Modernist Patterns: In Literature and the Visual Arts

Even when there is no direct contact, artists and writers develop many comparable techniques for coping with problems specific to their time. In Modernist Patterns, Murray Roston explores the relationships between modernist artists and writers and their responses to the immediate challenges of their time, to the implications of Freudian psychology, molecular theory, relativist theory, and the general weakening of religious faith.

By placing the literary works of such writers as T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and Ernest Hemingway within the context of the changes that occurred in the visual arts, Modernist Patterns expands our understanding of literature and identifies the cultural shifts that generated stylistic innovations within the visual arts.

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Roston (Bar Ilan U., Israel) explores the relationships between modernist artists and writers and their responses to the challenges of their time<-->the implications of Freudian psychology, molecular theory, relativist theory, and the general weakening of religious faith. He uncovers insights into the work of such writers as T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and Ernest Hemingway by placing their writings within the context of the changes that occurred in the visual arts, and identifies the cultural shifts that generated stylistic innovations within the visual arts. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Murray Roston is Professor of English at Bar-Ilan University, Israel and has been a visiting professor at the University of California in Los Angeles, Stanford University, and the University of Virginia. He is also the author of Victorian Contexts: Literature and the Visual Arts (NYU).