Modernism beyond the Human

Transnational Perspectives

Series: 

One of the defining features of modernism lies in its far-reaching rethinking of the relation between the human and the non-human. In the present volume, this crucial aspect of modernism’s legacy is investigated from an authentically transnational perspective, taking an innovative stance on a diverse range of authors – from posthumanist classics such as Beckett and Woolf to Valentine de Saint-Point, Radoje Domanovic and Aldo Palazzeschi among others.
On the one hand, this collection sheds new light on the modernist contribution to posthumanism, providing a valuable reference point for future studies on the topic. On the other, it offers a new take on the transnational dimension of modernism, highlighting unexplored convergences between modernist authors from several different national contexts.
Copyright Year:
2024
E-Book (PDF)
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-54968-5
Publication:
09 Oct 2023
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-54967-8
Publication:
11 Oct 2023
Cover Modernism beyond the Human

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Front Matter
Preliminary Material
Copyright Page
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Part 1 Modernism and the Nonhuman
Chapter 1 Prefiguring Modernist Posthumanism: Baudelaire, Rimbaud and the Objectification of the Lyric Self
Chapter 2 Becoming-Digit: Valentine de Saint-Point’s Posthumanist Futurism
Chapter 3 Politics of Identity: Giuseppe Ungaretti’s Poetry of the Great War between Nomadic Subjectivity and Performative Realism
Chapter 4 Variations on “Maquinismo”: Looking beyond the Human in Ramón Gómez de la Serna’s Writings
Chapter 5 The Tender Being of Something Else: Geography and Lists in Gertrude Stein’s Ida
Chapter 6 Samuel Beckett and Modernist Vitalism
Part 2 Modernist Animals
Chapter 7 Rumination of a Serbian Ox: Radoje Domanovic’s Satire of Anthropocentric Folly
Chapter 8 “Come se”: Transcending the Human-Animal Divide in Pirandello’s Short Stories
Chapter 9 Modernist Exiles: the Berlin Years of Viktor Shklovsky, Aleksei Remizov, and the Masturbating Ape
Chapter 10 “Brandishing Her Plumes”: Virginia Woolf, Feather Tropes, and the Plumage (Prohibition) Bill
Chapter 11 Posthumanism avant la lettre: Robert Musil’s The Man without Qualities and the Boundaries of Humankind
Chapter 12 Animals and Logos in Samuel Beckett’s Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable
Chapter 13 Towards an Interpretation of a Modernist Bestiary in Color: Palazzeschi’s Bestie del 900 and Maccari’s Illustrations
Back Matter
Index
Alberto Godioli is Associate Professor in European Culture and Literature at the University of Groningen, and Programme Director of the Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies (OSL). His publications on modernism include Laughter from Realism to Modernism (2015) and La scemenza del mondo (2011; Edinburgh Gadda First Prize). He is principal investigator of an NWO Vidi project on humor and free speech jurisprudence (2022-2027), and founder of the Forum for Humor and the Law (www.forhum.org).

Carmen van den Bergh is Assistant Professor in Italian Literature at the Leiden University Centre for Arts in Society (LUCAS) in the Netherlands, where she is director of the Italian Language and Culture Department. Simultaneously she works in Belgium at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) as a senior research fellow for the Flemish Council for Scientific Research (FWO) with a project on the role of writers in newspapers and magazines of the Italian Novecento. Her specializations include Italian modernism, prose writings during the Italian interwar, (neo)realism in film and literature, the literary canon and the function of anthologies.
List of Figures

Notes on Contributors

Introduction
  Alberto Godioli and Carmen van den Bergh

Part 1
Modernism and the Nonhuman
1 Prefiguring Modernist Posthumanism: Baudelaire, Rimbaud and the Objectification of the Lyric Self
  Alessandro Cabiati

2 Becoming-Digit: Valentine de Saint-Point’s Posthumanist Futurism
  Pavlina Radia

3 Politics of Identity: Giuseppe Ungaretti’s Poetry of the Great War Between Nomadic Subjectivity and Performative Realism
  Enrica Maria Ferrara

4 Variations On “Maquinismo”: Looking Beyond the Human in Ramón Gómez de la Serna’s Writings
  Ângela Fernandes

5 The Tender Being of Something Else: Geography and Lists in Gertrude Stein’s Ida
  Laura Oulanne

6 Samuel Beckett and Modernist Vitalism
  Marc Farrant

Part 2
Modernist Animals
7 Rumination of a Serbian Ox: Radoje Domanovic’s Satire of Anthropocentric Folly
  Vedran Catovic

8 “Come se”: Transcending the Human-Animal Divide in Pirandello’s Short Stories
  Santi Luca Famà

9 Modernist Exiles: the Berlin Years of Viktor Shklovsky, Aleksei Remizov, and the Masturbating Ape
  Asiya Bulatova

10 “Brandishing Her Plumes”: Virginia Woolf, Feather Tropes, and the Plumage (Prohibition) Bill
  Saskia McCracken

11 Posthumanism avant la lettre: Robert Musil’s The Man without Qualities and the Boundaries of Humankind
  Florian Kappeler

12 Animals and Logos in Samuel Beckett’s Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable
  Laura Lainväe

13 Towards an Interpretation of a Modernist Bestiary in Color: Palazzeschi’s Bestie Del 900 and Maccari’s Illustrations
  Sarah Bonciarelli

Index

This book mostly caters for scholars focusing on modernism, animal studies and/or posthumanism, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students specializing in these topics.
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