Modernist Disavowal
This paper argues that the psychological mechanism of disavowal is at the heart of modernist conceptions of difference from the Victorians. It identifies the focal point of this disavowal in the overt repudiation of spiritualism and spectrality in key pronouncements by Joseph Conrad and Virginia Woo...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)
2018-06-01
|
| Series: | E-REA |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/6170 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1841552578897248256 |
|---|---|
| author | Stephen ROSS |
| author_facet | Stephen ROSS |
| author_sort | Stephen ROSS |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper argues that the psychological mechanism of disavowal is at the heart of modernist conceptions of difference from the Victorians. It identifies the focal point of this disavowal in the overt repudiation of spiritualism and spectrality in key pronouncements by Joseph Conrad and Virginia Woolf. By reading those pronouncements closely, and comparing them to the use of spectrality and spiritualism in these writers’ novels, this paper argues that these key foundational figures of literary modernism enact a powerful case of disavowal. Though they explicitly deplore the use of the supernatural, Conrad and Woolf rely upon it in their fiction. This specific dual disavowal – of the Victorian precedent and of a lingering supernaturalism in their own work – is not just limited to Conrad and Woolf, but, I argue, informs the larger means by which the modernists strove to understand and articulate their break with the Victorians. Disavowal of the supernatural stands at the origin of modernist self-conception, anchoring the challenge to “make it new” directly in a matrix of ethico- aesthetic concerns. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-171764c724e448bdbd4c76dfbf1cbefe |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1638-1718 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2018-06-01 |
| publisher | Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | E-REA |
| spelling | doaj-art-171764c724e448bdbd4c76dfbf1cbefe2025-01-09T12:53:55ZengLaboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)E-REA1638-17182018-06-0115210.4000/erea.6170Modernist DisavowalStephen ROSSThis paper argues that the psychological mechanism of disavowal is at the heart of modernist conceptions of difference from the Victorians. It identifies the focal point of this disavowal in the overt repudiation of spiritualism and spectrality in key pronouncements by Joseph Conrad and Virginia Woolf. By reading those pronouncements closely, and comparing them to the use of spectrality and spiritualism in these writers’ novels, this paper argues that these key foundational figures of literary modernism enact a powerful case of disavowal. Though they explicitly deplore the use of the supernatural, Conrad and Woolf rely upon it in their fiction. This specific dual disavowal – of the Victorian precedent and of a lingering supernaturalism in their own work – is not just limited to Conrad and Woolf, but, I argue, informs the larger means by which the modernists strove to understand and articulate their break with the Victorians. Disavowal of the supernatural stands at the origin of modernist self-conception, anchoring the challenge to “make it new” directly in a matrix of ethico- aesthetic concerns.https://journals.openedition.org/erea/6170Virginia WoolfghostsdisavowalJoseph Conradspiritualismspectrality |
| spellingShingle | Stephen ROSS Modernist Disavowal E-REA Virginia Woolf ghosts disavowal Joseph Conrad spiritualism spectrality |
| title | Modernist Disavowal |
| title_full | Modernist Disavowal |
| title_fullStr | Modernist Disavowal |
| title_full_unstemmed | Modernist Disavowal |
| title_short | Modernist Disavowal |
| title_sort | modernist disavowal |
| topic | Virginia Woolf ghosts disavowal Joseph Conrad spiritualism spectrality |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/6170 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT stephenross modernistdisavowal |