Γ�C-4-f

�'�--- - -- -- -
-- - -- - -- ----� ---
-

The Concept
of Modernism

Astradur Eysteinsson

Cornell University Press

Ithaca and London

 tions." This in itself can be seen as just another way of under­
mining the authority of tradition and unveiling the arbitrari­
ness of the traditions that the modernists felt they were up
Ι against. Ι have in mind, rather, the more strictly formal-aes­
thetic politics of critics and commentators on modemism
(some of whom were also practicing modernists). In their vari­
ous guises, these approaches constitute a broad and powerful
critical paradigm.
The Making of
Modernist Paradigms The Rage for Order

In his famous essay "Ulysses, Order, and Myth," which ap­

peared in 1923, Τ. S. Eliot lays the groundwork for a great deal of
subsequent criticism and appraisal of modemism. He contends
that Joyce's use of Homer's Odyssey has the importance of "a
THIS CHAPTER does not offer a comprehensive survey of
scientific discovery," making Ulysses not a novel, because "the
the uses of our concept, but rather a critical inquiry into domi­
novel is a form which will no longer serve; it is because the
nant, paradigmatic conceptions of what constitutes modem­
novel, instead of being a form, was simply the expression of an
ism. Ι shall examine how modemism has been understood and
age which had not sufficiently lost all form to feel the need of
what the concept has been made to signify, or, to put it dif­
something stricter." This "something stricter" is the use of
ferently, how we collaborate with historical reality (including
myth as "a way of controlling, of ordering, of giving a shape and
texts designated "modemist") in constructing the paradigm
a significance to the immense panorama of futility and anarchy
called "modernism."
which is contemporary history."1
The term itself appears to provide us with a semantic base ση
Here Eliot strikes a chord that has been sounded in innumer­
which to ground such an endeavor. "Modemism" signals a
able theories of modemism to this day. Modemism is viewed as
dialectical opposition to what is not functionally "modern,"
a kind of aesthetic heroism, which in the face of the chaos of
namely "tradition." But this pivotal characteristic seems to be
the modern world (very much a "fallen" world) sees art as the
progressively less prevalent in recent critical discourse, in part
only dependable reality and as an ordering principle of a quasi­
because we now often perceive modemist literature itself as a
religious kind. The unity of art is supposedly a salvation from
"tradition." Actually, the antitraditional aspects of modemism
the shattered order of modern reality. The aesthetics of mod
and their implications were played down at an early stage by ernism have been made to look like a solution to Stephen
writers and critics seeking an aesthetic order in which to
Dedalus's problem in Ulysses, when he complains that history
ground a modem poetics. Thus, while the rage against preva­
is a nightmare from which he is trying to awake. Eliot's aes­
lent traditions is perhaps the principal characteristic of mod­
thetics in fact strongly resembles Stephen's, presented in an
ernism, and one that has provided it with a name, this feature
ironic manner by Joyce in Α Portrait of the Artist as α Young
has always been counteracted by a desire to forestall the anar­
Man: "The esthetic image is first luminously apprehended as
chistic implications of such a stance. Ι am not thinking pri­
marily of the attempts of Eliot, Pound, and others to create
Ι. τ. S. Eliot, Selected Pro8e of τ. S. E]iot, ed. Frank Kermode (New York:
altemative, often highly personal and idiosyncratic, "tradi- Harcourt Brace Jovanovich/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Ι 97 5 ), p. 177.
selfbounded and selfcontained upon the immeasurable back­
ground of space and time which it is not. You apprehend it as
one thing. You see it as one whole. You apprehend its whole­
ness. That is integritas."2 This organic theory of art, derived
partly from classical, partly from romanticist aesthetics, is
echoed in different ways in a great number of works on modem­
ism-very often through a reference to Eliot's essay or Joyce's
novel-and is frequently taken to constitute the center of the
revolutionary formal awareness and emphasis that most critics
detect in modemist works.
In "Spatial Form in Modern Literature," Joseph Frank says
that for Τ. S. Eliot "the distinctive quality of a poetic sensibility
is its capacity to form new wholes, to fuse seemingly disparate
experiences into an organic unity."3 Frank finds that a spatial
form of this kind is indeed the distinctive mark of "modern"
literature, undermining the "inherent consecutiveness of lan­
guage" (ro) and suspending "the process of individual reference
temporarily until the entire pattern of internal references can
be apprehended as a unity" (13). In so doing modem literature
locks past and present "in a timeless unity" and achieves a
"transformation of the historical imagination into myth-an
imagination for which time does not exist" (6ο).
Maurice Beebe relies partly on Frank in defining modemism,
which he sees as being distinguished by four features: formal­
ism and aesthetic autonomy; detachment and noncommit­
ment or " 'irony' in the sense of that term as used by the New
Critics"; use of myth as a structuring device; and a develop­
ment from Impressionism to reflexivism, centering its atten­
tion upon "its own creation and composition."4 There is no
mention at all of the historical or social relevance of modemist
2. James Jσyce, Α Portrait of the Artist as α Young Man (New Yσrk: Peηguiη
Βσσks, 1976!, p. 212. As aη implied authσr Jσyce is σί cσurse ησt uηifσrmly irσηic
thrσughσut the ησvel, but he wields the ηaπative vσice ίη such a way that there is a
fluid play σί ideηtificatiση with aηd distaηce frσm the yσuηg aesthete. Ιη view σί
their mσde σί preseηtatiση, it is surpήsiηg hσw literally Stepheη's aesthetic theσ­
ήes have beeη read by cήtics as the authσr's fσrthright statemeηts, if ησt his
maηifesto.
3· Jσseph Fraηk, "Spatial Fσrm ίη Mσdern Literature," The Widening Gyre:
Crisis and Mastery in Mσdern Literature (New Bruηswick, N .J.: Rutgers Uηiver­
sity Press, 1963!. p. Ι σ.
4· Beebe, "What Mσdernism Was,'' p. 1σ73.
works, to which Beebe actually refers to as "the closed worlds
of Modernist art" (rοπ).
Such a portrayal of modemism, especially in the Anglo­
American context, is clearly influenced by New Criticism,
which Beebe does not fail to invoke. Eliot's position of author­
ity, both as poet and critic, is also instrumental in this particu­
lar New Critical construction of the modernist paradigm. It is
crucial not so much because of Eliot's view of the use of myth
as a structuring device5-the New Critics were not all that
interested in mythology-as because of his persistent empha­
sis on form as an autonomous vehicle of aesthetic significance.
I From a certain perspective, modemism, in its rejection of tradi­
tional social representation and in its heightening of formal
I
awareness, would seem the ideal example of New Critical
tenets and of the New Critical view of the poem as an isolated
whole, whose unity is based ση intemal tensions that perhaps
r remain unresolved but nonetheless do not disturb the auton­
omy of the work. lndeed, when critics use the term "modemist
I
criticism" they often seem to be refeπing to New Criticism,
and they appear unaware that there need be no "natural" con­
nection between modemist works and this particular critical or
analytical paradigm.
Το this day, however, critics persist in reading modernism
through the spectacles of New Criticism. Recently this ten­
dency has been apparent in the discussion suπounding post­
modemism (see chapter 3), which is frequently seen as reject­
ing this particular kind of "modemism," together with the
aesthetics of the organic, unified, autonomous and "pure" work
of art. Of course, one might point out another, similar connec­
tion between modemist literature and modem criticism and
theory, namely that between modemism and Russian formal­
ism, whose emphasis on the autonomy of the literary work­
based on an opposition between "poetic" and ''ordinary" or
"communicative" language-prefigures that of New Criticism
s. As Ι shall discuss later, Eliσt, iη his essay ση the mythic σrder σί Jσyce's
Ulysses, is actually ησt at all iηterested iη the iηterpretive implicatiσηs σί mythσ­
lσgical parallels σr allusiσηs. He is maiηly cσηcerned with securiηg a structural
grid ση which to latch the wσrk that caη fiηd ησ such cσhereηt structural meaηs ίη
the chaσs σί mσdern histσry. Heηce, myth cσmes tσ serve as aη aesthetic substitute
fσr the "lσst" whσle σί histσrical reality.
 as well as that of a great deal of structuralist work. But as wc
shall see, the implications of Russian formalist poetics are
more intricate and productive with respect to modernism than
are those of New Criticism.
Outside History
Many modernists have to a great extent shared the "purist"
views of formalists and New Critics, and have even forcefully
uttered ahistorical notions of poetic autonomy in their essay s
and other commentaries. _But nothing obliges us to take such
views as adequately representative of their own work or of
modernism in general. Τοο seldom have literary scholars dem­
onstrated a skeptical view of such auto-commentary, as Mary
Louise Pratt does in her criticism of the "poetic language"
fallacy. Having shown how formalist/ structuralist theories are
echoed in the critical writings of modernists like Rilke, Valery,
and Mallarme, she concludes:
It is one thing for the poet, or even the poet-critic, to claim that
his art exists in a universe of its own and bears no relation to the
society in which he and his readers live. It is quite another for the
literary analyst to unquestioningly accept such a view as the basis
for a theory of literature. The poet's declaration that he no longer
wishes his work to be associated with "society " or "reality" or
"commerce" or "the masses" is hardly grounds for the critic to
decide that the associations have in fact ceased to exist or ceased
to pertain to the critical enterpήse.6
That modernist literature has severed ties with society, real­
ity, or history has indeed been a basic assumption behind a
great deal of criticism of modernism-not only criticism that
could be labeled formalist or New Critical, but, significantly;
also historically minded criticism, in particular a certain brand
of Marxist criticism. According to Robert Onopa, for instance,
one of the premises of modernism, partly inherited from ro-
6. Mary Louise Pratt, Toward α Speech Act Theory of Lίterary Dίscourse
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, Ι977), p. xviii.
manticism, "is the notion that the uses of art are very much
like the uses of religion."7 The use-structure of religion-con­
sisting in salvation from and transcendence of reality, the fallen
world-provides modernism with "an escape from history "
(364). Onopa does not fail to relate this religious aesthetics to
New Criticism:
Organic theory, Richards' dissociation of poetic use from poetic
content, and Eliot's notion of impersonal poetry all were elabo­
rated by New Criticism, perhaps the most complete view that the
work of art exists outside of, and should be treated outside of,
history, since art is self-contained and generates its own laws.
Once outside of history, the work is available as a paradigm of
paradise, the antithesis of the fallen world, and, as a product of
man, a means for him to transcend the fallen, time-bound world.
(372)
Daniel Fuchs states: "The modernist aesthetic invented the
New Criticism, in which judgments of form preceded judg­
ments of meaning,"8 and Robert Weimann goes so far as to label
"modernist" the various kinds of formalist criticism that he
feels have been dominant in the twentieth century, such as
New Criticism and the critical works of τ. S. Eliot. "Modern­
ism," in Weimann's vocabulary, seems to stand for a rejection of
any objective continuity of literary history in favor of a spatial
aesthetic, be it within the literary work itself or on the level of
present appreciation of the literature of the past.9 Modernism,
it would seem, like Stephen Dedalus, is striving to escape from
the nightmare of history, try ing to rule out the dimension of
time. Lillian Robinson and Lise Vogel approach this issue from
a slightly different angle but reach a parallel conclusion: "Mod­
ernism ... seeks to intensify isolation. It forces the work of art,
the artist, the critic, and the audience outside of history. Mod­
ernism denies us the possibility of understanding ourselves as
y. Robert Onopa, "The End of Art as a Spiritual Project,'� TrίQuarterly, no. 26
(Winter Ι973): 363.
8. Daniel Fuchs, "Saul Bellow and the Modem Tradition," Contemporary Lίter­
ature Ι5 (W inter Ι974): 69.
