Nijhoff Van Ostaijen De Stijl

FRANCIS BULHOF "What was Modernism?" That is the title of an address delivered in June of 1960 by the eminent comparatist Harry Levin at Queen's University in King ston, Ontario.1 Apparently, more than a decade ago, in the eyes of this per ceptive analyst of literature and the arts, the modernist movement had become a thing of the past. Having acquired full citizenship in the republic of letters, modernism had outlived itself. The title of Harry Levin's lecture bears an obvious resemblance to that of Fritz Martini's book-length essay Was war Expressionismus?,2 which dealt exclusively with the German variant of the expressionist movement. In the case of German expressionism there is much dispute concerning the precise moment of its decline and fall, but the political conditions provide at least a crucial dividing line in the year 1933. The end of modernism, however, a far more comprehensive movement which was not just limited to one country, is not so easy to determine. And there is also still much discussion about its roots.

This text takes a wholly new look at a major early twentieth-century Dutch poet and novelist from the perspective of world literature, situating his work in both a national and a world literary context as measured against contemporaries and near-contemporaries such as Conrad, Pound, Brecht, Segalen, and Malraux. Exemplifying how an author from a “minor” literature may be a “major” world author, this book considers the debates within World Literature regarding the classification of literatures as ‘major’ and ‘minor’, canon formation within Dutch literature, Slauerhoff's position in the Dutch tradition as well as well as his contribution to world literature, particularly focusing on his East Asian poems, his East Asian novels and stories and his poetry and prose set in Latin America. This book is a key read for scholars and students of comparative literature, world literature, European literature, and Dutch literature. Lucid in style, innovative in approach, surprisingly fresh qua topic, this book opens new horizons for literary studies.

The name De Stijl, title of a magazine founded in the Netherlands in 1917, is now used to identify the abstract art and functional architecture of its major contributors: Mondrian, Van Doesburg, Van der Leck, Oud, Wils and Rietveld. De Stijl achieved international acclaim by the end of the 1920s and its paintings, buildings and furniture made fundamental contributions to the modern movement. This book is the first to emphasize the local context of De Stijl and explore its relationship to the distinctive character of Dutch modernism. It examines how the debates concerning abstraction in painting and spatiality in architecture were intimately connected to contemporary developments in the fields of urban planning, advertising, interior design and exhibition design. The book describes the interaction between the world of mass culture and the fine arts.

In the twentieth century, avant-garde movements have pushed the concept of art far beyond its traditional boundaries. In this dynamical process of constant renewal the prestige of thinking about art as a legitimizing practice has come to the fore. So it is hardly surprising that the past decades have been characterized by a revival or even breakthrough of philosophy of art as a discipline. However, the majority of books on aesthetics fail to combine a systematical philosophical discourse with a real exploration of art practice. Thinking Art attempts to deal with this traditional shortcoming. It is indeed not only an easily accessible and systematic account of the classical, modern and postmodern theories of art, but also concludes each chapter with an artist’s studio in which the practical relevance of the discussed theory is amply demonstrated by concrete examples. Moreover, each chapter ends with a section on further reading, in which all relevant literature is discussed in detail. Thinking Art provides its readers with a theoretical framework that can be used to think about art from a variety of perspectives. More particularly it shows how a fruitful cross-fertilization between theory and practice can be created. This book can be used as a handbook within departments of philosophy, history of art, media and cultural studies, cultural history and, of course, within art academies. Though the book explores theories of art from Plato to Derrida it does not presuppose any acquaintance with philosophy from its readers. It can thus be read also by artists, art critics, museum directors and anyone interested in the meaning of art.

The two-volume work Modernism has been awarded the prestigious 2008 MSA Book Prize! Modernism has constituted one of the most prominent fields of literary studies for decades. While it was perhaps temporarily overshadowed by postmodernism, recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in modernism on both sides of the Atlantic. These volumes respond to a need for a collective and multifarious view of literary modernism in various genres, locations, and languages. Asking and responding to a wealth of theoretical, aesthetic, and historical questions, 65 scholars from several countries test the usefulness of the concept of modernism as they probe a variety of contexts, from individual texts to national literatures, from specific critical issues to broad cross-cultural concerns. While the chief emphasis of these volumes is on literary modernism, literature is seen as entering into diverse cultural and social contexts. These range from inter-art conjunctions to philosophical, environmental, urban, and political domains, including issues of race and space, gender and fashion, popular culture and trauma, science and exile, ­all of which have an urgent bearing on the poetics of modernity.

The recent return of 'world literature' to the centre of literary studies has entailed an increased attention to non-European literatures, but in turn has also further marginalized Europe's smaller literatures. Dutch and Flemish Literature as World Literature shows how Dutch-language literature, from its very beginnings in the Middle Ages to the present, has not only always taken its cue from the 'major' literary traditions of Europe and beyond, but has also actively contributed to and influenced these traditions. The contributors to this book focus on key works and authors, providing a concise, yet highly readable, history of Dutch-language literature and demonstrating how this literature is anchored in world literature.