Primordial Modernism: Animals, Ideas, transition (1927-1938), Cathryn Setz

Brings ideas and animals together to shed new light on modernist magazine culture

• Tests the concept of primordial modernism as a tributary of primitivism, Jungian thought, and fraught nationalisms
• Provides readings of Eugene Jolass creative and critical works that place him centre-stage in modernist studies
• Moves between unpublished archival material, reception studies, and readings of overlooked authors
• Considers a wide range of modernist authors and artists as befitting to such a rich document
• Touches on contemporary scientific discourse as an aspect of animal studies

This adventurous study focuses on experimental animal writing in the major interwar journal transition (1927-1938), which contains a striking recurrence of metaphors around the most basic forms of life. Amoebas, fish, lizards, birds - some of the lowest and oldest creatures on earth often emerge at the very places authors seek expressions for the newest and the highest in art. Discussing works by James Joyce, Henry Miller, Gottfried Benn, Eugene Jolas, Kay Boyle, Bryher, Paul luard and more, Cathryn Setz investigates this paradox and provides a new understanding of transitions contribution to twentieth-century periodical culture.