The Ecology of Modernism: American Environments and Avant-Garde Poetics (Modern and Contemporary Poetics)

In The Ecology Of Modernism, Joshua Schuster Examines The Relationships Of Key Modernist Writers, Poets, And Musicians To Nature, Industrial Development, And Pollution. He Posits That That The Curious Failure Of Modernist Poets To Develop An Environmental Ethnic Was A Deliberate Choice And Not An Inadvertent Omission. In His Opening Passage, Schuster Boldly Invokes Lines From Walt Whitman's Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Which Echo As A Paean To Pollution: Burn High Your Fires, Foundry Chimneys! Cast Black Shadows At Nightfall! Schuster Labels This Theme Regeneration Through Pollution And Demonstrates How This Motif Recurs In Modernist Compositions. This Tolerance For, If Not Actual Exultation Of, The By-products Of Industrialization Hindered Modernist American Artists, Writers, And Musicians From Embracing Environmentalist Agendas. Schuster Provides Specific Case Studies Focusing On Marianne Moore And Her Connection Of Fables With Animal Rights; Gertrude Stein And Concepts Of Nature In Her Avant-garde Poetics; Early Blues Music And Poetry And The Issue Of How Environmental Disasters (floods, Droughts, Pestilence) Affected Black Farmers And Artists In The American South; And John Cage, Who Extends The Modernist Avant-garde Project Formally But Critiques It At The Same Time For Failing To Engage With Ecology. A Fascinating Afterword About The Role Of Oil In Modernist Literary Production Rounds Out This Work. Schuster Masterfully Shines A Light On The Modernist Interval Between The Writings Of Bucolic And Nature-extolling Romantics And The Emergence Of A Self-conscious Green Movement In The 1960s. This Rewarding Work Shows That The Reticence Of Modernist Poets In The Face Of Resource Depletion, Pollution, Animal Rights, And Other Ecological Traumas Is Highly Significant-- Joshua Schuster. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 197-211) And Index. "In The Ecology of Modernism, Joshua Schuster examines the relationships of key modernist writers, poets, and musicians to nature, industrial development, and pollution. He posits that that the curious failure of modernist poets to develop an environmental ethnic was a deliberate choice and not an inadvertent omission. In his opening passage, Schuster boldly invokes lines from Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," which echo as a paean to pollution: "Burn high your fires, foundry chimneys! cast black shadows at nightfall!" Schuster labels this theme "regeneration through pollution" and demonstrates how this motif recurs in modernist compositions. This tolerance for, if not actual exultation of, the by-products of industrialization hindered modernist American artists, writers, and musicians from embracing environmentalist agendas. Schuster provides specific case studies focusing on Marianne Moore and her connection of fables with animal rights; Gertrude Stein and concepts of nature in her avant-garde poetics; early blues music and poetry and the issue of how environmental disasters (floods, droughts, pestilence) affected black farmers and artists in the American South; and John Cage, who extends the modernist avant-garde project formally but critiques it at the same time for failing to engage with ecology. A fascinating afterword about the role of oil in modernist literary production rounds out this work. Schuster masterfully shines a light on the modernist interval between the writings of bucolic and nature-extolling Romantics and the emergence of a self-conscious green movement in the 1960s. This rewarding work shows that the reticence of modernist poets in the face of resource depletion, pollution, animal rights, and other ecological traumas is highly significant"-- Provided by publisher In __The Ecology of Modernism__, Joshua Schuster examines the relationships of key modernist writers, poets, and musicians to nature, industrial development, and pollution. He posits that the curious failure of modernist poets to develop an environmental ethic was a deliberate choice and not an inadvertent omission. In his opening passage, Schuster boldly invokes lines from Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” which echo as a paean to pollution: “Burn high your fires, foundry chimneys! cast black shadows at nightfall!” Schuster labels this theme “regeneration through pollution” and demonstrates how this motif recurs in modernist compositions. This tolerance for, if not actual exultation of, the by-products of industrialization hindered modernist American artists, writers, and musicians from embracing environmentalist agendas. Schuster provides specific case studies focusing on Marianne Moore and her connection of fables with animal rights; Gertrude Stein and concepts of nature in her avant-garde poetics; early blues music and poetry and the issue of how environmental disasters (floods, droughts, pestilence) affected black farmers and artists in the American South; and John Cage, who extends the modernist avant-garde project formally but critiques it at the same time for failing to engage with ecology. A fascinating afterword about the role of oil in modernist literary production rounds out this work. Schuster masterfully shines a light on the modernist interval between the writings of bucolic and nature-extolling Romantics and the emergence of a self-conscious green movement in the 1960s. This rewarding work shows that the reticence of modernist poets in the face of resource depletion, pollution, animal rights, and other ecological traumas is highly significant. Contents 6 Preface: Conceptualizing Modernism鈥檚 Ecologies 8 Acknowledgments 14 Introduction: Regeneration through Pollution 18 1. Fables: On the Morals of Marianne Moore鈥檚 Animal Monologues 39 2. Ambience: How to Read Gertrude Stein鈥檚 Natures 64 3. Blues: Race and Environmental Distress in Early American Blues Music 95 4. Traffic: Noise as an Ecological Aesthetic in the Art of John Cage 120 5. Contaminated Life: Biopolitics after Rachel Carson 149 6. Conclusion 170 Afterword: Where Is the Oil in Modernism? 179 Notes 190 Bibliography 214 Index 230 "The Ecology of Modernism explores the unexpected absence of an environmental ethic in American modernist and avant-garde poetics, given its keen concern with an environmental aesthetic, and explains why American modernism was never green. Examining the relationships of key modernist writers, poets, and musicians to nature, industrial development, and pollution, Joshua Schuster posits that the curious failure of modernist poets to develop an environmental ethnic was a deliberate choice and not an inadvertent omission"-- Provided by publisher