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
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
By Barbara Herrnstein Smith (NHC Fellow, 1992–93) Truth, reason, and objectivity—can we survive without them? What happens to law, science, and the pursuit of social justice when such ideas and ideals are rejected? These questions are at the heart of the controversies between traditionalists and “postmodernists” that Barbara Herrnstein Smith examines in her wide-ranging book, which also … Continued
By Mark C. Taylor (NHC Fellow, 1982–83) The Erring a/theologian is driven to consider and reconsider errant notions: transgression, subversion, mastery, utility, consumption, domination, narcissism, nihilism, possession, uncanniness, repetition, tropes, writing dissemination, dispossession, expropriation, impropriety, anonymity, spending, sacrificed, death, desire, delight, wandering, aberrance, carnival, comedy, superficiality, carnality, duplicity, shiftiness, undecidability, and spinning.
By Eric G. Wilson (NHC Fellow, 2003–04) In the last twenty years or so, numerous mainstream movies have drawn from the ideas and images of ancient thought to address the collapse of appearance and reality. These films have consistently featured the Gnostic currents that emerged from Plato: not only Gnosticism itself but also Cabbala and … Continued
By Andrew P. Debicki (NHC Fellow, 1979–80; 1992–93) Twentieth-century Spanish poetry has received comparatively little attention from critics writing in English. Andrew Debicki now presents the first English-language history published in the United States to examine the sweep of modern Spanish verse. More important, he is the first to situate Spanish poetry in the context … Continued