9· Robert Weimann, Stmcture and Socίety ίn Lίterary Hίstory: Studίes ίn the
Hίstory and Theory of Hίstorίcal Crίtίcίsm (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, Ι984), esp. pp. 7Ι-78, 2ΟΙ-ΙΟ.
 agents iη the material wσrld, fσr all has beeη remσved tσ aη
abstract wσrld σf ideas, where iηteractiσηs caη be miηimized σr
emptied σf meaηiηg aηd real cσηsequeηces. Less thaη ever are
we able tσ iηterpret the wσrld-much less chaηge it."10
Iroηically, it was ση precisely such grσuηds that Ortega y
Gasset valσrized the "dehumaηizatiση σf art," the almσst cσm­
plete dissσciatiση σf "humaη seηsibility" frσm "artistic seη­
sibility" that he saw mσdem art haviηg achieved.11 Thus, it
sσmetimes appears that the mσst radically histσrical aηd the
mσst radically fσrmalist critics fuηdameηtally agree ση the
basic characteristic σf mσdem(ist) art aηd literature, σηe grσup
cσηdemηiηg what the σther celebrates. But while Ortega is, σr
at least preteηds tσ be, mσdestly (aηd aήstσcratically!) resigned
tσ the subsequeηt status σf art as "a thiηg σf ησ cσηsequeηce"
(49), critics such as Rσbiηsση aηd Vσgel σfteη seem tσ fiηd this
state σf affairs immeηsely threateηiηg: it is as if by beiηg dis­
placed 'Όut σf histσry" we are lifted frσm a state σf security aηd
cσmfσrt aηd put iη a bewilderiηg place that defies iηterpreta­
tiση, much like Kafka's herσes. It is ησtewσrthy that sσme
critics might waηt tσ see this as a thσrσughly "histσrical" expe­
rieηce aηd argue that such a displacemeηt is a mσmeηt σf beiηg
shσcked "iηtσ histσry." The latter ησtiση is σηe we shall cσme
back tσ, especially iη discussiηg the theσries σf Theσdσr W.
Αdσmσ.
History wίth α Vengeance versus "Pure" Aesthetics
Critics whσ vehemeηtly attack mσdemism fσr beiηg ahistσr­
ical, ση grσuηds σf its preσccupatiση with fσrmal σrder, σfteη
σpeη the flσσdgates σf histσry through their very characteriza­
tiση σf mσdemism. Ιη aη essay ση expressiσηism writteη iη
1934, Geσrg Lukacs attacked its abstract, ahistσrical, iπa­
tiσηal, aηd mythical fσrms, claimiηg that the ηew fascist pσw­
ers shσuld fiηd iη it a suitable aesthetic to draw ση iη fσrmiηg a
ΙΟ. Lillian Robinson and Lise Vogel, "Modemism and Histoτy," New Lίterary
History 3 (Autumn Ι97Ι): Ι98.
ΙΙ. Jose Ortega y Gasset, The Dehumanίzatίon of Art and Other Essays on Art,
Culture, and Lίterature (Pήnceton, N.J.: Pήnceton University Press, Ι968), p. ΙΙ.
ηew culture.12 Althσugh three years later the Nazis deησuηced
expressiσηism as "decadeηt art," this aηalσgy betweeη mσderη­
ism aηd fascism has persisteηtly beeη drawn, partly because
several mσdemists have actually teηded toward, σr eveη σpeηly
suppσrted, fascism. Ιη σηe σf the twσ essays that started the
expressiσηist cσηtrσversy iη the Germaη expatriate magaziηe
Das Wort iη the late 193σs, Klaus Μaηη attacked the famσus
pσet Gσttfried Βeηη, arguiηg that his σveremphasis ση fσrm
reflected the authσritariaη σrder aηd discipliηe σf the fascist
state.13 It later became a cσmmσηplace tσ elabσrate ση this
fσrmal-ideσlσgical cσηηectiση iη geηeraliziηg abσut mσdem­
ism, well-knσwη examples beiηg Fredric Jamesση's Fables σf
Aggressiσn: Wyndham Lewίs, the Mσdernist as Fascist, aηd
Fraηk Kermσde's discussiσn σf mσdemism iη The Sense σf an
Ending. Kermσde argues that mσdemists find iη myth aηd iη
the "fσrmal elegance σf fascism" a means tσ create clσsed,
immσbile aesthetic hierarchiesi such fσrm expresses 'Όrder as
the mσdemist artist uηderstands it: rigid, σut σf flux, the spa­
tial σrder σf the mσdem critic σr the clσsed authσritariaη sσ­
ciety."14
But iη light σf the eagemess displayed in critically establish­
ing a cσnnectiση betweeη mσdemism and fascism, it is baffliηg
hσw rarely its further historical aηd fσrmal implicatiσns are
prσbed. First, where dσes this fσrmal-ideσlσgical nexus place
mσdemism with regard to the prevalent capitalist-bσurgeσis
culture σf the tweηtieth ceηtury? Secσηd, hσw, aηd under what
cσnditiσηs, caη aesthetically elabσrated fσrm (as fσrm) becσme
the vehicle σf a specific ideσlσgy? Αηd third, dσ readers σf
mσdemist wσrks actually σr predσmiηaηtly experieηce the
strict fσrmal elegaηce that prσpσηents as well as adversaries σf
mσdemism sσ σfteη cσηceηtrate ση? It is highly significaηt
that while mσdernism is σfteη accused σf beiηg a cult σf fσrm,
it is alsσ (ησt iηfrequeηtly by the same critics, such as Lukacs)
Ι 2. Georg Lukacs, "GrδBe und Verfall des Expressionismus," Essays iiber Realis­
mus (Neuwied and Berlin: Luchterhand, Ι97Ι), pp. ΙΟ9-49·
Ι3· Klaus Mann, "Gottfried Benn. Die Geschichte einer Verirrung," in Hans­
Jiirgen Schmitt, ed., Die Expressionίsmusdebatte: Materialien zu eίner marx­
ίstίschen Realismuskonzeptίon (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, Ι973), pp. 39-49.
Ι4. Frank Kermode, The Sense of an Ending: Studies ίn the Theory of Fictίon
(New York: Oxford University Press, Ι966), pp. 114, ΙΙΙ.
attacked fσr fσrmlessness aηd for distσrted aηd aηarchic repre­
seηtatiση σf sσciety, disiηtegratioη σf outer reality, aηd disσr­
derly maηipulatiση σf laηguage. It is at this pσiηt that the
whole ηοtiση of moderηism mσviηg the cσmmuηicative act σf
readiηg "outside σf histσry" shows itself to be a cσηtradictioη
iη terms, for the very detectiση σf either exaggerated fσrmal
maηeuvers σr distσrted represeηtatiσηs σf reality assumes
sσme kiηd σf "ησrm," a sy mbσlic aηd semiσtic σrder that uη­
derlies σur every act σf sσcial cσmmuηicatioη.
It is ησt surprisiηg, therefσre, that iη writiηgs ση mσdemism
the theσry σf aesthetic autσησmy frequeηtly appears tσ cσexist
with that σf cultural subversiση, σr a questiσηiηg σf the very
fσuηdatiσηs σf the reigniηg sσcial σrder. This, it seems tσ me, is
a ceηtral paradσx σf modemist studies. Ιη aη essay iη the widely
read sympσsium Modernism 189σ-193σ, Malcσlm Bradbury
and Johη Fletcher remark hσw mσdemists strive fσr "that mak­
iηg σf pattem aηd whσleηess which makes art iηtσ aη order
staηdiηg σutside aηd beyσηd the humaη muddle, a traηsceη­
deηt σbject, a lumiησus whσle."15 Ιη aησther essay iη the same
anthσlσgy, written by Bradbury aηd James McFarlaηe, mσderη­
ism is seeη tσ signal "σverwhelmiηg dislσcatiσηs/' σηe σf
"thσse cataclysmic upheavals σf culture" that "questiσn aη
entire civilizatiση σr culture. "16 This uηderscσres, Ι believe, the
mσst impσrtaηt task faciηg moderηist studies: we ηeed tσ ask
σurselves hσw the cσηcept σf autoησmy, sσ crucial tσ maηy
theσries σf mσderηism, caη pσssibly cσexist with the equally
prσmiηeηt view σf mσdemism as a historically explσsive para­
digm. This dichσtσmy, hardly recσgηized by mσst critics, is
characteristic for the divergeηt approaches tσ moderηism as, ση
the σηe haηd, a cultural fσrce, aηd ση the σther as aη aesthetic
project. But if we refuse, as Ι thiηk we must, to ackησwledge
any strict bσuηdaries betweeη the two, theη the Dedaliaη view
σf the work of art as a "traηsceηdeηt σbject" aηd aη isσlated
aesthetic whσle is iηvalidated as a critical basis fσr mσdemist
studiesi it is aη abstract ηοtiση that is bσuηd tσ be uηsettled σr
Ι 5. Malcolm Bradbury and John Fletcher, "The Introverted Novel," in Malcolm
Bradbury and James McFarlane, ed., Modernism, 1890-1930 (Harmondsworth,
Eng.: Penguin Books, 1976), p. 407.
16. Malcolm Bradbury and James McFarlane, "The Name and Nature of Mod­
emism," in Bradbury and McFarlane, ed., Modernism, 1890-1930, p. 19.
decσηstructed wheη the wσrk is received aηd dissemiηated,
wheη it eηters the "humaη muddle."
Clemeηt Greeηberg, iη his well-kησwη essay "Mσderηist
Paintiηg," prσvides us with a gσσd example σf hσw critics σfteη
seek tσ skirt the prσblem σf cultural dislσdgmeηt: "The es­
seηce σf Mσderηism lies, as Ι see it, iη the use of the characteris­
tic methσds σf a discipliηe to criticize the discipliηe itself-ησt
iη σrder tσ subvert it, but tσ eηtreηch it mσre firmly iη its area
of cσmpeteηce."17 Heηce, "each art had tσ determiηe, through
the σperatiσηs peculiar to itself, the effects peculiar aηd exclu­
sive tσ itself" whereby "each art wσuld be reηdered 'pure,' aηd
iη its 'purity ' fiηd the guaraηtee σf its staηdards of quality as
well as σf its iηdepeηdeηce" ( ro2). The effects peculiar tσ paiηt­
iηg lie iη its flatηess σr twσ-dimeηsiσηality, but thσse σf litera­
ture wσuld aηalσgσusly rest iη the "materiality" σf laηguage σr
σf "the wσrd," as σppσsed tσ its cσmmuηicative fuηctiσηi very
much, σf cσurse, the argumeηt σf the Russiaη fσrmalists. But
Greeηberg is caught iη a kiηd σf iηteηtiσηal fallacy: he asserts
that the mσdemist self-criticism σf each artistic discipliηe dσes
not take place "iη order tσ subvert it," but he fails tσ prσvide
aηy argumeηts σr evideηce cσηcemiηg this ηοηiηteηtiση, σr,
mσre impσrtaηt, cσηcemiηg its ησηsubversive effect. Irσηi­
cally, he wσuld hardly briηg up the issue σf subversiση if he did
ηοt cσηsider it a poteηtial result σf this self-critical fuηctioη σf
mσdemism.
Despite the σbviσus weakηesses iη his argumeηt, Greeη­
berg's theσry has becσme a staηdard apprσach tσ mσdemism,
thus buttressiηg aη immeηsely pσwerful critical paradigm iη
mσdemist studies, a paradigm mσreover that is ησw accepted
by variσus less fσrmalistically σrieηted critics. Ιη fact, this
paradigmatic cσηstructiση is σfteη simply accepted as aη σbjec­
tive σbservatiση. Thus, Hal Fσster, arguiηg fσr a "postmσdem­
ism σf resistaηce," has ησ qualms abσut talkiηg about the
modemist striviηg fσr "the purity σf each art," a purity clearly
aηalσgσus tσ aηd arisiηg frσm the saηctity σf iηdividual mσd­
erηist works, which he describes as "uηique, sy mbσlic, visioη­
ary" aηd as "clσsed sy stems."18 Mσreσver, this ahistorical prσ-
Ι?· Clement Greenberg, "Modernist Painting," in Gregory Battock, ed., The
New Art: Α Critical Anthology (New York: Ε. Ρ. Dutton, 1966), p. 101.
18. Hal Foster, "Postmodemism: Α P reface," in Hal Foster, ed., The Anti-
 jectiση seems tσ have fσuηd its way iηtσ theσries σsteηsibly
apprσachiηg mσdemism frσm a very differeηt aηgle. Alaη
Wilde, iη his self-declared pheησmeησlσgical apprσach, estab­
lishes fσr the "absσlute irσηy" σf mσderηist wσrks a cσηcept σf
the "aηirσηic," which is based ση a mσmeηt σf fusiση aηd
harmσηy, a " fσrmal symmetry," a self-cσηtaiηed aesthetic
whσle that balaηces σut the mσderηist perceptiση σf fragmeη­
tatiση: "Uηable tσ make seηse σf the wσrld but uηwilliηg tσ
fσrgσ the ideal mσdel σf σrderliηess, the absσlute irσηist fσlds
back ση himself iη the sanctuary σf his art."19 This reading σf
the mσderηist paradigm is σnly a thiηly disguised rewσrking σf
the New Critical apprσach, accσrdiηg tσ which the mσderηist
wσrk maηages tσ garner fσr itself a tσtal aesthetic autσησmy in
its unresσlved irσnic teηsiσns, its "equal pσise σf σppσsites"
(35).
