Lateness and Modernism
Lateness and Modernism
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USDIn the aftermath of World War I, a sense of impasse and thwarted promise shaped the political and cultural spheres in Britain. Writers such as D. H. Lawrence, Hilda Doolittle, T. S. Eliot and Wyndham Lewis were among the literary figures who responded by pursuing vividness, autonomy and impersonality in their work. Yet the extent to which these practices were reflected in ideas about music from within the same milieu has remained unrecognised. Uncovering the work of composer-critics who worked alongside these figures - including Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock), Cecil Gray and Kaikhosru Sorabji - Sarah Collins traces the shared tendencies of literary and musical modernisms in interwar Britain. Collins explores the political investments underpinning these tendencies, as well as the influence of English Nietzscheanism and related intellectual currents, arguing that a particular conception of the self, history, and the public characterised an ethos of 'lateness' within this milieu.
- Refines the concept of 'lateness' in relation to 'late modernism' and 'late style', drawing together scholarship on literary and musical modernisms
- Uncovers new instantiations of important aesthetic concepts such as impersonality, autonomy and vividness
- Presents a new account of anti-democratic political views among cultural figures in interwar Britain
Reviews & endorsements
‘The concepts of lateness and modernism in early twentieth-century culture have both received voluminous critical attention in recent years. But here is an invigorating and sophisticated book which makes a highly distinctive and indeed provocative contribution. Neglected aspects of inter-war British musical and literary modernism receive long overdue scrutiny through virtuoso readings of the work of Philip Heseltine, Cecil Gray and Kaikhosru Sorabji. In short, essential, and thoroughly enjoyable reading.' Stephen Downes, Royal Holloway, University of London
Product details
September 2019Hardback
9781108481496
186 pages
253 × 182 × 13 mm
0.54kg
5 b/w illus.
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. The afterlife of a 'Beaten Ghost'
- 2. Sketch of a milieu: impasse and lateness
- 3. Impersonality and vividness
- 'Le Gai Savaire', Philip Heseltine and D. H. Lawrence
- 4. Modernism, democracy and the politics of lateness: Kaikhosru Sorabji and the new age
- 5. Cycles, rotation and the image: Cecil Gray's music history and H. D.'s Imagism
