Fragmentary Modernism: The Classical Fragment in Literary and Visual Cultures, c.1896 - c.1936

Fragmentation and modernism go hand in hand, with the apotheosis of the fragment in art and writing leading to paradigm-shifting developments in classical scholarship. This book explores the interactions between modernist practices and classical scholarship, showing how the modernist aesthetic shaped how classical fragments were interpreted and presented to audiences.

Format: Hardback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 08 December 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Fragmentation is a key concept in modernist art and literature, where pieces are broken down and reassembled in new ways. This trend emerged alongside significant developments in classical scholarship, which brought a vast array of fragmentary texts and objects from ancient times to light in the modern era. This book explores the intricate relationships between modernist practices of fragmentation and the fields of classical scholarship, focusing on a group of influential writers and artists who were associated with the Anglophone modernist canon. These individuals, including Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), and Richard Aldington, were deeply engaged with the fragments of Greek and Roman antiquity and their interpretations by classical scholars. However, the influence went both ways, as the modernist aesthetic of gaps, absence, and fracture shaped how classical scholars and museum curators interpreted and presented these fragments to audiences in the present. The classical fragment, as we know it today, emerged as a collaborative cultural product of classical scholarship and the literary and visual cultures of modernism. This book delves into the complex interplay between these two realms, shedding light on the ways in which fragmentation influenced the development of modernist art and literature and how classical scholarship contributed to the preservation and interpretation of ancient fragments.

Weight: 558g
Dimension: 162 x 241 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192863409