We shσuld ησw be ready tσ tum tσ critics whσ are less likely
tσ be hampered by aestheticist, fσrmalist, σr New Critical theσ­
ries and whσ dσ nσt turn sσ bliηd aη eye tσ the histσrical
significance σf mσdernist aesthetic practices.
Complementing History
R. Α. Scσtt-James nσtes that " there are characteristics σf
mσdem life in general which can σηly be summed up, as Mr.
Thσmas Hardy and σthers have summed them up, by the wσrd
mσdernism."20 Scσtt-James has iη miηd a highly self-cση­
sciσus, bleak mσde σf sσciσcultural expressiση that he sees as
beiηg ση a threateηiηg rise in the dσmaiη σf literature. His
bσσk, published in 19σ8, was σf cσurse written befσre the wave
σf the mσre radical fσrmal experimeηts iη mσdemist literature
aηd art, but it significaηtly prefigures a gσσd deal σf critical
respσηse tσ mσdemism as a histσrical and cultural fσrce, iη
cσηtrast tσ the variσus aesthetic appraisals that largely limit
Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture !Port Townsend, Wash.: Bay Press, 1983),
pp. x-xi.
19. Alan Wilde, Horizons of Assent: Modernism, Postmodernism, and the
Ironic Imagination !Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981), pp. 33-34.
20. R. Α. Scott-James, Modernism and Romance !New York and London: John
Lane, 1908), p. ix.
themselves tσ the fσrmal characteristics and achievemeηts σf
mσdemist writiηg. The fσrmer, iηstead σf viewiηg mσderηist
aesthetics as mσre σr less divσrced from histσry, seeks tσ iη­
quire iηtσ the variσus ways iη which mσderηism either paral­
lels, iηteracts with, σr reacts tσ sσcial mσdemity. Such studies
set up mσdemist paradigms that appear radically different frσm
the fσrmalist σnes, althσugh the latter have arguably had the
upper hand ση the pσst-Wσrld War ΙΙ critical sceηe, at least
withiη the Anglσ-Americaη sphere.
Naturally, such cultural iηquiήes dσ ησt cσηstitute a uni­
fσrm approach to mσdemism. There is, hσwever, widespread
agreemeηt as tσ the cσηstituents σf mσderηity tσ which mσd­
ernism is felt tσ be respσηdiηg. Ι have already alluded to sσme
decisive mσments iη the geηeral histσrical framewσrk σf the
sσ-called mσdem experience. Its mσre detailed "physical" signs
aηd symptσms have σften eησugh beeη eηumerated aηd packed
iηtσ summaries; Ι have selected the fσllσwiηg pregnant speci­
men, taken frσm σηe σf the mσst spirited bσσks ση the issue σf
mσdemism, Marshall Bermaη's All That Is Solid Melts into
Air:
The maelstrom of modem life has been fed from many sources:
great discoveries in the physical sciences, changing our images of
the universe and our place in it; the industrialization of produc­
tion, which transforms ·scientific knowledge into technology,
creates new human environments and destroys old ones, speeds
up the whole tempo of life, generates new forms of corporate
power and class struggle; immense demographic upheavals, se­
vering millions of people from their ancestral habitats, hurtling
them halfway across the world into new lives; rapid and often
cataclysmic urban growth; systems of mass communication, dy­
namic in their development, enveloping and binding together the
most diverse people and societies; increasingly powerful national
states, bureaucratically structured and operated, constantly striv­
ing to expand their powers; mass social movements of people, and
peoples, challenging their political and economic rulers, striving
to gain some control over their lives; finally, bearing and driving
all these people and institutions along, an ever-expanding, dras­
tically fluctuating capitalist world market. In the twentieth cen­
tury, the social processes that bring this maelstrom into being,
 and keep it in a state of perpetual becoming, have come to be
called "modernization."21
The visions and ideals nourished by these "world-historical
processes," Berman goes on, have "come to be loosely grouped
together under the name of 'modernism.' This book is a study
in the dialectics of modernization and modernism." One might
feel that "modemism" is in fact used all too "loosely " here, but
Berman's study typifies one approach to modernism, namely, a
general view of it as a dialectical counterpart of social moder­
nity, partaking of both the fascination and the destruction that
characterize modemization. And although Berman's work
could not be said to represent aπ aesthetic "reflection theory,"
modernism (being a broad and seemingly dominant cultural
trend) is for him a kind of miπor image of social modemization.
Several other scholars have elaborated on the dialectics of
modemization and modemism. Hugh Kenner points out how
modern science has changed the world outlook in art as well as
its formal characteristics. He argues that modemist poetry, like
modem science, draws on "pattemed energies"22 as well as on
qualities of space discovered in the twentieth century. Else­
where he points out that the radically altered "quality of city
life" obligated a "change in artistic means."23 He mentions the
"Machine," the "Crowd," electricity, telephone, new means of
transportation, and other aspects of modem technology, and
goes on to discuss how these elements influenced the structure
of James Joyce's work (and not just his subject matter). "The
deep connections between modemism and modem urban
rhy thms" are nowhere more evident than in Ulysses," Kenner
concludes (28). Such rhy thms and sounds are also prominent in
other major modemist novels, some of which followed in the
wake of Ulysses; one thinks for instance of Dόblin's Berlin
Alexanderplatz and Dos Passos's Manhattan Transfer. But the
2 r. Marshall Berman, All That Is Solίd Melts ίnto Αίr: The Experίence of Moder­
nίty (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982!, p. r6.
22. Hugh Kenner, The Pound Era (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of
Califomia Press, I97II, p. 153.
23. Hugh Kenner, "Notes toward an Anatomy of 'Modemism,'" in Ε. L. Epstein,
ed., Α Starchamber Quίry: Α fames foyce Centennίal Volume, ι 882-1982 (London:
Methuen, r982l, pp. 4-5.
structural connections between modernism and modern city
life also reach back in time beyond Ulysses, and are often
traced to Baudelaire's poetry.
Thus, critics have frequently elaborated on the parallels be­
tween urban life, modem science, and technological progress
on the one hand and modemist art and literature on the other.
James Mellard notes that when "the new science exploded the
world, it exploded with it the novel as well."24 The problem
with modemist paradigms invoked by drawing such direct
analogies between modemism and modemity (scientific or
more broadly social) is that modemism, and the social experi­
ence it utters, assumes the role of a reverberation and even
reflection of social modemization. Such aπ analogy can easily
miss the sociocultural and ideological positioning of modem­
ism with regard to social modemity, or can reduce it to a
unilaterally reproductive or symbolic act. The latter tendency,
in fact, is clearly exemplified by critics who see in the formal
fervor of modemism a reflection of fascist discipline or total­
itaήan ideologies.
One can of course point to several parallels between modern­
ization in social life and in art. It is well known, for instance,
that certain modemist groups, in particular the Italian futur­
ists, reveled in the technological aspects of modemity and cele­
brated in their work modem machinery, the increased tempo of
urban life, in some cases even modem warfare. But we must not
let such cases obscure the undeniably troubled relationship
that generally exists between modemism and modemization.
In "W hat Was Modemism?" Harry Levin asks in conclusion,
play ing on Stephen Dedalus's famous pledge inA Portrait of the
Artist as α Young Man, whether it has not been the endeavor of
the modernist generation "to have created a conscience for a
scientific age?"25 "For" may be a misleading preposition here,
should it suggest that this conscience is uniformly activated by
the "scientific age" or by modemization in general. Is this
highly disturbed conscience not a critical reaction to modem-
24. James Μ. Mellard, The Exploded Form: The Modeτnίst Novel ίn Ameτίca
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, I98ol, p. 30.
25. Harry Levin, "What Was Modemism?" Refractίons: Essays ίn Comparatίve
Lίterature (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966!, p. 295.
ization, presenting its otherness, its negativity, that which is
negated by the prominent modes of cultural production?
Answering this question involves, of course, determining the
semantic and significatory status of "modemization," of so­
ciocultural modernity. In the introductory essay to Modernism
Ι 890-Ι93 ο, Bradbury and McFarlane assert: "Modemism is our
art; it is the one art that responds to the scenario of our
chaos."26 It is noteworthy that their criterion seems to be that
our age indeed constitutes a "chaos." This is arguably a mod­
ernist criterion, but risks restricting modernism to a miπoring
relationship with this "scenario of our chaos." In fact the au­
thors do go on to draw the kind of analogy discussed above: 'Ίt
is the art consequent on Heisenberg's 'Uncertainty Principle',
of the destruction of civilization and reason in the First World
War . . . of existential exposure to meaninglessness or absurd­
ity," to quote but a few items from their list. Later on, however,
they seem to eschew this reductive analogy, when they argue
that modemism is to some extent centered in "a notion of a
relationship of crisis between art and history" (29). Such a
relationship of crisis would explain why modemist art can not
simply be the reflecting counterpart of history, or of social
modemization. This relationship, and hence the conscience
that modemism may have created for (or against) our scientific
age, is clearly too troubled and distorted to be possibly mapped
on to classical and mimetic models of the relationship between
art and reality.
Mimetic notions, however, have sometimes been used as an
apology for modemism. In his seminal anthology of 1919,
Menschheitsdiimmerung, Kurt Pinthus asks about modem po­
etry: "Must it not be chaotic, like the age out of whose tom and
bloody soil it grew?"27 Later Georg Lukacs was to attack mod­
ernism on mimetic grounds. In his contribution to the expres­
sionist controversy in Das Wort, he claimed that expressionism
had drastically failed to reflect adequately the 'Όbjective total­
ity of reality,"28 and that like other modem movements of the
26. Bradbury and McFarlane, "The Name and Nature of Modernism," in Brad­
bury and McFarlane, ed., Modernism, Ι890-1930, p. 27.
η. Kurt Pinthus, Menschheitsdiimmerung: Ein Dokument des Expressionis­
mus !Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch, 1959), p. 25 !my translation).
28. Georg Lukacs, 'Έs geht um den Realismus," in Schmitt, ed., Die Expres­
sionismusdebatte, p. 198. Ι find Lukacs's formulation important: "Das Problem der
imperialist era it reflected only the "tattered surface" of cap­
italist society in an "unmediated" manner (201-202). Thus,
expressionism "disavows every relation to reality " and declares
a subjective war on all its contents (207). The paradox here is
that expressionism supposedly disavows its ties to reality
while also reflecting, in its unprocessed rawness, the "tattered
surface" of that reality, that is, capitalist society.
The problem lies in Lukacs's reflection theory, which appears
to assume that "reality " can actually be rendered ("mirrored")
without being mediated. But in his early works Lukacs had
already argued that the reality that people may perceive as
being unmediated will generally not appear to have a "tattered
surface" (it is no coincidence that in the essay at hand he
denounces both his Theory of the Novel and History and Class
Consciousness as y outhful, "idealistic" and "reactionary "
works [218-219]). In order to survive and reproduce itself, cap­
italist ideology requires a smooth surface, one which, in the
process of its mediation, takes on the guise of a normal human
condition.29 In W ider den mifJverstandenen Realismus Lukacs
states that in modernist writing everyday life under capitalism,
the bourgeois norm, is, to a large extent justifiably, presented as
a "distortion" (in terms of petrification as well as fragmenta­
tion) of the human character. But, say s Lukacs, literature must
have a clear social-human "concept of the normal if it is to
'place' distortion correctly," see it in its correct context, "that is
to say, to see it as as distortion."30
The concept of the "normal" is central here: it is inconceiv­
able that capitalist reality could be continually "lived" as a
distortion, for then the distortion would.have no background of
normalcy against which it would be recognizable. If, however,
the reality of the bourgeois-capitalist era is lived as a more or
down to "question of
objektiven Totalitiit der Wirklichkeit." It has been trimmed
n: "Realism in the Balance," trans. Rodney Liv­
totality " in the English translatio
New Left Books,
ingston, in Ernst Bloch et al., Aesthetics and Politics !London:
1977), p. 33· Subsequen t page references are to the German version.
si­
29. Such normalcy, however, is radically ruptured in the case of extended "phy
background for
cal" crisis, especially that of war, which is of course the historical
Kurt Pinthus's remark quoted above.
