By Jonathan Levin (NHC Fellow, 1998–99) The Poetics of Transition examines the connection between American pragmatism and literary modernism by focusing on the concept of transition as a theme common to both movements. Jonathan Levin begins with the Emersonian notion that transition—the movement from one state or condition to another or, alternately, the figural enactment of … Continued
By Isabel Wünsche (NHC Fellow, 2007–08) In her book, Isabel Wünsche explores the question of Russia's participation in the project of European modernism, in particular dealing with the interrelationship between universal claims and national cultural values in science, intellectual history and art. With the victory over Napoleon, Russia had risen not only geographically, but also … Continued
By Barbara Will (NHC Fellow, 2003–04)
By Elizabeth Otto (NHC Fellow, 2017–18) The Bauhaus (1919–1933) is widely regarded as the twentieth century's most influential art, architecture, and design school, celebrated as the archetypal movement of rational modernism and famous for bringing functional and elegant design to the masses. In Haunted Bauhaus, art historian Elizabeth Otto liberates Bauhaus history, uncovering a movement … Continued
By Robert D. Richardson (NHC Fellow, 1999–00) The definitive biography of the fascinating William James, whose life and writing put an indelible stamp on psychology, philosophy, teaching, and religion — on modernism itselfPivotal member of the Metaphysical Club, author of The Varieties of Religious Experience, eldest sibling in the extraordinary James family, William emerges here … Continued
By Carol J. Oja (NHC Fellow, 1995–96) New York City witnessed a dazzling burst of creativity in the 1920s. In this pathbreaking study, Carol J. Oja explores this artistic renaissance from the perspective of composers of classical and modern music, who along with writers, painters, and jazz musicians, were at the heart of early modernism … Continued
By Kejia Yuan (NHC Fellow, 1981–82)
The airplane offered a potent symbol of man’s innovative thrust into the future. In the 1920s, artists depicted the airplane in canvases that, while creating quite different visual impressions, reflected the shared drive to depict the modern.
The New Negro Movement, better known as the Harlem Renaissance, was many things to many people: an effort to place African American issues on the national agenda; a moment in which African Americans exerted unprecedented influence on popular culture; a conscious drive to recast African American identity; a glorification of the African American folk temperament; … Continued
Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time helped to create the idiom of modernist literature, which would go on to become the predominant literary aesthetic of the 20th century. Emerging from the world of the Parisian little magazines, Hemingway brought the literary avant-garde to mass popular audiences. In the process he defined an enduring cultural style and … Continued