Modernism Today [antikvár]

What Modernism Was and Is: By Way of an IntroductionSascha Bru and Dirk de GeestThis book collects essays that stem from a series of initiatives (smaller publications, workshops, and symposia) set up by a Dutch-Flemish research group and sponsored by the NWO and the FWO (respectively, the Dutch and Flemish Research Foundations). Running for eight years (2002-2009) the group's activities resulted in four book-length collections of essays in Dutch, a selection of which is presented here in translation. The group gathered researchers with a common cultural background, albeit a peculiar one, because the relatively small region of the Low Countries has always been a place where not only Anglo-American but also German and French traditions meet, especially in academia. This shared cultural background in part explains why the scholars whose work is presented here also study divergent literary and artistic traditions. It also explains the international, sometimes hybrid character of their theoretical focus. While some contributors work in English, most are active in other major as well as minor European literatures and arts. As such this book presents a sample of recent work in Modernist studies in Flanders and the Netherlands, fore-This work is made possible by the support of the KU Leuven research project MDRN. We would like to thank Jan Baetens, Bart Van den Bossche and David Martens for their critical support.1 The first two books dealt with Modernisms from various European literatures {Modernisme(n) in de Europese letterkunde, 1910-1940, Leuven: Peeters, 2003; Modernisme(n) in de Europese letterkunde: een ander meervoud, Leuven: Peeters, 2005). The third volume looked at "arriere-gardes" (Arriere-garde. Modernisme(n) in de Europese letterkunde, deel 3, Amsterdam: Rozenberg, 2008), while the fourth and final book scrutinized the lasting influence of Modernism in more recent writing (De erfenis van het modernisme. Modernisme(n) in de Europese letterkunde, deel 4, Amsterdam: Rozenberg, 2010). All four volumes were edited by Jan Baetens, Sjef Houp-permans, Arthur Langeveld and Peter Liebregts.