30. Lukacs, The Meaning of Contemporary Realism, p. 33· Cf. the German
: Claassen, 1958), pp.
original, Wider den miβverstandenen Realίsmus !Hamburg
32-33·
 ::·,
less accepted order, as "the πormal," theπ Lukacs's view of the
modemist distortioπ of life calls forth implicatioπs radically
differeπt from those he seeks to establish, siπce modemism caπ
oπly preseπt society as a place of distortioπ by workiπg agaiπst
a domiπaπt coπcept of the πormal. This is a dialectics that
Lukacs will ποt ackπowledge, siπce his coπcept of "the πor­
mal" is of a specific ideological order aπd ποt the οπe operative
iπ bourgeois society (although his career caπ be partly seeπ as
tryiπg to recoπcile the two). Lukacs is thus iπ agreemeπt with a
host of other critics iπ takiπg modemism to task for distortiπg
reality, for failiπg to adhere to πormal coπditioπs of humaπ life,
for creatiπg a seπse of chaos iπ its depictioπ of the world, aπd for
causiπg a perceptual crisis iπ the receiver.
Aesthetics of Subversion
Lukacs's approach to the issue of modemism is coπtradic­
tory, but his coπtradictioπs are illumiπatiπg. They illustrate
how the historical coπceptioπ of a modemist paradigm caπ
(aπd has teπded to) vacillate betweeπ mimetic πotioπs of a
modem "chaos" reflected iπ οπe way or aπother by modernist
works aπd aπ uπderstaπdiπg of modemism as a chaotic subver­
sioπ of the commuπicative aπd semiotic πorms of society.
Not all those who judge modemism critically from the vaπ­
tage poiπt of social πorms are as hostile as Lukacs, aπd some are
amoπg the most perceptive commeπtators οπ modemism. Ιπ
what remaiπs οπe of the most iπterestiπg aπd iπsightful essays
οπ modemism, "The Browπ Stockiπg" (the fiπal chapter of
Mimesisj, Erich Auerbach brilliaπtly aπalyzes Virgiπia Woolf's
πovel Το the Lighthouse as a represeπtative literary approach
to, aπd "realist" reworkiπg of, modem reality. Το the Light­
house might seem to be aπ ideal example of the "aesthetic
whole" iπ modemist art, eπdiπg as it does with the boat reach­
iπg the lighthouse aπd with Lily Briscoe's liπe beiπg drawπ iπ
the ceπter of her paiπtiπg: "With a suddeπ iπteπsity, as if she
saw it clear for a secoπd, she drew a liπe there, iπ the ceπtre. It
was doπe; it was fiπished. Yes, she thought . . . Ι have had my
visioπ."31 Auerbach, however, ποt limitiπg his iπterests to
3J. V irginia Woolf, Th the Lighthouse (London: Panther Books, 1977), p. 192. Το
the Lighthouse has actually been used as aπ example of a "close alliance" between
strictly formal matters, fiπds that the πovel teπds toward
chaos, toward the breakiπg dowπ of cultural uπity or "whole."
Ιπ this as well as iπ other works that break with traditioπal
methods of represeπtatioπ, he sees signs of "coπfusioπ" aπd "a
certaiπ atmosphere of uπiversal doom" aπd "somethiπg hostile
to the reality which they represeπt."32
Aπother liberal humaπist, Lioπel Trilliπg, approaches mod­
erπism iπ a ποt dissimilar fashioπ. 'Όπ the Modem Elemeπt iπ
Modem Literature" describes how wary he was wheπ first offer­
iπg a course οπ modem literature to his studeπts, siπce it
seemed to him that its "modem elemeπt" eπtailed quite omi­
πous portrayals of humaπ iπatioπality aπd cultural subversioπ
that were obviously hostile to the domiπaπt views of social
order of which he aπd his studeπts were a part.33 The coπserva­
tive culture critic Daπiel Bell, makiπg the issue more explicitly
ideological, claims that for over a ceπtury modemism has per­
sisted iπ "providiπg reπewed aπd sustaiπed attacks οπ the bour­
geois social structure."34
Ιπ this respect Lukacs, the Marxist, is basically iπ agreemeπt
with Bell. Usiπg Kafka as aπ archetypal example, Lukacs
claims that modemists reduce social reality to πightmare aπd
portray it as aπ aπgst-ήddeπ, absurd world, thus depήviπg us of
aπy seπse of perspective. We have already seeπ how Lukacs,
who coπstaπtly argued that Marxist ideology had to build οπ
aπd critically utilize the bourgeois heritage, claims that litera­
ture must have a clear social-humaπ coπcept of the "πormal,"
aπd that this is precisely what modemism deπouπces. Lukacs
shares with Auerbach aπd Trilliπg the ποtiοπ that as a cultural
force modemism leads to the iπevitable subversioπ of tradi­
tioπal humaπism (a topic we shall take up agaiπ later iπ this
chapter). But what we see iπ this vaήety of respoπses to mod­
emism is significaπtly the very reverse of Eliot's view of the
modemism and New Cήticism; see Joanne V. Creighton, "The Reader and Modem
and Post-Modem Fiction," College Literature 9 (1982): 216-18.
32. Erich Auerbach, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Westem Litera­
ture, trans. W illard R. Trask (Pήnceton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1953), p.
55 Ι.
33· Lionel Tήlling, 'Όη the Modem Element in Modem Literature," in Stanley
Bumshaw, ed., Varieties of Literary Experience (New York: New York University
Press, 1962), pp. 407-33.
34· Daniel Bell, "Beyond Modemism, Beyond Self," The W inding Passage: Es­
says and Sociologicalfourneys, Ι960-1980 (New York: Basic, 1980), pp. 275-76.
 σmy iη mσderηist aesthetics as well as iη theσries σf mσderη­
paradigmatic breakthrσugh achieved by Jσyce iη Ulysses.
ism. Οη the σηe haηd, it seems that mσderηism is built ση
Whereas Eliσt saw Jσyce impσsiηg a strict aesthetic σrder upση
highly subjectivist premises: by directiηg its atteηtiση sσ pre­
the futility aηd aηarchy σf cσηtempσrary histσry, these critics
dσmiηaηtly tσward iηdividual σr subjective experieηce, it ele­
judge mσdemism as aη aηarchic fσrce attackiηg aηd eveη se­
vates the egσ iη prσpσrtiση to a dimiηishiηg awareηess σf σbjec­
verely uηdermiηiηg σur sσcial σrder aηd σur habitual way σf
tive σr cσhereηt σutside reality. It is custσmary tσ pσiηt tσ the
perceiviηg aηd cσmmuηicatiηg reality.
preemiηeηce σf such subjectivist pσetics iη expressiσηist aηd
suπealist literature, aηd mσre specifically iη certaiη tech­
ηiques, such as maηipulatiση σf "ceηters σf cσηsciσusηess" σr
Crisis of the Subject
the use σf "stream σf cσηsciσusηess" iη mσderη fictiση.
Οη the σther haηd, mσderηism is σfteη held tσ draw its
Apprσached frσm such aηgles σf sσcial ησrms, mσdemism is
legitimacy primarily frσm writiηg based ση highly aηtisubjec­
judged ησt as aη aesthetic cσmplemeηt σf sσcial mσderηity, but
tivist σr impersσηal pσetics. τ. S. Eliσt was σηe σf the mσst
rather as a vehicle σf crisis withiη the "prσgress" σf mσdemiza­
adamaηt spσkesmeη σf a ηeσclassical reactiση agaiηst rσmaη­
tiση. The signs σf this crisis are geηerally felt tσ reside iη a
tic-persσηal pσetry: "Pσetry is ησt a turηiηg lσσse σf emσtiση,
mσdemist preσccupatiση with humaη cσηsciσusηess (as σp­
but aη escape frσm emσtiση; it is ησt the expressiση σf persση­
pσsed tσ a mimetic cσηcerη with the humaη eηvirσηmeηt aηd
ality, but aη escape from persσηality." Heηce, "the prσgress σf
sσcial cσηditiσηs), aηd they are perhaps mσst prσησuηced iη
aη artist is a cσηtiηual self-sacrifice, a cσηtiηual extiηctiση σf
the use σf the "stream σf cσηsciσusηess" techηique iη mσdem­
persσηality," aηd "it is iη this depersσηalizatiση that art may be
ist fictiση. Thus, iη view σf previσus literary history, mσderη­
said tσ apprσach the cσηditiση σf scieηce."36
ism is felt tσ signal a radical "iηward turη" iη literature, aηd
Ιη his study σf the "geηealσgy " σf Eηglish mσderηism, Mi­
σfteη a mσre thσrσugh explσratiση σf the humaη psyche thaη is
chael Leveηsση has shσwη hσw "mσdemism was iηdividualist
deemed tσ have beeη prσbable σr eveη pσssible iη pre-Freudiaη
befσre it was aηti-iηdividualist, aηti-traditiσηal befσre it was
times. But this iηward tum is alsσ widely held tσ have ruptured
traditiσηal, iηcliηed tσ aηarchism befσre it was iηcliηed tσ
the cσηveηtiσηal ties betweeη the iηdividual aηd sσciety.
authσritariaηism."37 But such differeηces aηd develσpmeηts
Accσrdiηg tσ Lukacs, mσdemism, aided by cσηtempσrary
caη easily be σveremphasized aηd are sσmetimes based ση mis­
theσries σf existeηtial philσsσphy, preseηts the iηdividual as
leadiηg ησtiσηs σf the authσr's "preseηce iη" σr "abseηce frσm"
beiηg eterηally aηd by ηature sσlitary, extricated frσm all hu­
the wσrk as it is received. Ιη Ulysses, fσr example, it is ηear
maη, aηd iη particular frσm all sσcial, relatiσηs, existiηg ση­
impσssible tσ detect a ηarratσr σr ηarrative perspectives that
tσlσgically iηdepeηdeηt σf them.35 Cσηsequeηtly, by shσwiηg
caη decidedly be said tσ represeηt the authσr. Ιη that limited
the iηdividual as beiηg "thrσwη iηto existeηce," mσderηism
seηse, the text might be called aηtisubjective σr impersσηal
basically ηegates σutward reality, aηd equates maη's iηward­
(aηd Jσy ce was iηdeed a spσkesmaη σf a "pσetics σf impersση­
ηess with aη abstract subjectivity. This "readiηg" σf the mσd­
ality "), but at the same time we experieηce iη the wσrk radical
erηist preseηtatiση σf humaη iηdividuality cσηsσlidated early
mσdes σf subjective represeηtatiση σf reality, to the exteηt that
ση iηtσ a prσmiηeηt paradigm. Ιη the wσrds Ortega y Gasset
outside reality cσmes tσ lσse its habitual, mimetic reliability.
used fσr the will-tσ-style σf mσderη art, it is σfteη characterized
But sσ dσes the "reality " σf iηdividual experieηces mediated
as the "dehumaηizatiση σf art." But the dismaηtliηg σf cσηveη­
tiσηal preseηtatiση σf iηdividuality has led tσ a certaiη dichσt-
ted Essays, Ι9Ι?­
the Individual Talent," Selec
36. Τ. S. Eliot, "Tradition and
Brace, 1932), pp. ro, 7·
35· Lukacs, Wider den mij]verstandenen Realismus, p. r6; The Meaning of Ι932 (New York: Harcourt,
of Modernism, p. 79·
Contemporary Realism, p. 20. 37. Levenson, Α Genealogy
 tnrough the text, and in this respect the effect of such "subjec­
tive" methods is clearly related to that of the "loss of self" or
the "erasure of personality " that exhausts many characters in
modem fiction, such as Ulrich in Musil's Mann ohne Eigen­
schaften.38 This foregrounds a decisive point: what the mod­
ernist poetics of impersonality and that of extreme subjectivity
have in common (and this outweighs whatever may separate
them) is a revolt against the traditional relation of the subject
to the outside world.
In one sense, therefore, Lukacs is not far off the mark in
stating that the ontological degradation of the objective reality
of man's outside world (AuEenwelt des Menschen) and the
corresponding exaltation of his subjectivity necessarily result
in a distorted structure of the subject.39 The problem is that
Lukacs takes this subject to be an already given, natural entity,
whereby he forfeits a critical distance that might elucidate
modemist treatments of subjectivity. Gabriel Josipovici, for
instance, claims that modemism brings about a deep question­
ing of the bourgeois self that "was in fact a construction. It was
built up by impulses within us in order to protect us from chaos
and destruction."40 And this has of course been a basic view of a
great deal of recent criticism and theory, much of which has in
fact vehemently reinforced modernist deconstruction of bour­
geois identity.
