Unmanning modernism

The essays in this collection explore the aesthetic similarities and differences between male and female constructions of modernism. The contributors draw on postmodern and feminist theory to discuss the works of both well-known and lesser-known writers, including Djuna Barnes, Zora Neale Hurston, Lytton Strachey, Radclyffe Hall, Louise Bryant, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Arguing for a radical re-evaluation of the modernist aesthetic, the essayists consider how women writers created their own version of modernism through the use of sentimental and domestic subject matter, by writing about maternal concerns, and through experiments with plot, voice, and points of view. The essays also interrogate the role of gender in modernist debates regarding high and low art and show how women writers responded to the anxiety of influence. An illuminating and multivocal commentary on the process of modern canon formation, Unmanning Modernism adds to the evolving critical concept of a gender-conscious and political modernism.