Modernism from Right to Left

Reviews / Votes

'A masterpiece of brilliant research and fresh analysis, Modernism from Right to Left is also a compelling conceptual breakthrough launching the study of mid-20th century U.S. poetry on an entirely new course. In a hitherto unprecedented synthesis, Alan Filreis reinscribes a major canonical figure in the context of a 1930s leftwing poetry renaissance that has been largely obscured, ignored, and caricatured. He thus returns to history the contributions of many previously 'lost' writers, as well as reconfiguring the terrain of vital politico-cultural debates that nurtured, stimulated and troubled the mind and imagination of Wallace Stevens.' Alan Wald, University of Michigan 'Modernism from Right to Left is a work of criticism with which historians - as well as literary critics - will have to come to terms. Focused on Wallace Stevens in the 1930s, it tells a painstakingly researched story about the endlessly (and sometimes surprisingly) dialectical relationship of radicalism and modernism at large. No one interested in the politics of poetry can afford to ignore this book.' James Longenbach, University of Rochester 'This is an indispensable book, not only for scholars of Wallace Stevens and modernism, but for anyone interested in reading lyric poetry within a rich historical and political context. Filreis has done an extraordinary amount of original research into what he calls 'circles of reputation and response' in the literary-political wars of the thirties. His research amounts to a kind of 'thick description' of these battles, in which the very texture of the various positions taken up in the shuttling between left, right, and middle becomes available to us in the language of the participants. Filreis shows how little agreement there was among thirties radicals on questions of aesthetic criteria. Surprisingly, he also demonstrates the importance of Stevens to all sides in the debate. From now on, nobody can write about these issues without consulting Filreis's lucid, engaging and comprehensive book.' Charles Berger, University of Utah