Waking Giants: The Presence of the Past in ModernismOxford University Press, 1991 M08 15 - 304 pages This is a study of the most paradoxical aspect of modernism, its obsession with the past. Eliot wrote that the artist must be conscious "not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence." This creed permeated the movement: Modernists believed that the energies of the past could be resurrected in modern works, and that they could be the very force that makes those works modern: the urge of Pound and others to "make it new" stemmed from seeing the past as a source of renewal. Schneidau focuses on separate texts that incorporate these concepts: Joyce's Ulysses, Hardy's poems, Forster's Howards End, Conrad's Secret Agent, Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, and finally Pound's Cantos. In his discussions, many little-noticed connections are examined, including a transatlantic set: Hardy with Pound, Forster with Fitzgerald, Joyce and Lawrence with Anderson. |
Contents
| 3 | |
Hardy and Modernism | 25 |
Forster as Cambridge Anthropologist | 64 |
Sex and Violence in the Nightmare Universe | 103 |
Other editions - View all
Waking Giants: The Presence of the Past in Modernism, Volume 10 Herbert N. Schneidau Limited preview - 1991 |
Common terms and phrases
Anderson artist atavism atavistic autochthonic believe Cantos characters childhood chthonic Conrad critics culture D. H. Lawrence dead death Dublin E. M. Forster Ezra Pound fantasies Fascism Faulkner fear feelings Fenollosa Ferres figure force Ford Forster Gatsby George Willard Guide to Kulchur Hardy's Helen Hemingway Hemingway's Henry Homer Howards End Hugh Kenner human Irish James Joyce Joyce Joyce's language later Lawrence Letters Literary Essays living look Margaret memory mind modern Modernist mother motif Mussolini myth never novel originally published Ossipon passage past poem poet poetic poetry political present prose quest readers revealing scene Schlegel Secret Agent seems sense sexual simply Sons and Lovers spirit Stevie story T. S. Eliot tell theme things Thomas Hardy thought tion tradition turn Ulysses University Press Verloc vision voice Vorticist wanted Waste Land Wilcox Williams Winesburg Winnie words writing Yeats Yeats's young