Modernist Form and the Myth of Jewification by Neil Levi (English) Hardcover Boo

Description: Modernist Form and the Myth of Jewification by Neil Levi This book argues that the antisemitic interpretation of modernist form as a symptom of a mobile, contagious Jewish spirit needs to be treated as integral to the history of European modernism. The notion of modernist form as Jewified lies at the heart of both a certain modernisms hostile reception, and its self-conception. FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Why were modernist works of art, literature, and music that were neither by nor about Jews nevertheless interpreted as Jewish? In this book, Neil Levi explores how the antisemitic fantasy of a mobile, dangerous, contagious Jewish spirit unfolds in the antimodernist polemics of Richard Wagner, Max Nordau, Wyndham Lewis, and Louis-Ferdinand Celine, reaching its apotheosis in the notorious 1937 Nazi exhibition "Degenerate Art." Levi then turns to James Joyce, Theodor W. Adorno, and Samuel Beckett, offering radical new interpretations of these modernist authors to show how each presents his own poetics as a self-conscious departure from the modern antisemitic imaginary.Levi claims that, just as antisemites once feared their own contamination by a mobile, polluting Jewish spirit, so too much of postwar thought remains governed by the fear that it might be contaminated by the spirit of antisemitism. Thus he argues for the need to confront and work through our own fantasies and projections—not only about the figure of the Jew but also about that of the antisemite. Author Biography Neil Levi is Associate Professor of English at Drew University. Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Phobic Reading, Modernist Form, and the Figure of the Antisemite Part I: Modernist Form as Judaization 1. Genealogies: Judaization, Wagner, Nordau 2. Jews, Art, and History: The Nazi Exhibition of "Degenerate Art" as Historicopolitical Spectacle 3. Fanatical Abstraction: Wyndham Lewiss Critique of Modernist Form as Judaization in Time and Western Man Part II: Modernist Form and the Antisemitic Imagination 4. Straw Men: Projection, Personification, and Narrative Form in Ulysses 5. Images of the Bilderverbot: Adorno, Antisemitism, and the Enemies of Modernism 6. The Labor of Late Modernist Poetics: Beckett after Celine Notes Bibliography Index Review "Until I saw the cover of Neil Levis book, I had no idea that Jewification was a real world. It certainly got picked up in spellcheck. But after I read just a few pages of Levis book, I knew exactly what he meant. The word, strange and twisted as it seems, is an apt way to describe a modern phenomenon that seems to defy description. Levi argues that both aesthetic modernism and modern anti-Semitism seek formal solutions to the problem of how to render intelligible the experience of modernity, and that the figure of the Jew is made to personify otherwise unrepresentable, disorienting experiences that enter a condition of chronic crisis in modernity. Levi contents that many modern and avant-garde works of art neither by Jews nor about Jews can still be interpreted as Jewish, given the way they were conceived and the projections put upon them by those who conceive them and those who appreciate them. Thus, we arrive at the Judaization of art or its Jewification." -Erica Brown, Jewish Quarterly "In this bold and original study, Neil Levi offers a radical unsettling of the relations between aesthetic modernism and the anti-Semitic imagination. Exploring the multiple fantasies and projections woven around notions of Judaism, Levi provides a deeply penetrating insight into modern literatures complex negotiations with the antisemitic imaginary. This is a book no student of modernism should ignore." -- -Peter Nicholls New York University "Modernist Form and the Myth of Jewification is an essential contribution to the recent attempt to analyze the phantasms and ideological formations that configured the Jew as a dirty or polluting influence that supposedly permeated modern culture and played a distinctive role in its aesthetic productions. Levi is addressing issues that go beyond the aesthetic while nonetheless playing an important role in it. His analysis is fine-tuned and convincing both as literary criticism and as ideology critique." -- -Dominick LaCapra Cornell University "Neil Levis brilliant reading of the relationship between Jewishness and modernism recodes the politics of modernism in a highly original and revealing way in a transnational field. From Wagner and Nordau via Wyndham Lewis and Joyce to Beckett and Adorno we are offered theoretically informed readings that cut through many misunderstandings of this riven field of fascism, modernism, and violence. It turns out that European literary modernism is deeply embedded in issues of Jewishness and anti-semitism. A must read for any scholar of modernism!" -- -Andreas Huyssen Columbia University Promotional This book argues that the antisemitic interpretation of modernist form as a symptom of a mobile, contagious Jewish spirit needs to be treated as integral to the history of European modernism. Long Description Why were modernist works of art, literature, and music that were neither by nor about Jews nevertheless interpreted as Jewish? In this book, Neil Levi explores how the antisemitic fantasy of a mobile, dangerous, contagious Jewish spirit unfolds in the antimodernist polemics of Richard Wagner, Max Nordau, Wyndham Lewis, and Louis-Ferdinand Celine, reaching its apotheosis in the notorious 1937 Nazi exhibition "Degenerate Art." Levi then turns to James Joyce, Theodor W. Adorno, and Samuel Beckett, offering radical new interpretations of these modernist authors to show how each presents his own poetics as a self-conscious departure from the modern antisemitic imaginary. Levi claims that, just as antisemites once feared their own contamination by a mobile, polluting Jewish spirit, so too much of postwar thought remains governed by the fear that it might be contaminated by the spirit of antisemitism. Thus he argues for the need to confront and work through our own fantasies and projections--not only about the figure of the Jew but also about that of the antisemite. Review Text "Modernist Form and the Myth of Jewification is an essential contribution to the recent attempt to analyze the phantasms and ideological formations that configured the Jew as a dirty or polluting influence that supposedly permeated modern culture and played a distinctive role in its aesthetic productions. Levi is addressing issues that go beyond the aesthetic while nonetheless playing an important role in it. His analysis is fine-tuned and convincing both as literary criticism and as ideology critique." --Dominick LaCapra, Cornell University Review Quote Neil Levis brilliant reading of the relationship between Jewishness and modernism recodes the politics of modernism in a highly original and revealing way in a transnational field. From Wagner and Nordau via Wyndham Lewis and Joyce to Beckett and Adorno we are offered theoretically informed readings that cut through many misunderstandings of this riven field of fascism, modernism, and violence. It turns out that European literary modernism is deeply embedded in issues of Jewishness and anti-semitism. A must read for any scholar of modernism! -----Andreas Huyssen, Columbia University Promotional "Headline" This book argues that the antisemitic interpretation of modernist form as a symptom of a mobile, contagious Jewish spirit needs to be treated as integral to the history of European modernism. Details ISBN0823255069 Author Neil Levi Short Title MODERNIST FORM & THE MYTH OF J Publisher Fordham University Press Language English ISBN-10 0823255069 ISBN-13 9780823255061 Media Book Format Hardcover Illustrations Yes Publication Date 2013-11-01 Imprint Fordham University Press Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States UK Release Date 2013-11-01 AU Release Date 2013-11-01 NZ Release Date 2013-11-01 US Release Date 2013-11-01 Pages 272 Year 2013 Alternative 9780823255078 DEWEY 700.89924 Audience Professional & Vocational We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:130359733;

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