Language and Negativity in European Modernism

Proposes that a distinct strain of literary modernism emerged in Europe in response to historical catastrophe.

Shane Weller (Author)

9781108475020, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 November 2018

280 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 2 cm, 0.57 kg

'… this book deals with a crucial aspect of modernist literature, and the overall view it offers of this historical progression is accompanied by close and solid analysis of texts.' Forum for Modern Language Studies

This book charts the history of a distinct strain of European literary modernism that emerged out of a radical re-engagement with late nineteenth-century language scepticism. Focusing first on the literary and philosophical strands of this language-sceptical tradition, the book proceeds to trace the various forms of linguistic negativism deployed by European writers in the interwar and post-war years, including Franz Kafka, Georges Bataille, Samuel Beckett, Maurice Blanchot, Paul Celan, and W. G. Sebald. Through close analyses of these and other writers' attempts to capture an 'unspeakable' experience, Language and Negativity in European Modernism explores the remarkable literary attempt to deploy the negative potentialities of language in order to articulate an experience of what, shortly after the Second World War, Beckett described as a vision of 'humanity in ruins'.

Introduction
1. The language crisis: from Mallarmé to Mauthner
2. Great destructive work: The interwar years
3. Performing the negative: Franz Kafka
4. Humanity in ruins: Samuel Beckett
5. Writing the disaster: Maurice Blanchot
6. Through the thousand darknesses: Paul Celan
7. Unconditional negativity: W. G. Sebald
8. Unwording, terminal and interminable
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Political structures: totalitarianism & dictatorship [JPHX], Second World War fiction [FJMS], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH], Literature & literary studies [D]