Modernism

In the early decades of the twentieth century Modernist artists, composers, and writers barraged European sensibilities with chaotic images, dissonant sounds, and incomprehensible novels. Picasso's Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon was panned by the art critics. Parisian audiences booed the premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. James Joyce had to have Ulysses privately published to circumvent British and American censors. Yet today, such works of art, music, and literature are considered contemporary classics. Although Modernism has become an accepted feature of the cultural landscape, retracing the history of this movemnet within its original cultural, intellectual, and historical contexts helps us to see what was culturally vital and revolutionary about it, both then and now. This book is designed to bring the main features and contributions of Modernism, historical, cultural, intellectual, economic and political, to a general audience in a clear, readable and jargon-free style.Part I: The Shock of the New (approximately 750 words) Chapter One: What is Modernism? (approximately 5,000 words) Chapter Two: The Birth of Modernism (approximately 5,000 words) Part II: The Perceptual Revolution (approximately 750 words) Chapter Three: Revolution in Time and Space (approximately 5,000 words) Chapter Four: The Early Avant-Garde (approximately 5,000 words) Part III: Modernism in Motion (approximately 750 words) Chapter Five: The Radical Avant-Garde (approximately 5,000 words) Chapter Six: Le Tumulte noir (approximately 5,000 words) Chapter Seven: The New Sobriety (approximately 5,000 words) Part IV: The Great Divide (approximately 750 words) Chapter Eight: In the Defense of Culture (approximately 5,000 words) Chapter Nine: From Modernism to Postmodernism (approximately 5,000 words)