It is a widespread notion that chaos and destruction are the
only alternatives that modernism has held up for individuality
and the traditional bourgeois self.Again, we can look to Lukacs
for a critical (and highly polemic) "construction" of a modem­
ist paradigm.His views are representative not only because his
approach to modernism has assumed a central place in much
sociological and Marxist criticism, but also because of his
strong ties with traditional bourgeois humanism, the critical
branch of which has often reacted with great reserve, if not
38. See Wylie Sypher, Loss of the Self in Modern Literature and
Art INew York:
V intage Books, 1962), p. 74·
39. Lukacs, Wider den miflverstandenen Realismus, p. 22; The
Meaning of
Contemporary Realism, p. 24. Lukacs talks about a "Verzerrun
g" in the "dyna·
mischen Struktur des Subjekts. "
40. GabrielJosipovici, The Lessons of Modernism and Other Essays
ITotowa,
N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1977), p. χ.
hostility, to modernism. In dealing with expressionism in the
thirties, Lukacs was mainly responding to the "formalism" of
its poetry, but when he comes to write Wider den mi[Jverstand­
enen Realismus his emphasis is on fiction, and his views are
largely shaped and sharpened by his reaction to modernist
modes of characterization.He attacks modernism for not creat­
ing believable and lasting "ty pes," but instead effecting a fading
of characters into shadows or congealment in ghostly iπa­
tionality. By reducing reality to a nightmare, possibly in the
nebulous consciousness of an idiot, and through its obsession
with the morbid and the pathological, modernism partakes in
"a glorification of the abnormal," in "anti-humanism."41
Again Lukacs involves us in an insightful paradox.While he
finds modernism to have severed the essential ties between
subjective experience and objective reality, he still sees in its
portrayal of the human character an aggressive social (that is
antisocial) attitude, which he and several other critics have
judged to betoken a crisis of humanism.One is reminded again
of the words of Robinson and Vogel ση how the modernist
intensification of isolation undermines our interpretive facili­
ties. Humanist critics are often of the same opinion. Eugene
Goodheart finds that the "lesson of modernism" lies in provid­
ing "an exacerbated sense of insecurity about the world ... and
if one institutionalizes this lesson in the university, one is
getting not moral guidance, but subversion."42 Like some other
critics, Goodheart finds an early sign of this tendency in Dos­
toevsky's Notes from Underground: "Dostoevsky's under­
ground man violates every rule of moral and intellectual de­
corum in order to achieve a sense of individual vitality .... He
regards the moral sense as a disease from which he is trying to
purge himself" (ro). The nameless (anti)hero of Dostoevsky's
work, who begins by stating that he is sick and who seeks to
distance himself from all "normal" behavior, is often seen as
the prototy pe of the modernist "hero," in whom heightened
4Ι· Lukacs, Wider den miflverstandenen Realismus, pp. 63, 31, 29, 32; The
Meaning of Contemporary Realism, pp. 58, 3 r, 30, 32. T he English translation is at
times inaccurate, and sometimes condenses the text to the point of leaving out
relevant things.
42. Eugene Goodheart, "Modemism and the Critical Spirit," The Failure of
Criticism ICambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978), p. 10.
 J� ' • "" '-'UΗι;tρι ur Jνιoσemιsm
consciousness and social isolation and paralysis go hand in
hand, as do the exaltation of individuality and its erasure.
Modernism and Its Discontents
Notes from Underground is among the books Lionel Trilling
finds characteristic for the "modem element" that he sees as
socially subversive, hostile to the positivism and the "common
sense" of our bourgeois era. Trilling comes to the conclusion
that characteristically modern literature, and the "freedom" it
seeks, are incompatible with our society.43 Several humanist
critics have highlighted the discontent of modemism at the
hands of social order, the extraordinarily bleak view of modem
culture and society they find embodied in modemism. Accord­
ing to Richard Poirier, "modernism is associated with being
unhappy."44 Part of the fame of Eliot's Waste Land springs
undoubtedly from the fact that its title is felt to be typically
evocative of the pessimistic view of modem culture often asso­
ciated with modemism (which its adversaries sometimes call
"wastelandism"). Modemist writing-and here it is often felt
to be greatly influenced by Nietzsche-in its preoccupation
with "alienation, fragmentation, break with tradition, iso­
lation and magnification of subjectivity, threat of the void,
weight of vast numbers and monolithic impersonal institu­
tions, hatred of civilization itself" (these are, according to
Daniel Fuchs, the "general characteristics of modernism"45),
would seem to be the music played to the imminent decline of
Westem culture.
Other critics, elaborating on the dark vision that modemism
is felt to usher in, lay more stress ση how it opens the gates to
the forces of the iπational, and some lament the concomitant
destruction of reason. The modernist interest in human con­
sciousness was not least directed at the recently "discovered"
subconscious layers of the life of the mind. It is noteworthy that
43. Tήlling, "On the Modem Element in Modem Literature," p. 433.
44· Richard Poiήer, 'The Difficulties of Modemism and the Modemism of
Difficulty;" in Arthur Edelstein, ed., Images and Ideas in American Culture: The
Functions of Criticism /Hanover, Ν.Η.: Brandeis University Press, 1979), p.125.
45. Fuchs, "Saul Bellow and the Modem Tradition," p. 75.
The Making of Modemist Paradigms I 3 r
Lukacs, in discussing the modemist obsession with the patho­
logical, sees in it a tendency conspicuously analogous to
Freud's psychological theories. 46 Several modemists were of
course influenced by Freud, and we can no doubt extract from
modemist studies various significant aspects of a "Freudian"
theory of modernism. But modemist explorations of the darker
regions of the mind frequently go hand in hand with the kind of
cultural and historical revolt often associated with Nietzsche.
This approach to modernism is perhaps most forcefully pre­
sented not ίη a piece of academic criticism, but by Thoma$
Mann in Doktor Faustus, which is indeed a book about music
composed for an era of decline and destruction.
Doktor Faustus although a novel, is one of the most impor­
tant books about modemism, written by an author who was
continually contemplating the cultural implications of mod­
ernism in art and literature (whether Mann was himself a
"practicing" modernist is by no means as obvious as some
critics seem to think; his whole relationship with aesthetic
modemity is extremely complex). In Doktor Faustus he amal­
gamates his views of modernism into a novel whose "hero" is
both a modemist artist and a kind of reincamation of Nietz­
sche, whom Mann considered the preeminent cultural precur­
sor of modemism. Ι believe we can find ίη this novel a rich
melting pot of paradigmatic notions about modemism.47
In the composer Adrian Leverkίihn we find, first of all, a
familiar biographical image of the modernist artist. Leverkίihn
typifies the isolation of the artist from modem society. He
suffers from "Weltscheu," as he calls it; in a way he symbolizes
I! the separation, so often associated with modernism, of the
world of art from the "real" or "outside" world. Not only does
he ignore a pub1ic audience, "because he altogether declined to
imagine a contemporary public for his exclusive, eccentric,
fantastic dreams,"48 but he seems to have only scom for the
46. Lukacs, Wider den miβverstandenen Realismus, p. 29; The Meaning of
Contemporary Realism, p.30.
47· Ι am not the first critic to note the relevance of Mann's novel for the whole
debate around modemism. Gabήel Josipovici states in the preface to The Lessons
of Modernism that his book is "the result of a long struggle to come to terms
with .. . Thomas Mann's Dr. Faustus" (p. ixj.
48. Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian
Leverkuhn as Ίbld by α Friend, trans. Η. τ. Lowe-Porter (New York: Vintage Books,
1971), p. 165.
 outside world: "He wanted to know nothing, see nothing, actu­
world,' and the history of my departed friend's connection or
ally experience nothing, at least not in any obvious, exterior
lack of connection with it" (397). But Zeitblom's own sense of
sense of the word" (ry6). His aesthetic views are characterized
history and the world around him is inextricably tied up with a
by the subjective-impersonal nexus mentioned above. He re­
strong tradition from which he is unable to distance himself.
fuses to discuss his music as a personal expression, yet his art is
Leverkίihn might actually be alluding in part to Zeitblom when
said to arise from "his exclusive, eccentric, fantastic dreams"
he says that "the nineteenth century must have been an un­
( r 65). His biographer, Serenus Zeitblom, finds a perfect expres­
commonly pleasant epoch, since it had never been harder for
sion of this paradox in Leverkίihn's last work: "The creator of
humanity to tear itself away from the opinions and habits of
'Fausti Wehe-klage' can, in the previously organized material,
the previous period than it was for the generation now living"
unhampered, untroubled by the already given structure, yield
(25).
himself to subjectivityί and so this, his technically most rigid
Leverkίihn, however, being almost painfully self-conscious
work, a work of extreme calculation, is at the same time purely
of the habitualized modes of existence (and this awareness is in
expressive" (488). Zeitblom experiences a kind of solution of
itself often considered a major characteristic of modemism),
the paradox we have already mentioned: how modernist works
revolts against the aesthetic traditions of the nineteenth cen­
often seem to involve an interplay of spontaneous reactions of
tury. W hile still a student he asks why "almost all, no, all the
subjective faculties and a "distancing" effect caused by elabo­
methods and conventions of art today are good for parody
rate formal mediation. This becomes a central issue for the
only?"(134). In reporting on one of Leverkϋhn's works, Zeit­
dichotomy of order and chaos that runs through the novel.
blom notes: "There are altogether no thematic connections,
Already at the beginning of his career Leverkίihn finds West­
developments, variations....Of traditional forms not a trace"
ern culture a wasteland. He wonders whether epochs that really
(456). But what troubles Zeitblom more than Leverkίihn's for­
experienced culture could have known the concept itself. For
mal innovations is the fact that they carry with them, in his
unconscious presence, "naivete," may be a prerequisite of cul­
major works, a deep questioning of prevalent notions of human
ture.
existence, indeed, a radical decentering of man. Leverkίihn
wants his music to depict a universe in which modem man is
What we are losing is just this naϊvete, and this lack, if one may so
peripheral, while the elemental and the primal dominateί he
speak of it, protects us from many a colourful barbarism which
describes for Zeitblom his fascination with outer space and the
altogether perfectly agreed with culture, even with very high
depths of the ocean with its monstrous creatures, which he
culture. Ι mean: our state is that of civilization-a very praisewor­
would like to bring to the surface (269-70). The psychological
thy state no doubt, but also neither was there any doubt that we
implications are unmistakable, and Zeitblom, in his "alle­
should have to become very much more barbaric to be capable of
giance to the sphere of the human and articulate" (269), is
culture again. Technique and comfort-in that state one talks
frightened by the kind of intellect he finds in Leverkίihn, which
about culture but one has not got it. (59-6ο)
"stands in the most immediate relation of all to the animal, to
naked instinct" (147). Thus, Leverkίihn's sophisticated and
Leverkίihn's music can be seen as a search for this barbarism
self-conscious aesthetics is not to be severed from the totemic
that would bring back "Kultur" into a decadent modemity. It is
and the cultic or the most primitive levels of human conscious­
significant that Zeitblom's biographical task, as he sees it, is
ness, and Zeitblom must acknowledge that aestheticism and
very much like that of many students of modemism, that is, he
barbarism are intimately related (373). But as the two coalesce,
is seeking to reestablish the "lost" connections between the
Zeitblom realizes that they also negate traditional aesthetics
world of art (in this case the art of Leverkίihn) and the world of
and the humanism that has formed its bedrock and that is the
history: "The subject of the naπative is the same: 'the outer
foundation of his own view of life. Το Zeitblom, who describes
 lllmselt as "by nature wholly moderate, of a temper, Ι may say,
fallacy discussed earlier, but he does so in a way that reverses
both healthy and humane, addressed to reason and harmony"
the alleged modernist reflection of the "closed," rigidly hier­
(3)-indeed an archetype of "the normal" as promoted by
archized order of the fascist state. For Zeitblom, Leverkίihn's
Lukacs-Leverkίihn's aesthetics and art is the threatening
modemism is the musical accompaniment to the brutal, cha­
'Όther," the demonic (a key word in the novel), a Faustian
otic, barbaric attacks launched on bourgeois humanist order in
expression of forbidden desires that lead Leverkίihn into a pact
the "practical" sphere of life.
