Contemporary modernisms: the reconstitution of Europe and the fate of the avant-garde

• Applicant: John Greaney, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: European and American Literary and Cultural Studies ; General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 560427994

'Contemporary modernisms: the reconstitution of Europe and the fate of the avant-garde' interrogates how modernism has re-emerged as a cultural descriptor in the twenty-first century. In counterpoint to the Americanisation and internationalisation of modernism, which extends the narrative of modernism into the present, this project analyses how modernism has become a form of cultural nationalism in Europe. It thus reintegrates European history into modernist studies to investigate how post-war geopolitics, cultural soft power and the ideologies of modern Europe inform what modernism means today. In doing so, it interrogates how European modernism continues to develop in ways that seem to contradict the globalising rhetoric of the new modernist studies.Particularly, this project explores how modernism, once an exilic avant-garde movement, has come to function as a mode of soft nationalism in post-war Europe, such that expatriates and one-time renegades like D. H Lawrence, James Joyce and Rainer Maria Rilke have become regional, national and European heritage figures. Today, Lawrence is a symbol of Nottingham’s cultural history; Joyce is a major Irish heritage icon; and Rilke is celebrated as an Austrian poet. By extension, this project considers how modernism, as a term of cultural distinction, has become a means for Europe to consolidate its difference from the non-European world: Albert Camus, who was Algerian-born and France-domiciled, is seen as a French modernist; Assia Djebar, who was Algerian-born and France-domiciled, is regarded as an Algerian writer and not considered a modernist. Similarly, Jean Rhys, who was born and raised in Dominica and later lived in Paris, Vienna and Budapest, is regarded as an English modernist; while Samuel Selvon, who was born in British-ruled Trinidad and lived in London, is seen as a Caribbean writer and rarely considered a modernist.The organising paradox of this project is thus as follows: the renationalisation of modernist literature in post-war Europe mobilises a history of exilic writing to establish a distinctive and exclusionary European terrain. The project, in turn, examines how nationalised modernisms paradoxically serve both as a basis for free movement within Europe and as a cultural justification for Europe’s external borders. Ultimately, this project asks: how has the cultural memory of an exilic literary movement become foundational to a European identity that is both inclusive and exclusive?This project develops case studies to establish comparative frameworks for analysing the fate of modernism across Europe. I will examine Irish and English modernisms in a new monograph, 'Contemporary Modernisms: Borders, Geopolitics, Modern Europe'. And, drawing on a rich research network, I will lead collaborative research events, and a large editorial project with Edinburgh University Press, to develop comparative analyses of how modernism is being repurposed in relation to European identity today.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: United Kingdom, USA
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Jackie Jones, Ph.D.; Václav Paris, Ph.D.