Tag: Other Modernist Figures

The Chapbook

by Sam Alexander The Chapbook (called The Monthly Chapbook in its first two installments), was the third journal edited by Harold Munro, founder of the Poetry Bookshop, and ran from 1919 until 1925. Munro had previously edited The Poetry Review (the organ of the conservative Poetry Society) and the influential but short-lived Poetry and Drama… Continue Reading The Chapbook

The Joy of Life

By Pericles Lewis   Like the poet W. B. Yeats, the painter Henri Matisse found in dance and dancers a source of inspiration for his work, which sought to achieve rhythmic effects similar to those of the dance, as in Joy of Life (“Le Bonheur de vivre”; 1905–6). Here, the joy of lovemaking, piping, and… Continue Reading The Joy of Life

The Futurist Manifesto

by Pericles Lewis In the “Futurist Manifesto” (1909), the leader and publicist of the Italian futurists, F.T. Marinetti, showed a characteristic interest in anything fast or lethal: racing cars, trains, automobiles, airplanes, machine guns, tanks. He writes, for example, that “A racing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes, like serpents of explosive breath—a… Continue Reading The Futurist Manifesto

Doctor Faustus

by William Stewart Thomas Mann’s final novel, Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkühn, as Told by A Friend (1947), is a magnum opus as complex as it is symbolic. Built from layer upon layer of detail, the book is both a critique of modern bourgeois life in Germany and an allegory for… Continue Reading Doctor Faustus

Disorder and Early Sorrow

by Meaghan Rubsam “Disorder and Early Sorrow,” a novella by Thomas Mann, was written in 1925, with characters that were structured after members of Mann’s own family.  This short story examines the life of the Cornelius family through the eyes of Abel Cornelius, a professor at the local university, whose once respected position has become… Continue Reading Disorder and Early Sorrow

Death in Venice

By Elizabeth Freund Death in Venice is Thomas Mann’s most famous and widely read literary work. This semiautobiographical short story about a writer’s trip to the city of Venice, which uses symbolism and employs Mann’s meticulously written prose, also presents themes relating to modernity. Plot Summary The protagonist of Death in Venice is the reputable,… Continue Reading Death in Venice