with the devil. (We seem indeed to have traveled to the "other"
W hat prevents Zeitblom from seeing beyond this mirror rela­
side of the notion of modernist art as religious sanctuary!)
tionship is not least his inability to view critically the ideologi­
In seeking the connections between Leverkίihn's music and
cal implications of those powers of reason which he associates
the turbulent age, Zeitblom is acutely aware of his friend's
with humanism. He sees no continuity, only schism between
perception of historical ruptures, aware that World War Ι sig­
Westem capitalist society and the emerging forces of fascism,
naled for him "the opening of a new period of history, crowded
and he is also unable to fathom the resilience and survival of
with tumult and disruptions, agonies and wild vicissitudes,"
Westem capitalism and of the bourgeois humanist subject that
and that "ση the horizon of his creative life ...there was already
is so ineluctably tied up with that social form. All he sees is its
rising the 'Apocalypsis cum figuris'" (3 r 5 ), an apt name for his
imminent destruction and the total lack of any viable altema­
magnum opus.
tives. Mann's own perspective is of course to be dissociated
From his own perspective (which incidentally closely resem­
from that of his biographer-narrator, Mann's very example of
bles that of Stefan Zweig in Die Welt von Gestern), Zeitblom
the surviving bourgeois subject, indeed of "the normal," and it
also sees the world undergoing an apocalypse; the world of
is only against the background of Zeitblom that we can appreci­
yesterday; a world that had seemed to point toward unequivocal
ate the "abnormality" or subversion of Leverkίihn's art and life.
progress in every sphere of life, is disintegrating:
Mann's dialectics is strikingly incorporated into the structure
of the novel: he has a traditional humanist-realist narrator
Ι felt that an epoch was ending, which had not only included the filter and mediate the norm-breaking art and aesthetics of a
nineteenth century, but gone far back to the end of the Middle radical modemist. Thus, Mann places himself at a distance
Ages, to the loosening of scholastic ties, the emancipation of the from Leverkίihn, while to a certain extent he also treats Zeit­
individual, the birth of freedom. This was the epoch which Ι had blom with Leverkίihn's methods of irony and parody, showing,
in very truth regarded as that of my more extended spiritual
for instance, that Zeitblom's relation to history is no more
home, in short the epoch of bourgeois humanism. And Ι felt as Ι
"innocent" than that of Leverkίihn. Despite all his humanist
say that its hour had come; that a mutation of life would be
values, Zeitblom is prone to the kind of nationalist fervor and
consummated; the world would enter into a new, still nameless
desire for social order from which Nazism tapped so much
constellation. ( 3 52)
energy.

Zeitblom is unwillingly but inexorably pulled toward draw­

ing an analogy between the worldly powers, principally fas­
Discontent as Negation
cism, that are shattering the bourgeois-humanist world and the
art of the friend he holds in such high reverence; an art that so
Ι do not want to try to determine what Mann's total depiction
obviously is also hostile to the products of that succumbing
of modemism in Doktor Faustus amounts to, rich and ambiva­
world. Mann has placed the question of the ideological role of
lent as it is. But from the way he plays his two "heroes" against
modemism in a blatant, although ambivalent, historical con­
one another, Mann appears to concur with the observation,
text. Zeitblom appears to commit one version of the reflection
which modemists are often felt to play out in their works, that
 humanism has entered an era of deep crisisi that in a capitalist
world of increasing economic conflict, social strife, and war,
the heritage of bourgeois humanism and all the values it was
taken to ensure are evidently at sea. W hile modemists have
repeatedly been attacked for antihumanism in their portrayal
of a fragmented subject in an estranged or morbid universe,
they have often seen their aversion from traditional humanism
as necessitated by a historical development that called this
subject and its values into question. Hermann Broch called the
final chapter of Die Schlafwandler "The Breakdown of Values"
(Zerfall der Werte), and in a commentary on the novel he de­
scribes this topic in the following terms:
At the center of this fiπal volume is the "breakdowπ of values,"
the historical aπd epistemological portrayal of the four-ceπtury­
loπg process which uπder the guidaπce of rationality dissolved
the Christiaπ-platoπic cosmology of medieval Europe, aπ over­
whelmiπg aπd teπifyiπg process, eπdiπg iπ total fragmeπtatioπ of
values, the uπleashiπg of reasoπ together with the eruptioπ of
irratioπality iπ every seπse, the self-Iaceratioπ of the world iπ
blood aπd sufferiπg.49
Broch significantly points out the double-edged relation of
modemism to the whole program of the Enlightenment. Mod­
ernism is arguably both an heir to the project of the Enlighten­
ment and a revolt against its historical process. This ambiva­
lence is variously manifest in the presentation of the modem
"subject." Modemism cannot really make the "loss" of the
bounded bourgeois subject and the breakdown of its values a
part of its discourse without in the first place invoking the
validity, however tentative, of that subject and those values. Το
quote Terry Eagleton:
The coπtradictioπ of modemism iπ this respect is that iπ order
valuably to decoπstruct the uπified subject of bourgeois humaπ­
ism, it draws upoπ key πegative aspects of the actual expeήeπce
of such subjects iπ late bourgeois society, which ofteπ eπough
49. Hermann Broch, "Der Wertzeήall und die Schlafwandler," pub. in an appen·
dix to Paul Michael Lίitzeler, ed., Die Schlafwandler: Eine Romantrilogie (Frank­
furt: Suhrkamp, 1978), p. 734 (my translationl.
does ποt at all correspoπd to the official ideological versioπ. It
thus pits what is iπcreasiπgly felt to be the pheπomeπological
reality of capitalism agaiπst its formal ideologies, aπd iπ doiπg so
fiπds that it caπ fully embrace πeither. The pheπomeπological
reality of the subject throws formal humaπist ideology iπto ques­
tioπ, while the persisteπce of that ideology is precisely what
eπables the pheπomeπological reality to be characterized as πega­
tive.50
Modemism thus invokes the bourgeois subject, but it does so
more through negation than affirmation. Hence-and this
sums up the various aspects of the crisis of the subject dis­
cussed above-modemism can be seen as the negative other of
capitalist-bourgeois ideology and of the ideological space of
social harmony demarcated for the bourgeois subject. This ap­
pears to cohere with the historical theory of what Matei Cal­
inescu has termed "the two modemities," according to which
modemism is judged in the light of its opposition to the "prog­
ress" of social modemity. We have already seen how such a
dualism characterizes some critical approaches to modernism
whereby modemism is seen as subverting and negating the
cultural and ethical heritage of traditional bourgeois society.
According to Calinescu:
At some poiπt duriπg the first half of the πiπeteeπth ceπtury aπ
irreversible split occurred betweeπ modemity as a stage iπ the
history of Westem civilizatioπ-a product of scieπtific aπd tech­
πological progress, of the iπdustrial revolutioπ, of the sweepiπg
ecoπomic aπd social chaπges brought about by capitalism-aπd
modemity as aπ aesthetic coπcept. Siπce theπ, the relatioπs be­
tweeπ the two modemities have beeπ irreducibly hostile, but ποt
without allowiπg aπd eveπ stimulatiπg a variety of mutual iπflu­
eπces iπ their rage for each other's destructioπ.sι
Cήtics who emphasize how modemism negates the cultural
"contents" of bourgeois society as well as the status of its
50. Terry Eagleton, "Capitalism, Modemism and Postmodemism," Against the
Grain: Essays 1975-1985 (London: Verso, 1986!, p. 144.
51. Matei Calinescu, Faces of Modernity: Avant-Garde, Decadence, Kitsch
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1977), p. 41.
 subject-Trilliηg will serve as aη example-σfteη dσ sσ iη
terms σf thematic, ethicaι sσciσlσgical, psychσlσgical, philσ­
sσphicaι aηd ideσlσgical issues. The questiση remaiηs whether
this is aη apprσpriate basis ση which tσ grσuηd such a ηegatiση
aηd heηce a mσdemist paradigm. Surely we caη imagiηe a
traditiσηal realist text that fulfills the thematic requiremeηts
σf such a ηegatiση. It seems, therefσre, that iη σrder fσr us tσ
begiη fiηdiηg the edges σf mσdemism, we have tσ relate the
abσve issues tσ mσdes σf preseηtatiση, tσ laηguage aηd fσrmal
mediatiση, wiηdiηg σur way back tσ the questiση σf "mσdemist
fσrm."
Ιη the abσve-quσted article, Hermaηη Broch gσes ση tσ say σf
his Schlafwandler trilσgy: "While 'Paseησw' still hσlds ση tσ
the style σf the σld family ησvel (althσugh fσrged iηtσ a thσr­
σughly mσdem σηeJι 'Esch' already shσws signs-iη strict par­
allel tσ the histσrical prσcess σf disiηtegratiση iη the fσrms
σf life-σf the disiηtegratiση aηd blσwiηg-up σf ηaπative art
which reaches aη extraσrdiηary breakthrσugh iη 'Hugueηau' "
(734-35). Brσch thus draws a "strict parallel" betweeη his ηar­
rative and the histσrical process σf the disiηtegratiση σf life.
This cσηstitutes σηe mσre variaηt σf the reflectiση theσry: iη
the "explσsiση" σf ηarrative fσrms we are tσ see reflected the
dissσlutiση σf bσurgeσis fσrms σf life. What is iηvσlved here,
hσwever, is ησt a reflectiση σf the prevaleηt perceptiσηs σf the
"prσgress" σf sσcial mσdemity, but rather a "reprσductiση" σf
its ηegative σr its "σther"i that is, σf sσcial experieηce that
cσηtradicts the "σfficial" ideσlσgy σf cσhereηce aηd prσgress
that is iηterwσveη with techησlσgical aηd capitalist-ecσησmic
develσpmeηt. This cultural ηegatiση, mσreσver, is maηifested
iη the revσlt agaiηst traditiσηal ηarrative mσdes . Heηce, while
iη cultural terms mσderηism caη be seeη as cσηstitutiηg the
'Όther mσdemity/' this cultural fuηctiση, by ηecessity as it
were, eηtails a ηegatiση σf prevaleηt literary aηd aesthetic tra­
ditiσηs.
Α pσwerful iηstance σf such a ηegatiση σccurs tσward the eηd
σf Dσktσr Faustus. Zeitblσm ησtes σf Leverkϋhη's last wσrk,
Fausti Weheklag: "He wrσte it, ησ dσubt, with his eye ση Beet­
hσveη's Niηth, as its cσuηterpart iη a mσst melaηchσly seηse σf
the wσrd. But it is ησt σηly that it mσre thaη σηce fσrmally
ηegates the symphσηy, reverses it iηtσ the ηegative" (49σ!ι fσr
Zeitblσm alsσ fiηds a reversal σf the "Watch with me" σf Geth-
,f semaηei Faustus dσes ησt waηt aηyσηe tσ stay awake with him
σr tempt him to be saved, ησt because it is tσσ late, "but
because with his whσle sσul he despises the pσsitivism σf the
wσrld fσr which σηe wσuld save him, the lie σf its gσdliηess"
(49σ). Leverkϋhη's wσrk is a ηegatiση ησt σηly σf Beethσveη's
paradigmatic symphσηy but σf sσciety's geηeral "pσsitivity/'
which is aηηulled by its ηegative reversal. Oηce σηe kησws
that Theσdσr W. Αdσrησ was Μaηη's musical advisσr iη writiηg
Doktor Faustus, it is hard ησt tσ thiηk that he had a haηd iη
Μaηη's fσrmulatiση σf ηegativity. Iηdeed, this seems tσ be
cσηfirmed iη "Zu eiηem Pσrtriit Thσmas Μaηηs/' iη which
Αdσmσ describes hσw he "rebelled" agaiηst Μaηη's σrigiηal
descriptiση σf Fausti Weheklag: "Νσt σηly iη view σf the σver­
all situatiση σf Dσctσr Faustus's lameηtatiση, but with regard
tσ the ησvel as a whσle, Ι fσuηd the heavily lσaded pages tσσ
pσsitive, tσσ uηiηterruptedly theσlσgical. They seemed tσ lack
what was called fσr iη the decisive passage, the fσrce σf a deter­
miηate ηegatiση as the σηly permitted sigη σf the σther."52 He
theη relates hσw Μaηη chaηged the text tσ the likiηg σf his
advisσr.
