Provides a much needed corrective to the misleading accounts of modernism that have dominated recent debate, shedding new light at the same time on the current controversies surrounding postmodernism.

The final section explores concepts of the artist as a producing subject and of the viewer as a produced subject with respect to such artists as Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and Sherrie Levine.

In Modernism, Expressionism and Theories of the Avant Garde, Richard Murphy mobilises theories of the postmodern to challenge our understanding of the avant-garde. He assesses the importance of the avant-garde for contemporary culture and for the debates among theorists of postmodernism such as Jameson, Eagleton, Lyotard and Habermas. Murphy reconsiders the classic formulation of the avant-garde in Lukacs and Bloch, especially their discussion of aesthetic autonomy, and investigates the relationship between art and politics via a discussion of Marcuse, Adorno and Benjamin. Combining close textual readings of a wide range of films as well as works of literature, it draws on a rich array of critical theories, such as those of Bakhtin, Todorov, MacCabe, Belsey and Raymond Williams. This interdisciplinary project will appeal to all those interested in modernist and avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century, and provides a critical rethinking of the present-day controversy regarding postmodernity.

Opening -- Part I. Metarealism. How the real world became a fable, or, The realities of social construction -- Part II. Process social ontology. Concepts in disintegration & strategies for demolition ; Process social ontology ; Social kinds -- Part III. Hylosemiotics. Hylosemiotics : the discourse of things -- Part IV. Knowledge and value. Zetetic knowledge ; The revaluation of values -- Conclusion : becoming metamodern.

At a time when postmodernism seems to have achieved a dominant position in cultural and critical theory, the contributors to this volume present a much needed corrective to the misleading images of modernism which have dominated recent debate. Theorizing Modernisms includes an account of European modernism, and analysis of the work of Apollinaire and Aberti, Wyndham Lewis and Mike Johnson, and Kert Schwitters. Steve Giles provides a much needed overview of the relationship between modernism and the avant-garde, postmodernism and modernity.

Modernism and Theory boldly asks what – if any – role theory has to play in the new modernist studies. Separated into three sections, each with a clear introduction, this collection of new essays from leading critics outlines ongoing debates on the nature of modernist culture. This collection examines aesthetic and methodological links between modernist literature and theory. addresses questions of the importance of theory to our understanding of ‘modernism’ and modernism as a literary category. considers intersections of modernism and theory within ethics, ecocriticism and the avant-garde. Concluding with an afterword from Fredric Jameson, the book makes use of an innovative dialogic format, offering a direct and engaging experience of the current debate in modernist studies. Contributors include: Charles F. Altieri, C.D. Blanton, Ian Buchanan, Pamela Caughie, Melba Cuddy-Keane, Thomas S. Davis, Oleg Gelikman, Jane Goldman, Ben Highmore, Fredric Jameson, Martin Jay, Bonnie Kime Scott, Neil Levi, Anneleen Masschelein, Scott McCracken, Andrew John Miller, Stephen Ross, Roger Rothman, Morag Shiach, Susan Stanford Friedman, Allan Stoekl, Hilary Thompson and Glenn Willmott.

Modernism and the Anthropocene explores twentieth-century literature as it engages with the non-human world across a range of contexts. From familiar modernist works by D.H. Lawrence and Hart Crane to still-emergent genres like comics and speculative fiction, this volume tackles a series of related questions regarding how best to understand humanity’s increasing domination of the natural world.