Table Of ContentMODERNISM BEYOND THE AVANT-GARDE
Criticshavetraditionallymaintainedthatcapitalism’sresurgenceafter
World War II precipitated the transition from modernism to post-
modernism.Thisrevisionistaccountshowsthatmodernismdoesnot
simply decline. By foregrounding phenomenological conceptions of
bodily experience, Jason M. Baskin reveals modernism’s ongoing
vitality. Key postwar writers, critics and philosophers, including
Elizabeth Bishop, Ezra Pound, Ralph Ellison and Raymond
Williams, as well as Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Theodor Adorno,
developedanaestheticsofembodimentthatadaptedmodernismtoa
new postwar landscape. Working across differences of race, gender,
national and intellectual tradition, genre and form, Baskin contends
that these authors used ordinary bodily experiences, such as percep-
tion,memoryandlaughter,toimaginemodesofcommonbeingand
purposethatwereotherwiseunavailableinapostwarsocietydomin-
ated by liberal capitalism.
. is Senior Lecturer in English at University of
Exeter, where he specializes in twentieth- and twenty-first-century
literature, modernism and critical theory. He has published essays
and book reviews in Cultural Critique, Mediations, Postmodern Cul-
ture,BostonReview,HarvardReviewandtheWashingtonPost,aswell
astheeditedcollectionsUnderstandingMerleau-Ponty,Understanding
Modernism () and Neoliberalism and Contemporary Literary
Culture ().
MODERNISM BEYOND THE
AVANT-GARDE
Embodying Experience
JASON M. BASKIN
UniversityofExeter
UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCBBS,UnitedKingdom
OneLibertyPlaza,thFloor,NewYork,,USA
WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,,Australia
–,rdFloor,Plot,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre,NewDelhi–,India
AnsonRoad,#–/,Singapore
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/
:./
©JasonM.Baskin
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished
PrintedandboundinGreatBritainbyClaysLtd,ElcografS.p.A.
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
:Baskin,JasonM.,-author.
:Modernismbeyondtheavant-gardeembodyingexperience/JasonM.Baskin.
:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversity
Press,.|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
:|(hardback)|
(pbk.)
::Modernism(Literature)|Postmodernism(Literature)|
Capitalismandliterature.
:.|/.–dc
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/
----Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracy
ofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
Contents
Acknowledgments page vi
List of Abbreviations ix
Introduction: Late Modernism and the Aesthetics of Embodiment
Elizabeth Bishop’s Poetry of Perception
Ezra Pound’s Scraps of a Self
Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Laughter
Raymond Williams’s Collaborative Labor
Conclusion
Notes
Index
v
Acknowledgments
Writing an academic book can be an isolated endeavor, but it was the
support of many people over many years that made this book possible.
IwanttostartbyexpressingmyimmensegratitudetoMichaelWoodand
Susan Stewart, who encouraged this project from its inception. I owe a
huge debt for their confidence in my work, generous feedback and
ongoing mentorship. Dan Blanton offered rigorous and challenging
responses to this manuscript at every stage of its development. Our
conversations have crucially shaped the arguments in this book, and all
of my scholarly work. I also want to especially thank J. K. Barret, Rachel
Galvin,BenjWidissandStevenYao;theirastuteinsights,wiseadviceand
encouragement significantly improved this book, and made it possible for
me complete it.