Adorno's Aesthetics of Negativity
Sσ far we have traced several mσdemist paradigms as they
have beeη cσηstructed by critics aηd schσlars iη the cσηtext
σf tweηtieth-ceηtury literature-first thσse that, iη a mσde
strσηgly related tσ New Criticism, judge mσderηism ση the
basis σf strictly fσrmal aesthetics, accσrdiηg tσ which mσdem­
ist wσrks are characterized by a largely ησηrefereηtial dis­
cσurse aηd aη ahistσrical fσrmal autσησmy. Tσuchiηg ση cer­
taiη Marxist readiηgs σf such aη 11escape" frσm histσry, we theη
mσved thrσugh apprσaches tσ mσdemism as a histσrical cσuη­
terpart σf sσcial mσdemity ση tσ variσus readiηgs σf it as a
culturally subversive eηterprise that revσlts agaiηst dσmiηaηt
ησtiσηs σf the bσurgeσis subject σr σf bσurgeσis-capitalist his­
tσrical develσpmeηt.
Jσcheη Schulte-Sasse claims that 11the twσ mσst prevaleηt
μ. TheodorW. Adomo, Zur Dialektik des Engagements: Aufsatzezur Literatur
des 20. fahrhunderts Π IFrankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1973!, p. 144 (my translationJ.
"1".....,. ι ...._ .._.._.._.. '-"V.I..Ι.'-''-'f-'L V.l ill.lVU\..-1111;::)111
(and also most interestingj theories of modernism [are] those
proceeding from Adomo and from French poststructuralism."53
This is a rather surprising statement. Rightly or wrongly, al­
though in many cases it can and should be approached as
a theory of modemism, poststructuralism (especially in the
Anglo-American spherej has been discussed mostly in light of
theories of postmodemism, with which it is more or less con­
temporary. Adomo's work, especially outside German-speak­
ing countries, has hardly been at the forefront of the discussion
suπounding modemism. His theories certainly deserve to be
placed at the center of that debate, however, not least since they
focus acutely, within a coherent aesthetic framework, on im­
portant ideas and problems that are often more loosely ex­
pressed by others.
Adomo's theories of art, in particular his Asthetische Theorie
(r970), are shaped by-are indeed almost concomitant with­
his approach to modemism. Ι have chosen to ignore in this
context how this undermines the generality of his aesthetic
theory, for instance with regard to premodemist art. The most
fruitful way to look at Asthetische Theorie, this most signifi­
cant, although unfinished, work of Adomo's ripe years is to read
it as a theory of modemism. Also, before proceeding, Ι would
like to note that Adomo's term "die Modeme," is clearly equiv­
alent to our use of "modemism,"54 its first signs being visible at
around the mid-nineteenth century, especially in Baudelaire's
work, although it reaches its heights only in the twentieth
century and is still fully in the foreground in Beckett, who is
one of Adomo's chief examples of "die Modeme."
In his opening chapter Adomo states that the communica­
tion of works of art with the outside world, from which they
53· Jochen Schulte-Sasse, "Foreword: Theory of Modemism versus Theory of the
Avant-Garde," in Peter Bίirger, Theory of the Avant-Garde, trans. Michael Shaw
IMinneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984!, p. xv.
54· On at least two occasions, Adomo actually uses the concept "Modemismus"
for a kind of epigonal, imitative modemism; he clearly assumes it to be a rather
pejorative terrn. See Asthetische Theorie, ed. Gretel Adomo and Rolf τiedemann
IFrankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1970), p. 45; Versuch, das Endspiel zu verstehen: Aufsatze
zur Literatur des 20. fahrhunderts Ι IFrankfurt: Suhrkamp Taschenbuch, 1973!, p.
167. The same use of the terrn can be found in Renato Poggioli, The Theory of the
Avant-Garde, trans. Gerald Fitzgerald ICambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1968!, pp. 216-18.
The Making of Modernist Paradigms I 41
"blissfully or unhappily" seclude themselves, takes place
through noncommunication, and this is how they manifest
their fragmentation.55 This view of artworks as fractured and
communicating through noncommunication obviously points
to features of modernist art, a view that is substantiated when
Adomo seeks to pinpoint the social nature of art. He sees art as
being social neither solely through its mode and state of pro­
duction nor through the social derivation of its material con­
tent. "Rather, it is social primarily because it stands opposed to
society." This function is facilitated through the autonomy of
art, for by crystallizing its autonomous qualities "rather than
obeying existing social norms and thus proving itself to be
'socially useful'-art criticizes society just by being there. Pure
and immanently elaborated art is a tacit critique of the debase­
ment of man by a condition that is moving toward a total­
exchange society where everything is a for-other." The asocial
aspect (das Asozialej of art "is the determinate negation of a
determinate society."56
We see here pivotal elements of Adorno's view of the so­
ciocultural function of art. Its social context is that of an ever­
expanding, monolithic capitalist society, moving toward a sys­
tem of total exchange as well as total rationality, which is
equivalent to absolute reification in matters of social interac­
tion. It is a system in which the very notion of meaning has
become wholly contaminated with the capitalist ideology of
total exchange. In the face of this human debasement, art's
basic mode of resistance is in a sense that of opting out of the
system's communicative network in order to attack it head on
from the "outside." In one of his essays Adomo even goes so far
as to say that "the topical work of art gets a better grip of society
the less it deals with society."57
Adomo's complex dialectics, however, by ηο means rests on a
one-sided purism, for the qualities of art that promote its "au­
tonomy'' also aπange themselves in such a way that they re­
flect social conditions. This happens through a process of nega-
55· Theodor W. Adomo, Aesthetic Theory, trans. C. Lenhardt jLondon: Rout·
ledge and Kegan Paul, 1984!, p. 7; cf. A.sthetische Theorie, p. 15.
56. Adomo, Aesthetic Theory, p. 321; cf. Asthetische Theorie, p. 335·
57. Adomo, "Voraussetzungen," Versuch, das Endspiel zu verstehen, p. 115 lmy
translation).
tive mimesis, ποt uπlike that discussed iπ the coπtext of Broch
aπd Μaππ. Adorπo states iπ Asthetische Theorie that moderπ
art has πο iπterest iπ a direct reflectioπ of the social surface; it
does ποt "waπt to duplicate the faςade of reality," but "makes
aπ uπcompromisiπg repriπt of reality while at the same time
avoidiπg beiπg coπtamiπated by it." Kafka's power as a writer,
he adds, is precisely that of this "πegative seπse of reality."58 Ιπ
a separate essay, Adorno rejects aπy attempt to see iπ Kafka's
work the phy sical reflectioπ of a modern bureaucratic society.
Rather, the shabbiπess depicted ίπ Kafka "is the cry ptogram of
capitalism's highly polished, glitteriπg late phase, which he
excludes ίπ order to defiπe it all the more precisely ίπ its
πegative. Kafka scrutiπizes the smudges left behiπd ίπ the de­
luxe editioπ of the book of life by the fiπgers of power. Ν ο world
could be more homogeπeous thaπ the stifliπg οπe which he
compresses to a totality by meaπs of petty-bourgeois dread; it is
logically air-tight aπd empty of meaπiπg like every sy stem."59
Here we caπ observe aπother dialectical twist ίπ Adorno's
theory: by arguiπg that modernists like Kafka preseπt the
"πegative" of society (preseπtiπg what Adorno ίπ fact some­
times calls 11the πegative of πegativity"), he haπds meaπiπgless­
πess over to the 11logically closed" capitalist sy stem. Ιπ this
society1 logic aπd ratioπality have turned iπto their opposites.
Ιπ Asthetische Theorie Adomo πotes that the fact that mimesis
is practicable iπ the midst of ratioπalityι employiπg its meaπs1
maπifests a respoπse to the base irratioπality of the ratioπal
world and its meaπs of coπtrol. For the purpose of ratioπality, of
the quiπtessential means of regulating nature1 "would have to
be something other than a means, heπce a non-rational quality.
Capitalist society hides and disavows precisely this irration­
ality, whereas art does not." Art holds forth the image, rejected
by rationality, of its purpose and exposes its other, its irra­
tionality. 60
While we may not agree with Adorno's pessimistic view of
the iπevitably destructive social process of humaπ rationality,
which he saw as being ty pically represented by the Enlighten-
58. Adomo, Aesthetic Theory, p. 28; Asthetische Theory, p. 36.
59· Theodor W. Adomo, "Notes ση Kafka," Prisms, trans. Samuel and Shierry
Weber(Cambridge, Mass.: MJτPress, 198Ij, p. 256.
6ο. Adomo, Aesthetic Theory, p. 79; Asthetische Theorie, p. 86.
ment, his is a compelliπg explanatioπ of the 11irrational" ele­
ment ίη modernism, an elemeπt that some critics caπ oπly
bliπdly reject. (Οπ the other hand, οπe might also πote that his
pessimism-appeariπg more radically iπ Dialectic of Enlight­
enment, which he coauthored with Horkheimer-ruπs parallel
with the bleak view of the modern humaπ situatioπ that crit­
ics, particularly traditionally humaπist critics, see as promi­
πent in modernist literature).
The modernist reversal of society's rational negativity, ac­
cording to Adorno, fiπds aπ authentic expressioπ in the objec­
tificatioπ of a subjective experieπce of society. This experieπce,
as Eagletoπ puts it iπ the above quote, does 1'ποt at all corre­
spoπd to the official ideological versioπ" of bourgeois society,
but is in fact its πegative "reflectioπ." Such objectification,
therefore, must not take on the shape of the osteπsibly objec­
tive portrayals of subjective experience in realist representa­
tion, for, as Adorno πotes iπ discussing Beckett, the πegativity
of the subject as a true objective gestalt can only manifest itself
iπ a radically subjective coπfiguratioπ (Gestaltuπg). It caπnot
emerge in aπ "allegedly higher objectivity."61 If Ι understand
Adorno's ty pically deπse formulatioπ correctly, it provides us
with the most elaborate illustratioπ yet of the subject-object
πexus in modernist representation. While subjective experi­
ence is to be mediated through objectificatioπ, that is, as aπ
objective gestalt (and it is at this level that Adorno discards the
relevance of the author's personality), this objectificatioπ, iπ
order to express the negativity of the experieπce, must be coπ­
structed iπ a radically 1'subjective" maππer-it must not take
οπ the shape of "rationalized" objective represeπtation to
which as social beiπgs we are accustomed. Thus, on οπe level of
representatioπ, for instaπce in Kafka's work, the outside world
is forcefully objectified through all the surface elemeπts famil­
iar to us, but on another level this objectificatioπ does ποt
concur with our habitualized perception of the 'Όbjective"
world, and heπce takes on the shape of a radically subjective
construct. This subjective "Gestaltuπg" effects the erasure or
Gestalt von Objektivitiit kann nur
61. "Die Negativitat des Subjekts als wahre
iver Gestalt ung, nicht in der Supposition vermeintlich hoherer
in radikal subjekt
, Asthetische Theorie, p. 370; cf. Aesthetic
Objektivitiit sich darstellen." Adomo
Theory, p. 354·
 explσsiση, discussed abσve, σf the bσurgeσis subject, while at
the same time reflectiηg, iη a "ηegative" maηηer, its sσcial
eηchaiηmeηt.
It fσllσws that Αdσrησ is perhaps the mσst promiηeηt repre­
seηtative σf the view that mσdemism, iη Fredric Jamesση's
wσrds, is ησt sσ much "a way σf avσidiηg sσcial cσηteηt .. . as
rather σf maηagiηg aηd cσηtaiηiηg it, secludiηg it σut σf sight iη
the very fσrm itself."62
The Functiσn σf Form
Αdσmσ has sσught a sσlutiση tσ a paradσx meηtiσηed earlier
iη this chapter; he has gσηe far tσward recσηciliηg the σppσsi­
tiσηal cσηceptiσηs σf mσdemism as, ση the σηe haηd, aη autση­
σmσus aesthetic practice aηd, ση the σther, a histσrical-cultural
fσrce. But ση at least σηe level, it seems tσ me, this sσlutiση
may have beeη bσught at tσσ high a price. While Adσmσ's
σutright rejectiση σf iηteηtiσηality aηd the validity σf authσr­
ial-subjective expressiση may be justified, he gσes tσσ far iη
erasiηg the ησtiση σf aηy kiηd σf social consciousness behiηd
the creatiση σf the wσrk. Artists aηd writers, accσrdiηg tσ
Αdσmσ, shσuld ησt thiηk σf themselves as critical ageηts, they
shσuld cσηceηtrate ση fσrmal matters, fσr what is sσcially de­
termiηaηt iη wσrks σf art "is cσηteηt that articulates itself iη
fσrmal structures."63 Thrσugh the sσcially uηcσηsciσus wield­
iηg σf fσrm, histσry wσuld fiηd its way iηtσ works σf art, siηce it
is aη inhereηt part σf them, whereby the wσrks cσηstitute
themselves as aη uηcσηsciσus histσriσgraphy σf their age. 64
There is a seηse iη which this certaiηly hσlds true, but as a
geηeral rule it bσrders ση aη esseηtialist reflectiση theσry, aηd
eveη thσugh we may agree that fσrm, iη σηe way σr aησther, is
62. Fredric Jameson, "Reflections in Conclusion," in Emst Bloch et al., Aes­
thetics and Politics (London: New Left Books, 1977!, p. 202.
