Description
Book SynopsisFor the first time in scholarship, this essay collection interprets modernity through the literary micro-genres of the aphorism, the epigram, the maxim, and the fragment. Situating Friedrich Nietzsche and Oscar Wilde as forerunners of modern aphoristic culture, the collection analyses the relationship between aphoristic consciousness and literary modernism in the expanded purview of the long twentieth century, through the work of a wide range of authors, including Samuel Beckett, Max Beerbohm, Jorge Luis Borges, Katherine Mansfield, and Stevie Smith. From the romantic fragment to the tweet, Aphoristic Modernity offers a compelling exploration of the short form's pervasive presence both as a standalone artefact and as part of a larger textual and cultural matrix.
Table of Contents Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Introduction: Like a Burr: Aphoristic Writing and Modernity Kostas Boyiopoulos and Michael Shallcross 1Aphoristic Gaps and Theories of the Image Peter Robinson 2‘A Ruin Amidst Ruins’: Modernity, Literary Aphorisms, and Romantic Fragments Mark Sandy 3Social Notes: Oscar Wilde, Francis Bacon, and the Medium of Aphorism Simon Reader 4Brilliancy and Mimicry: Epigrammatic Wit in Oscar Wilde, Max Beerbohm, and Ada Leverson Kostas Boyiopoulos 5We Moderns: Katherine Mansfield and Edwin Muir in theNew Age Chris Mourant 6‘You must remain broken up’: Wyndham Lewis, Laughter, and the Subjective Aphorism Alan Munton 7Knowing Nothing: Wilde and Beckett Deranging the Aphorism Rebekah Scott 8Aphoristic Interruption in Stevie Smith Noreen Masud 9Stepping into the Same River Twice: Jorge Luis Borges’s Aphoristic Short Stories Baylee Brits 10Aphorisms and Archipelagos: Relationality in Modernist Studies Maebh Long 11Epigrammatic Writing and Remix Culture: Memes and Mastery Francesca Coppa 12‘I saw a sign that said “Drink Canada Dry”’: Alcoholic Epigrams, Modern Marketing, and the Value of Moderation Michael Shallcross Bibliography Index
