Modernism and Mimesis

This book offers a bold new view of the way in which modernist fiction, painting, music, and poetry are interlinked. Dowden shows that modernism, contrary to a longstanding view, did not turn away from mimesis. Rather, modernism operates according to a deepened understanding of what mimesis is and how it works, which in turn occasions a fresh look at other related dimensions of the modernist achievement. Modernism is neither “difficult” nor elitist. Instead, it trends toward simplicity, directness, and common culture. Dowden argues that naïveté rather than highbrow sophistication was for the modernists a key artistic principle. He demonstrates that modernism, far from glorifying subjective creativity, directs itself toward healing the split between subject and object. Mimesis closes this gap by resolving representation into play and festivity.     

“Modernism and Mimesis is a major study that reclaims literary modernism from abstruse erudition and places it squarely within an egalitarian framework of aesthetic play. … Dowden’s passion to ground the significance of art and to justify its distinctive epistemology is worthy of careful consideration. … Modernism and Mimesis passionately recommends modernism to its readers as the kind of art most likely to produce insight and enlightenment in the modern age. This is thus a work of advocacy, not just dispassionate academic elucidation.” (William Collins Donahue, LA Review of Books, lareviewofbooks.org, January 5, 2023)

Stephen D. Dowden is Professor of German Language and Literature at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA.