Modernism Archives | National Humanities Center

Modernism

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Marsden Hartley: The Biography of an American Artist

By Townsend Ludington (NHC Fellow, 1985–86) The first complete biography of an underrated American modernist painter tells of his lifestyle, his extensive travels, and his relationships with other artists such as Alfred Stieglitz, William Carlos Williams, and Gertrude Stein.

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May Sinclair: A Modern Victorian

By Suzanne Raitt (NHC Fellow, 1998–99) May Sinclair (1863-1946) was a bestselling novelist who was one of the first British women to go out to the Belgian front in 1914. May Sinclair: A Modern Victorian draws on newly discovered manuscripts to tell the story of this woman whose emotional isolation bears witness to the great … Continued

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Our Conrad: Constituting American Modernity

By Peter Lancelot Mallios (NHC Fellow, 2005–06; 2006–07) Our Conrad is about the American reception of Joseph Conrad and its crucial role in the formation of American modernism. Although Conrad did not visit the country until a year before his death, his fiction served as both foil and mirror to America's conception of itself and its … Continued

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A Mind at Peace

Edited by Erdağ Göknar (NHC Fellow, 2007–08; 2022–23) A Mind at Peace, originally published in 1949, is a magnum opus, a Turkish Ulysses and a lyrical homage to Istanbul. With an innate awareness of how dueling cultural mentalities can lead to the distress of divided selves, Tanpinar gauges this moment in history by masterfully portraying its register … Continued

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A Mirror in the Roadway: Literature and the Real World

By Morris Dickstein (NHC Fellow, 1989–90) In a famous passage in The Red and the Black, the French writer Stendhal described the novel as a mirror being carried along a roadway. In the twentieth century this was derided as a naïve notion of realism. Instead, modern writers experimented with creative forms of invention and dislocation. Deconstructive … Continued

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Antinomies of Art and Culture: Modernity, Postmodernity, Contemporaneity

Edited by Terry Smith (NHC Fellow, 2007–08), Okwui Enwezor, and Nancy Condee In this landmark collection, world-renowned theorists, artists, critics, and curators explore new ways of conceiving the present and understanding art and culture in relation to it. They revisit from fresh perspectives key issues regarding modernity and postmodernity, including the relationship between art and … Continued