Classicism is not a term we usually associate with the music, art, and literature of the 1920s, with their embrace of primitivism, expressionism, and experiment in general. But the broader current of modernism in fact produced a distinctive classical movement during the 1920s. Theodore Ziolkowski here provides a compelling account of this classical revival. Classicism of the early twentieth century was classical in two senses. First, its writers, artists, and musicians often took themes from Greek and Roman history and mythology as their subjects. Second, they sought to achieve in their own works the form and the values of simplicity and order that epitomized ancient classicism. With Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso, and T. S. Eliot as his exemplary figures, Ziolkowski shows how this classicism manifested itself in various works during the 1920s (while also acknowledging competing movements such as expressionism, surrealism, and dada) and how they differed from works of the prewar and wartime years that were sometimes superficially classical without exemplifying the true spirit of classicism.
The triumph of avant-gardes in the 1920s tends to dominate our discussions of the music, art, and literature of the period. But the broader current of modernism encompassed many movements, and one of the most distinct and influential was a turn to classicism.
In Classicism of the Twenties, Theodore Ziolkowski offers a compelling account of that movement. Giving equal attention to music, art, and literature, and focusing in particular on the works of Stravinsky, Picasso, and T. S. Eliot, he shows how the turn to classicism manifested itself. In reaction both to the excesses of neoromanticism and early modernism and to the horrors of World War Iand with respectful detachmentartists, writers, and composers adapted themes and forms from the past and tried to imbue their own works with the values of simplicity and order that epitomized earlier classicisms.
By identifying elements common to all three arts, and carefully situating classicism within the broader sweep of modernist movements, Ziolkowski presents a refreshingly original view of the cultural life of the 1920s.
The triumph of avant-gardes in the 1920s tends to dominate our discussions of the music, art, and literature of the period. But the broader current of modernism encompassed many movements, and one of the most distinct and influential was a turn to classicism.
In
Classicism of the Twenties, Theodore Ziolkowski offers a compelling account of that movement. Giving equal attention to music, art, and literature, and focusing in particular on the works of Stravinsky, Picasso, and T. S. Eliot, he shows how the turn to classicism manifested itself. In reaction both to the excesses of neoromanticism and early modernism and to the horrors of World War I-and with respectful detachment-artists, writers, and composers adapted themes and forms from the past and tried to imbue their own works with the values of simplicity and order that epitomized earlier classicisms.
By identifying elements common to all three arts, and carefully situating classicism within the broader sweep of modernist movements, Ziolkowski presents a refreshingly original view of the cultural life of the 1920s.
