenging Literature?.
Part II: Readings.
2. Partnering: Holmes and Watson, Author and Reader, Lover and
Loved, Man and Wife.
3. Window Painting: The Art of Blocking Understanding.
4. Watchman, What of the Night?.
Conclusion.
Notes.
Bibliography.
Index.
"Ambitiously diverse and unsettling, a book that responds
provocatively to the challenges it poses."
--David Bradshaw, University of Oxford
"In this sharp, thoughtful and clearly-written book, modernism
is not simply a descriptive category pigeon-holing a literary
period; it is made both more problematic (as when its ending is
linked with the holocaust) and empowering. Boldly redefining the
field, Mahaffey throws a truly original light on the social,
political and ethical relevance of main modernist 'chronicles of
disorder,' showing convincingly how they challenge repressive
authorities as well as the reader's ingrained passivity."
--Jean-Michel Rabaté, University of Pennsylvania
"This intelligent, strongly argued book reconceives the term
'modernist' to mean modern literature that challenges the reader
because of its originality, complexity, obscurity, or transgressive
nature." (Choice)
provocatively to the challenges it poses."
--David Bradshaw, University of Oxford
"In this sharp, thoughtful and clearly-written book, modernism
is not simply a descriptive category pigeon-holing a literary
period; it is made both more problematic (as when its ending is
linked with the holocaust) and empowering. Boldly redefining the
field, Mahaffey throws a truly original light on the social,
political and ethical relevance of main modernist 'chronicles of
disorder,' showing convincingly how they challenge repressive
authorities as well as the reader's ingrained passivity."
--Jean-Michel Rabaté, University of Pennsylvania
"This intelligent, strongly argued book reconceives the term
'modernist' to mean modern literature that challenges the reader
because of its originality, complexity, obscurity, or transgressive
nature." (Choice)
Vicki Mahaffey is Professor of Modern Literature at the University of York and a former Guggenheim Fellow and winner of both the Lindback Award and the Ira Abrams Award for teaching. Her previous publications include Reauthorizing Joyce (1988) and States of Desire: Wilde, Yeats, Joyce, and the Irish Experience (1998).