Ihavebenefitedfromtheknowledgeandguidanceofteachers,mentors,
colleagues and friends at several institutions. Of the many wonderful
teachers at Harvard, I especially want to acknowledge the late Barbara
Johnson, whose example in particular helped set me on the path to an
academic career and continues to serve as an inspiration. At Princeton,
DianaFuss,BillGleasonandEstherSchorofferedkeyencouragementand
insight. A fellowship year at the Center for Human Values, led by
K. Anthony Appiah, provided an ideal space to get this project off the
ground. During a two-year fellowship at the California Institute of Tech-
nology, the faculty and staff of the Humanities Division, including Kevin
Gilmartin, Dehn Gilmore, Kristine Haugen, Matthew Hunter, Cathy
Jurca and Cindy Weinstein, provided a generative intellectual environ-
ment.AttheUniversityofWyoming,Iwasfortunatetofindacommunity
of wonderful friends and colleagues in Laramie, especially Ulrich Adelt,
Paul Bergstraesser, John Dorst, Andy Fitch, Teena Gabrielson, Adam
Henne, Chad Hennerman, Michelle Jarman, Frieda Knobloch, Kristin
McTigue, Miriam Moore, Quincy Newell, Danielle Pafunda, Peter Par-
olin, Caskey Russell and Marcus Watson. I also want to express my deep
vi
Acknowledgments vii
gratitude to Ginger Sossaman and the amazing staff at University of
Wyoming’s Early Care and Education Center, especially Rhianna
Handschu, Michelle Kearns, Jaclyn Klinginsmith, and Shaila Limon, for
the outstanding, loving care they provided for my children. Finally, my
new colleagues at the University of Exeter, including Tim Cooper, Jason
Hall, Kate Hext, Natalie Pollard and Rob Magnuson Smith, have gener-
ously welcomed me to the United Kingdom and helped me to see this
book through its final stages.
I am especially appreciative of all those colleagues and friends whose
intellectual engagement, sound advice or general camaraderie has aided in
writing this book: Elise Archias, Jeremy Braddock, Michael D’Arcy,
Thomas Davis, Elizabeth Duquette, Brent Hayes Edwards, Amir Eshel,
JedEsty,GloriaFisk,RenéeFox,JonathanFoltz,RudolphGlitz,Matthew
Hart, Briallen Hopper, Mitchum Huehls, Emily Hyde, Aaron Jaffe,
Joseph Jeon, Evan Kindley, Warren Liu, Greg Londe, Meredith Martin,
Walter Benn Michaels, Ariane Mildenberg, Mathias Nilges, Deirdre
O’Dwyer, Siobhan Phillips, Jason Potts, Lindsay Reckson, Emilio Sauri,
Michael Sayeau, Claire Seiler, StephenShapiro, Rachel Greenwald Smith,
Charles Tung, Barrett Watten, Tim Watson, Gillian White and Daniel
Worden.
IamgratefultothetwoanonymousreviewersforCambridgeUniversity
Press for their time and the care with which they considered my manu-
script. Their generous responses and judicious recommendations
strengthened it considerably. I also want to thank my editors, Ray Ryan
and Edgar Mendez, for their investment in the project, and Sapphire
Duveau, for skillfully managing the production process. Stephanie Sak-
son’s sharp copyedits improved the manuscript, and Adrian Markle’s
crucial last-minute intervention corrected many of my errors. All
remaining mistakes are my own.
I also acknowledge the following permissions. Portions of Chapter
appeared in different form as “Romanticism, Culture, Collaboration:
Raymond Williams Beyond the Avant-Garde,” Cultural Critique
(Winter ): –. I thank the University of Minnesota Press for
publishingmywork,andprovidingpermissionforitto bereprinted here.
ExcerptsfromTHEPISANCANTOS,byEzraPound,copyright©
byEzraPound,arereprintedbypermissionofNewDirectionsPublishing
Corp.ExcerptsfromunpublishednotebookswrittenbyElizabethBishop,
copyright © by the Alice H. Methfessel Trust, are printed by
permissionofFarrar,StrausandGirouxonbehalfofTheElizabethBishop
Estate.
viii Acknowledgments
Finally, I thank my family, to whom this book is dedicated. To my
parents,JonandBarbara,whoseloveandsupportmadethisbookpossible.
To Erin Forbes, whose sharp insight improved every page, and whose
humor, encouragement and love have sustained me in completing this
project,andineverythingelse.Finally,toLenaandTalia,whoamazeand
inspire me everyday.
