Modernism Is the Literature of Celebrity: (Literary Modernism)
Zoomicon-zoom-in
Modernism Is the Literature of Celebrity: (Literary Modernism)

Modernism Is the Literature of Celebrity: (Literary Modernism)

By
Jonathan Goldman (Author)  

Hardback

Available / dispatched within 1 - 4 weeks

Quantity

Also available on eBook for £20.99. Click here to purchase from Rakuten Kobo

The phenomenon of celebrity burst upon the world scene about a century ago, as movies and modern media brought exceptional, larger-than-life personalities before the masses. During the same era, modernist authors were creating works that defined high culture in our society and set aesthetics apart from the middle- and low-brow culture in which celebrity supposedly resides. To challenge this ingrained dichotomy between modernism and celebrity, Jonathan Goldman offers a provocative new reading of early twentieth-century culture and the formal experiments that constitute modernist literature's unmistakable legacy. He argues that the literary innovations of the modernists are indeed best understood as a participant in the popular phenomenon of celebrity. Presenting a persuasive argument as well as a chronicle of modernism's and celebrity's shared history, Modernism Is the Literature of Celebrity begins by unraveling the uncanny syncretism between Oscar Wilde's writings and his public life. Goldman explains that Wilde, in shaping his instantly identifiable public image, provided a model for both literary and celebrity cultures in the decades that followed. In subsequent chapters, Goldman traces this lineage through two luminaries of the modernist canon, James Joyce and Gertrude Stein, before turning to the cinema of mega-star Charlie Chaplin. He investigates how celebrity and modernism intertwine in the work of two less obvious modernist subjects, Jean Rhys and John Dos Passos. Turning previous criticism on its head, Goldman demonstrates that the authorial self-fashioning particular to modernism and generated by modernist technique helps create celebrity as we now know it. 10 b&w photos
JONATHAN GOLDMAN is Assistant Professor of English at the New York Institute of Technology's Manhattan campus. A scholar of literature's relationship to popular culture, he has made modernism and celebrity his particular field of expertise, coediting (with Aaron Jaffe) a volume of essays titled Modernist Star Maps: Celebrity, Modernity, Culture.
  • Contributor: Jonathan Goldman
  • Imprint: University of Texas Press
  • ISBN13: 9780292723399
  • Number of Pages: 216
  • Packaged Dimensions: 152x229x22mm
  • Packaged Weight: 145
  • Format: Hardback
  • Publisher: University of Texas Press
  • Release Date: 2011-04-01
  • Series: Literary Modernism
  • Binding: Hardback
  • Biography: JONATHAN GOLDMAN is Assistant Professor of English at the New York Institute of Technology's Manhattan campus. A scholar of literature's relationship to popular culture, he has made modernism and celebrity his particular field of expertise, coediting (with Aaron Jaffe) a volume of essays titled Modernist Star Maps: Celebrity, Modernity, Culture.

Delivery Options

Home Delivery

Store Delivery

Free Returns

We hope you are delighted with everything you buy from us. However, if you are not, we will refund or replace your order up to 30 days after purchase. Terms and exclusions apply; find out more from our Returns and Refunds Policy.