Translating Modernism
202 pages, 6 x 9
Paperback
Release Date:23 Sep 2010
ISBN:9780817356651
In Translating Modernism Ronald Berman continues his career-long study of the ways that intellectual and philosophical ideas informed and transformed the work of America’s major modernist writers.
Here Berman shows how Fitzgerald and Hemingway wrestled with very specific intellectual, artistic, and psychological influences, influences particular to each writer, particular to the time in which they wrote, and which left distinctive marks on their entire oeuvres. Specifically, Berman addresses the idea of "translating" or "translation"—for Fitzgerald the translation of ideas from Freud, Dewey, and James, among others; and for Hemingway the translation of visual modernism and composition, via Cézanne.
Though each writer had distinct interests and different intellectual problems to wrestle with, as Berman demonstrates, both had to wrestle with transmuting some outside influence and making it their own.
'Translating Modernism continues Ronald Berman's challenging and engaging series of investigations into the philosophical/cultural resonances of 'Great Ideas' in the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. This is a meticulous exploration of chosen themes bolstered by fruitful discussions of Walter Lippmann, H. L. Mencken, Edmund Wilson, and other early 20th century intelligentsia. This is an inspiring and valuable work.'--Kirk Curnutt, Vice President, F. Scott Fitzgerald Society
Contains an astonishing wealth of insights into the writing of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. In this little gem, [Berman] shows how Fitzgerald and Hemingway 'translate' into their fiction certain intellectual and artistic ideas that were in the air during the early 20th century . . . . Essential.'--CHOICE
The great benefit of this book is the perceptive focus and unified explication of a specific thematic target for Berman's overall critical project, following a natural progression from his initial three books in this field, with their emphasis on social history and their application of a 'world of ideas' to Fitzgerald and Hemingway's writing . . . . The coherence and intellectual depth of its argument will make better students of us all.'--The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review
Ronald Berman is the author of The Great Gatsby and Fitzgerald's World ofIdeas, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and the Twenties, Fitzgerald-Wilson-Hemingway: Language and Experience, and Modernity and Progress.
