To the Collector Belong the Spoils: Modernism and the Art of Appropriation

To the Collector Belong the Spoils explores the relationship between literary modernism and twentieth-century practices of collecting objects, highlighting how authors like Henry James, Walter Benjamin, and Carl Einstein used literary techniques to create a modernist style of collecting that reimagines the author-text relationship. It proposes a shadow history of modernism rooted in collection, citation, and paraphrase and demonstrates how these authors engaged in a form of creative plunder that evokes collecting's long history in the spoils of war and conquest.

Format: Hardback
Length: 366 pages
Publication date: 15 February 2023
Publisher: Cornell University Press

Rewritten text:
To the Collector Belong the Spoils: Reimagining Collecting as an Artistic, Revolutionary, and Appropriative Modernist Practice

Collecting has transcended the confines of traditional institutions like museums and archives, evolving into a vibrant and innovative modernist practice. In her book, Annie Pfeifer delves into the intricate relationship between literary modernism and the practices of collecting objects in the twentieth century. Through the lens of three author-collectors—Henry James, Walter Benjamin, and Carl Einstein—Pfeifer explores how these authors' literary techniques of compilation, gleaning, and reassembly constitute a modernist style of collecting that reimagines the relationship between author and text, source and medium.

By placing Benjamin and Einstein in conversation with James, Pfeifer sharpens the contours of collecting as an aesthetic and political praxis underpinned by dangerous passions. The collector, as a figure of modernity, finds themselves caught between preservation and transformation, order and chaos, the past and the future. To the Collector Belong the Spoils posits a shadow history of modernism rooted in collection, citation, and paraphrase, tracing the movement's artistic innovation to its preoccupation with appropriating and rewriting the past.

These three authors engaged in a form of creative plunder, despoiling and decontextualizing the work of others, evoking collecting's long history in the spoils of war and conquest. Pfeifer demonstrates that modernist collecting practices evolved beyond mere archives or taxonomies, becoming a radical, creative endeavor—the artist as collector, the collector as artist.

Through her insightful analysis, Pfeifer offers a fresh perspective on collecting as an artistic practice that transcends boundaries and challenges the traditional hierarchies of knowledge. To the Collector Belong the Spoils is a valuable contribution to the field of modernist studies, shedding light on the complex interplay between literature, art, and the act of collecting.

Weight: 907g
Dimension: 229 x 152 x 30 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781501767791