63. Adomo, Aesthetic Theory, p. 327; Asthetische Theorie, p. 342: "Gesell­
schaftlich entscheidet an den Kunstwerken, was an Inhalt aus ihren Foπnstruk­
turen spricht."
64. Adomo, Asthetische Theorie, p. 272: "Sie sind ihrer selbst unbewuBte
Geschichtschreibung ihrer Epoche; das nicht zuletzt veπnittelt sie zur Erkennt­
nis." Cf. Aesthetic Theory, p. 261.
alway s histσrical, we dσ ησt have to share Adσmσ's rejectiση σf
artists aηd writers, such as Brecht, whσ self-cσηsciσusly use
their fσrmal cσηstructiσηs as vehicles σf mσre 'Όbtrusively "
fσregrσuηded sσcial issues.
Αdσrησ's theσry σf fσrm, aside frσm the fuηctiση σf fσrm as a
vehicle σf the ηegative histσriσgraphy σf the age, shares a gσσd
deal with that σf the Russiaη fσrmalists, eveη thσugh they have
mσre σbviσusly cσηtributed tσ the cσηstructiση σf σther mσd­
emist paradigms. Like the fσrmalists, Αdσmσ distiηguishes
betweeη aesthetic σr "pσetic" laηguage aηd the laηguage σf
every day cσmmuηicatiση. Αdσmσ say s σf aesthetic laηguage
that its purpσsefulηess, divested σf practical purpσse, lies iη its
laηguage-semblaηce, iη its purpσseless cσηceptual lack, its dif­
fereηce frσm significatσry laηguage.65 Aηtisignificatory laη­
guage is σf cσurse part aηd parcel σf Adσmσ's very cσηcept σf
fσrm, which designates a prσησuηced cσηfrσηtatiση σf art aηd
empiήcal life.66
The aηtithesis iη Adσmσ's writiηgs betweeη aesthetic aηd
significatσry laηguage ηeed ησt, hσwever, stem frσm the fσr­
malists, fσr ίη his aesthetics this aηtagσηism is a fuηdameηtal
elemeηt σf sσcial ηegativity. But as such it dσes play the rσle σf
a kiηd σf "defamiliarizatiση," tσ use a fσrmalist cσηcept that
has beeη prσmiηeηt iη the theσretical discσurse suπσuηdiηg
mσdemism. Mσdemist writiηg, thrσugh its autσησmσus fσr­
mal cσηstructiσηs, places us at a "distaηce"frσm sσciety, mak­
iηg it straηge, whereby we cσme tσ see its reverse, but true,
miπσr image, its ηegativity.
Heηce, Adσmσ's aesthetics σf ηegativity, by liηkiηg artistic
autσησmy tσ a dialectical sσcial mimesis, seeks tσ recσηcile
the twσ majσr fuηctiσηal implicatiσηs σf the fσrmalist theσry
σf defamiliarizatiση. Victσr Shklσvsky, iη his semiηal essay
1
'Άrt as Techηique, ησtes that "habitualizatiση devσurs wσrks,
1
clσthes, fumiture, σηe's wife, aηd the fear σf war, 11
aηd states
that art, through its defamiliariziηg practices, "exists that σηe
may recσver the seηsatiση σf life."67 This fσrmulatiση wσuld
65. Adomo, Asthetische Theorie, p. 2ΙΙ; Aesthetic Theory, pp. 202-3.
66. Adomo, Asthetische Theorie, p. 213; Aesthetic Theory, p. 205.
67. Victor Shklovsky, 'Άrt as Technique," in Lee Τ. Lemon and Marion J. Reis,
ed., Russian Foπnalist Criticism: Four Essays (Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press, 196s!, p. 12.
appear to have significant social bearings; indeed, defamiliar­
ization could be seen as a major arsenal of devices to be directed
against reified ideologies. It is precisely this aspect of the de­
familiarization theory, as Peter Bίirger points out in discussing
its inherent duality, that Brecht developed further in his "Ver­
fremdungstechnik."68 But Shklovsky immediately adds: "The
technique of art is to make objects 'unfamiliar,' to make forms
difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception
because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself
and must be prolonged" (12 ) . Shklovsky is here under the sway
of the general formalist tenets of aesthetic autonomy and the
separation of poetic from 'Όrdinary " language. It is of course
this "purist" side of defamiliarization, according to which
"making it strange" only means ensuring the total separation
of the work from social affairs, that one can then trace through­
out the methodologies of twentieth-century literary criticism,
and nowhere as clearly as in Anglo-American New Criticism.
We have already discussed how such aesthetics of sanctity and
wholeness have been projected onto the emergence of the mod­
ernist paradigm.
But the Russian formalists' broad significance for critical
approaches to modemism is by no means limited to issues of
defamiliarization. They were among the first literary scholars
to realize the significance of Saussure's dissociation of "natu­
ral" links, within the sign, between the signifier and the sig­
nified. Thus, they helped initiate a period of semiotic inquiry
into the relationship between the levels of reference and mean­
ing, an inquiry that has also been carried out, in a different way,
by modemism in art and literature. But despite the fact that the
formalists had intimate ties with the literary experiments of
contemporary Russian futurism, we must be cautious in draw­
ing self-explanatory parallels between modernist literature and
modem literary theories or critical methodologies. The Rus­
sian formalists can certainly be judged as instigators of a semi­
otic revolution, but what they inquired into at a theoretical
(analytical and metalinguistic) level regarding production and
68. Peter Bίirger, Vermittlung-Rezeption-Funktion: Asthetische Theorie und
Methodologie der Literaturwissenschaft (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Taschenbuch,
1979), p. 98.
function of meaning in literary language is more immediately
acted out as a crisis of meaning in the realm of modernist
literature, as is apparent when its site of troubled signification
is observed in the context of social norms of language use.
From this perspective one could argue that it is only with the
emergence of poststructuralist activities that theory "c;atches
up with" the literary practices of modemism in this performa­
tive sense. Modernism could certainly be seen as the aesthetic
embodiment of the "crisis of representation" that structural­
ists, and particularly poststructuralists, have greatly elaborated
on recently and to some extent "performed" themselves. W hile
Anglo-American advocates of poststructuralism have fre­
quently taken it to be a part of a postmodernist revolt against
the burden of a modernist tradition, some of them have ac­
knowledged the often blatantly modemist tendencies in the
methods and language-play of poststructuralist critics. Gregory
Ulmer, for instance, states that "the break with 'mimesis,' with
the values and assumptions of 'realism,' which revolutionized
the modernist arts, is now underway (belatedly ) in criticism,
the chief consequence of which, of course, is a change in the
relation of the critical text to its object-literature."69 And a
consequence of that change is our difficulty in determining to
what extent poststructuralist practices present us with a the­
ory of modernism, or a construction of a modernist paradigm­
for to some extent the borders between theory and practice
have been erased.
At the risk of oversimplification, however, we can extract
from the variety of poststructuralist work two major concems
that relate to the issues we have been discussing in terms of
modernism: the crisis of language and representation and the
crisis of the subject. The source of these two manifestatίons of
crisis, which poststructuralists generally see as being inti­
mately related, is frequently sought through modernist texts.
Julia Kristeva, for instance, using early modernist texts as her
examples, demonstrates how an archaic, instinctual, incestu­
ous, matemal process of "signifiance" in norm-breaking liter-
69. Gregory Ulmer, "The Object of Post-Criticism," in Foster, ed., The Anti­
Aesthetic, p. 83. See also Ronald Schleifer, "The Poison of Ink: Modemism and
Post-War Literary Criticism," New Orleans Review 8 (Fall 1981): 241-49.

48 I The Concept of Modernism
ary works violates the authorized codes and the sy mbolic func­
tion of social signification, allowing the subject to slip out from
under "the constraints of a civilization dominated by transcen­
dental rationality."7° Kristeva also notes that this process is
dangerous for the subject and must be "linked to analy tical
interpretation" ( 145 ), but other poststructuralists-perhaps
none more than Deleuze and Guattari in Anti-Oedipus-valo­
rize a total release of the subject from repressive rationality.
Similarly, it would be possible to approach Jacques Derrida as
a theorist as well as a practitioner of modernism, and to see
modernism in its totality as a deconstructive practice in the
Derridian sense. Thus, we could read texts such as Ulysses (not
to mention Finnegans Wake) The Waves, The Sound and the
ι Foucault sees it "reconstituting itself elsewhere, in an indepen­
Fury, and Das Schloβ with an emphasis on how they under­
mine the human desire for stable centers of representation by
constantly displacing signifiers, frustrating immediate "pres­
ence" of meaning, decentering the subject or whatever con­
stitutes a production of convention-bound reference, and dis­
persing it in the linguistic field. Modemist texts present
elaborate witness to the notion, so basic to Derrida's endeavors,
that "the verbal text is constituted by concealment as much as
revelation."71 (This notion, differently formulated, constitutes
the foundation of Adomo's theory.)
Here one might object that a possible result of this ap­
proach-and here we are touching on one of the reasons for
Derrida's large following in the United States-would be deter­
mining the central thrust of modemism to be an incessant
language game, playing one skittish signifier against another.
This makes modemist studies risk reverting to the New Crit­
ical idea of the work as a self-bounded whole, vibrating with
unresolved intemal tensions. Another problem is that accord­
ing to a radical deconstructive philosophy of language, not only
modemist works are characterized by the various implications
of "differance/' but indeed every verbal text. This might seem
70. Julia Kristeva, "From Οηe Ideηtity to aη Other," Desire in Language: Α
Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art, ed. Leoη S. Roudiez, traηs. Τ. Gora, Α.
Jardiηe, aηd L. S. Roudiez (New York: Columbia Uηiversity Press, 198ο), p. 140.
71. Gayatri C. Spivak, "Traηslator's Preface," iη Jacques Deπida, Of Gram­
matology, p. xlvi. Cf. the quotatioη from Jameson ση how modemism frustrates
our detectioη of social coηtent, at η. 62 above.
The Making of Modemist Paradigms I 49
ultimately to deconstruct any possibility of establishing a theo­
retical framework for a modemist paradigm, or even of register­
ing literary-historical paradigms at all.
On the other hand, one can argue that w hat makes modem­
ism "different" is the way in which it is aware of and acts out
the qualities of "differance." The emergence of a modemist
paradigm could then be judged in terms of a break in the histor­
ical attitude toward language and communication as evinced in
literary texts. According to another poststructuralist, Michel
Foucault, literary modernism has a central place in demarca­
ting historical paradigms, or "epistemes, ιι as he calls them.
When language, in the nineteenth century, had been thor­
oughly instrumentalized as an object and vehicle of knowledge,
dent form, difficult of access, folded back upon the emigma of
its own origin and existing wholly in reference to the pure act
of writing."72 Questions concerning the very nature of language
and literature "were made possible by the fact that, at the
beginning of the nineteenth century, the law of discourse hav­
ing been detached from representation, the being of language
itself became, as it were, fragmentedi but they became inevita­
ble when, with Nietzsche and Mallarme, thought was brought
back, and violently so, towards language itself, towards its
unique and difficult being" (306).
It is appropriate to end this chapter on such a note, for mod­
emism does, after all, seek a break with tradition, a fact that is
emphasized in varying degrees (or at least tacitly assumed) by
all the different constructions of the modemist paradigm dis­
cussed above . This basic characteristic needs to be more com­
prehensively pursued in the light of the continuity of history
that modemism sets out to explode. The next chapter, there­
fore, undertakes a critical examination of how modemism has
been positioned in the context of literary history and how it has
fared in the ceaseless process of canonization.
72. Michel Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human
Sciences (New York: Viηtage Books, 1973), p. 300.