Wiley-Blackwell 1913: The Cradle of Modernism

This innovative book puts modernist literature in its cultural, intellectual, and global context, within the framework of the year 1913. Broadens the analysis of canonical texts and artistic events by showing their cultural and global parallels Examines a number of simultaneous artistic, literary, and political endeavours including those of Yeats, Pound, Joyce, Du Bois and Stravinsky Explores Pound's Personae next to Apollinaire's Alcools and Rilke's Spanish Trilogy, Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country next to Proust's Swann's Way Review "While reading Rabatk's book I constantly had in mind Theodor Adorno's remark to Walter Benjamin about the latter's habit of 'occult adjacentism'.  Adorno, of course, meant this as a damning criticism of his friend's method in the Arcades project, but it beautifully describes the effect of 1913 and its kaleidoscopic presentation of a world that troublingly-uncannily-intimates our own." (MLR, April 2009) “Rabate offers scholars and students a new portrait of cosmopolitan modernism to contemplate, making a study of globalization central to his understanding of the period’s literary and artistic endeavors.” (The Review of English Studies, June 2009) “This book’s clarity and specificity will reward even readers familiar with his topics. Summing Up: Highly recommended.”(Choice) Review "With this book Jean-Michel Rabaté, one of the foremost scholars of literary modernism, serves up a sumptuous intellectual feast. Examining the currents of thought and creative activity that churn through a single year, the 1913 of his title, he achieves an epic overview of early modernism. Music, painting, technology, science, philosophy, mathematics, literature, sexuality--nothing escapes his probing gaze. Telling anecdotes, insightful criticism, and philosophical rigour are combined to produce a work that is both a pleasure to read and a major scholarly synthesis." –Lawrence Rainey, University of York From the Inside Flap This innovative volume puts modernist literature in its cultural, intellectual, and global context, within the framework of the year 1913. This significant year was marked by many critical events and happenings, such as the first international recognition of non-Western writers when the Nobel Prize in literature was awarded to Rabindranath Tagore; it was also the last year of peace before the eruption of the First World War. 1913 examines the wide range of diverse artistic, literary, and political endeavours undertaken in this one year. For example, while Yeats and Pound were collaborating at Stone Cottage and discovering Japanese culture, Joyce was completing his autobiographical novel in Trieste, Du Bois was creating his Ethiopian pageant in New York, and Paris was resounding with the scandal caused by Stravinsky’s contested Rite of Spring. The book also explores and compares Apollinaire’s Alcools and Rilke’s Spanish Trilogy with Pound’s Personae, and Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country with Proust’s Swann’s Way. Engaging and insightful, this volume will encourage the reader to appreciate the breadth of activity that took place in this pivotal year, and its lasting influence. From the Back Cover This innovative volume puts modernist literature in its cultural, intellectual, and global context, within the framework of the year 1913. This significant year was marked by many critical events and happenings, such as the first international recognition of non-Western writers when the Nobel Prize in literature was awarded to Rabindranath Tagore; it was also the last year of peace before the eruption of the First World War. 1913 examines the wide range of diverse artistic, literary, and political endeavours undertaken in this one year. For example, while Yeats and Pound were collaborating at Stone Cottage and discovering Japanese culture, Joyce was completing his autobiographical novel in Trieste, Du Bois was creating his Eth