Planetary Modernisms
Provocations on Modernity Across Time
Susan Stanford Friedman author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Columbia University Press
Published:28th Aug '15
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This insightful exploration in Planetary Modernisms redefines modernity, emphasizing interconnectedness and diverse cultural expressions throughout history.
In Planetary Modernisms, Susan Stanford Friedman presents a transformative perspective on modernity, arguing that it should be understood as a networked and recurrent phenomenon rather than through traditional modernist frameworks. By drawing on a vast array of disciplines—including world history, anthropology, and cultural theory—Friedman explores how modernity produces diverse aesthetic innovations across different cultures and time periods. She emphasizes concepts such as rupture, mobility, and divergence, which allow for a more inclusive understanding of modernity's impact on global cultures.
Friedman challenges the conventional notions of marginality and othering that have often dominated modernist critiques. Instead, she highlights the interconnectedness of various modernisms, from the grand narratives of pre-1500 modernities like Tang Dynasty China to the intimate expressions found in the poetry of Du Fu and Kabir. By mapping these relationships, Planetary Modernisms opens up new avenues for examining how different cultures engage with modernity and how their creative capacities can be recognized and celebrated.
Throughout the book, Friedman pairs significant literary figures and movements, such as Joseph Conrad with Tayeb Salih and Virginia Woolf with the Tagores, to illustrate the rich tapestry of modernist thought. She also engages with postcolonial works and the concept of Negritude, reinforcing her argument that modernity is not a singular narrative but a complex interplay of global connections that shapes artistic expression across time and space.
A brave, challenging, and incredibly stimulating account of where modernist studies might go next. This book should be read and debated widely. In many ways it turns the 'new' of modernism into the 'now.' A book that emphatically, and in the very best possible way, provokes. -- Andrew Thacker, Nottingham Trent University, coeditor of The Oxford Handbook of Modernisms In this bold and brilliant book, Susan Stanford Friedman calls for a radical rethinking of the spatial and historical parameters of modernism. Learned and expansive, generous and generative, formally inventive and extraordinarily exhilarating to read, Planetary Modernisms will set intellectual agendas for years to come. -- Rita Felski, University of Virginia, editor of New Literary History This is one of the most exciting and consequential books of modernist scholarship in recent decades. Susan Stanford Friedman boldly crosses the boundaries between world-historical and literary scholarship, between criticism on twentieth-century and pre-1500 literature, between feminist and global scholarship, and between postcolonial and modernist studies. Passionate, provocative, and energetically argued, Planetary Modernisms will generate animated debate and fresh scholarship. -- Jahan Ramazani, author of A Transnational Poetics This book is bound to spark intellectual discussion for years to come. World Literature Today [Planetary Modernisms] brings together more than a decade of influential polemics and provocations... Their collective arrival in book form provides a valuable occasion to revisit, reflect, and reassess. -- Christopher Bush Modernism/modernity A thought experiment that invigorates the field of modernist studies by altering its scales of time and place. -- Laura Winkiel Contemporary Women's Writing [An] important new book. -- Rebecca L. Walkowitz Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies Friedman has added immeasurably to our stock of images by which modernity can be recognized and to the series of locations where it might be found. -- Bruce Robbins Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies Planetary Modernisms makes a signal contribution to the multi-disciplinary study of modernism and offers an incisive engagement with the planetary turn in the humanities and human sciences. Virginia Woolf Miscellany
ISBN: 9780231170901
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
472 pages