Deutsch - British Literature and Classical Music

British Literature and Classical Music

Historicizing Modernism

Series Editors

Matthew Feldman, Professor of Contemporary History, Teesside University, UK; and Erik

Tonning, Professor of English Literature and Culture, University of Bergen, Norway.

Assistant Editor: David Tucker, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Chester, UK

Editorial Board

Professor Chris Ackerley, Department of English, University of Otago, New Zealand ;

Professor Ron Bush, St. Johns College, University of Oxford, UK ; Dr Finn Fordham,

Department of English, Royal Holloway, UK; Professor Steven Matthews, Department

of English, University of Reading, UK; Dr Mark Nixon, Departmentof English,

University of Reading, UK; Professor Shane Weller, Reader in Comparative Literature,

University of Kent, UK; and Professor Janet Wilson, University of Northampton, UK.

Historicizing Modernism challenges traditional literary interpretations by

taking an empirical approach to modernist writing: a direct response to

new documentary sources made available over the last decade.

Informed by archival research, and working beyond the usual European/American

avant-garde 190045 parameters, this series reassesses established readings of modernist

writers by developing fresh views of intellectual contexts and working methods.

Series Titles

Arun Kolatkar and Literary Modernism in India, Laetitia Zecchini

Broadcasting in the Modernist Era, edited by Matthew Feldman, Henry Mead and Erik Tonning

Ezra Pounds Adams Cantos , David Ten Eyck

Ezra Pounds Eriugena , Mark Byron

Great War Modernisms and The New Age Magazine , Paul Jackson

Katherine Mansfield and Literary Modernism , edited by Janet Wilson, Gerri Kimber and Susan Reid

Late Modernism and The English Intelligencer, Alex Latter

The Life and Work of Thomas MacGreevy, Susan Schreibman

Modern Manuscripts , Dirk Van Hulle

Reading Mina Loys Autobiographies , Sandeep Parmar

Reframing Yeats , Charles Ivan Armstrong

Samuel Beckett and Arnold Geulincx , David Tucker

Samuel Beckett and Science , Chris Ackerley

Samuel Beckett and The Bible , Iain Bailey

Samuel Becketts More Pricks Than Kicks , John Pilling

Samuel Becketts German Diaries 19361937 , Mark Nixon

T. E. Hulme and the Ideological Politics of Early Modernism, Henry Mead

Virginia Woolfs Late Cultural Criticism , Alice Wood

British Literature and
Classical Music

Cultural Contexts 18701945

David Deutsch

Bloomsbury Academic

An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Contents

This book series is devoted to the analysis of late-nineteenth to twentieth-century literary Modernism within its historical context. Historicizing Modernism thus stresses empirical accuracy and the value of primary sources (such as letters, diaries, notes, drafts, marginalia or other archival deposits) in developing monographs, scholarly editions and edited collections on Modernist authors and their texts. This may take a number of forms, such as manuscript study and annotated volumes; archival editions and genetic criticism; as well as mappings of interrelated historical milieus or ideas. To date, no book series has laid claim to this interdisciplinary, source-based territory for modern literature. Correspondingly, two burgeoning sub-disciplines of Modernism, Beckett studies and Pound studies, feature heavily as exemplars of the opportunities presented by manuscript research more widely. While an additional range of canonical authors will be covered here, this series also highlights the centrality of supposedly minor or occluded figures, not least in helping to establish broader intellectual genealogies of Modernist writing. Furthermore, while the series will be weighted towards the English-speaking world, studies of non-Anglophone Modernists whose writings are ripe for archivally-based exploration shall also be included.

A key aim of such historicizing is to reach beyond the familiar rhetoric of intellectual and artistic autonomy employed by many Modernists and their critical commentators. Such rhetorical moves can and should themselves be historically situated and reintegrated into the complex continuum of individual literary practices. This emphasis upon the contested self-definitions of Modernist writers, thinkers and critics may, in turn, prompt various reconsiderations of the boundaries delimiting the concept Modernism itself. Similarly, the very notion of historicizing Modernism remains debatable, and this series by no means discourages more theoretically informed approaches. On the contrary, the editors believe that the historical specificity encouraged by Historicizing Modernism may inspire a range of fundamental critiques along the way.

Matthew Feldman

Erik Tonning

This book is warmly dedicated to my mother and to my husband Kirk, the two of whom bore the brunt of it for many years and who are undoubtedly as glad as I am that it is finished. My sister and brother, Marthe and Steven, offered me the right mixture of support and indifference. The entire Walter family frequently asked me about the book and then listened to what I had to say, which meant a great deal. Woven throughout the book are thoughts of my grandparents, who in many ways brought me to this topic. Bella was always there making everything easier.

Id like to say here how fortunate I feel to have been invited into a department immensely warm in its collegiality and in its friendship. Id like to thank in particular James McNaughton, Albert Pionke, and Emily Wittman for critiquing much of this manuscript, which they did with insight, with attention to detail, and with grace. Id also like to thank Philip Beidler, Jen Drouin, Trudier Harris, and Cassie Smith for reading chapters and proposals along the way and for offering useful advice. Heather White answered questions with a smile. Tricia McElroy, Fred Whiting, Deborah Weiss, and Andy Crank have offered frequent food and laughter of equal excellence as they suffered my stopping by their homes and offices and even invited me back.

Outside of my home department, Sebastian Knowles continued to read my work and offer feedback and support long past the dissertation stage. Adam Parkes and Robin Darwall-Smith have read chapters and offered advice, which made this a stronger book. Chris Ackerley offered useful advice at a pivotal stage. I have been fortunate to find mentoring and long-lasting friendship from Kalpen Trivedi. If any of my sentences have clarity, this has something to do with Andrew Cole who took the time to insist on precision when we were in Athens, Georgia. James Dixon offered consistent inspiration. Brock Tyra and the University of Alabama Libraries staff have been wonderfully resourceful in helping me with obtaining source material for this study. David Avital, Matthew Feldman, Erik Tonning, and the staff at Bloomsbury Academic have been instrumental in bringing this study into the world as a book, for which I am exceptionally grateful.

In the course of four years, Tuscaloosa and Northport have become home. This is in no small part to my and Kirks friends and neighbors, in particular Paul Morgan and Jason Payne, Harriet Cabell Walker, Merinda Simmons, Nathan Loewen, Arlo Simmons-Loewen, Christina and Ella Frantom, and Alabamas brilliant brewers.

At times I enjoyed writing this and I hope you enjoy reading it. Any errors you may find within I affably attribute to those who talk loudly in libraries.