Ancients against Moderns
Culture Wars and the Making of a Fin de Siecle
Format:Hardback
Publisher:The University of Chicago Press
Published:24th Feb '97
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
As the end of the 20th century approaches, many predict that it will mirror the 19th-century decline into decadence. The author of this text finds a closer analogy with the culture wars of France in the 1690s - the time of a battle of the books known as the Quarrel between the Ancients and Moderns. The book reassesses current culture wars from perspective of that earlier fin de siecle, and re-reads the 17th century Quarrel from the vantage of 20th-century warring "ancients" and "moderns". In so doing, DeJean shows that a fin de siecle taking place in the shadow of culture wars can be more a source of constructive cultural revolution than of apocalyptic gloom and doom. Just as the first fin de siecle's battle of the books served as the spark which set off the Enlightenment, introducing radically new sexual and social politics which laid the groundwork for modernity, so current culture wars can result in radical, liberating changes, if we take an active stand against our own "ancients" who seek to stifle such reforms.
- Short-listed for Modern Language Association James Russell Lowell Prize 1998
ISBN: 9780226141374
Dimensions: 23mm x 16mm x 2mm
Weight: 482g
236 pages