Modernism: Evolution of an Idea

Reviews / Votes

The field of modernist studies consists in large part of debates over how the field should be defined...[This book] is an elegant, lucid, and helpful introduction to the field of modernist studies. Yet- and to its very great credit-it does not shy away from the definitional problems I have described but weaves them into a clear articulation of the difficulties and contradictions at the heart of modernism as a project and as a field. * Twentieth-Century Literature * Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. * CHOICE * Sean Latham and Gayle Rogers offer a perfectly timed history ... that will be of immediate interest to anyone who studies modernism and twentieth-century literary history ... They offer a succinct, often fascinating account of how and why it has become impossible to offer a tidy definition of modernism ... The picture that emerges from Latham and Rogers's narrative is one of incredible complexity and variety ... With this condensed, lucid, compelling history, Latham and Rogers enable their readers ... to learn what has been accomplished in the last century of interrogating modernism and then discover what tasks remain. Because of the significant critical generosity that underwrites this study, we can conclude, with Pound, Latham, and Rogers, that there is still much to do. * James Joyce Quarterly * An ambitious project ... tracing the evolution of the term "modernism" from a cultural buzzword to a consolidated ... signifier of a particular set of artistic conventions and works ... It would not be surprising to see this study on any modernist's bookshelf. * Make It New (The Ezra Pound Society) * An excellent account of the development of the idea of Modernism, with a useful glossary and a very good critical bibliography. * Ian Patterson, University of Cambridge, UK * The writers display deep and wide expertise as they move nimbly over more than a century's worth of fraught material. They offer students and colleagues a thorough overview of the debates that have constituted the field they call "modernist studies." * boundary 2 * An engaging introduction to the fraught history of modernism as a critical and aesthetic category, the book makes a substantive case for the lability of its subject ... This is disciplinary historiography at its most lucid, and the narrative weaves introduce readers to or reminds them of an impressive number of arguments without ever feeling rushed, over-stuffed, or, most importantly, tangential ... Latham and Rogers append an extensive critical bibliography of significant works in modernist studies, which should prove invaluable to students and early researchers looking for direction in navigating such a diverse field. The detail of this apparatus speaks to the utility of Modernism as a whole, a book that should become a staple in modernist classrooms and dissertation reading lists for the foreseeable future. * The Year's Work in English Studies * Latham and Rogers succeed in providing in the four chapters of their book an excellent introduction to the shifting conceptualizations and criticisms of modernism in literary and artistic debates. * Contributions to the History of Concepts * Admirably, the authors manage to produce not only a survey of the term's complex trajectory, but one laced with important critical contentions ... Latham and Rogers's analyses make their book far more than just an introductory survey. * Textual Practice *