Modernism, Science, and Technology

193 Pages·2017·3.33 MB·English

by  Mark S. Morrisson

Modernism,
Science, and
Technology
NEW MODERNISMS SERIES
Bloomsbury’s New Modernisms series introduces, explores,
and extends the major topics and debates at the forefront
of contemporary Modernist Studies.
Surveying new engagements with such topics as race, sexuality,
technology and material culture and supported with authoritative
further reading guides to the key works in contemporary
scholarship, these books are essential guides for serious
students and scholars of Modernism.
Published Titles
Modernism: Evolution of an Idea
Sean Latham and Gayle Rogers
Modernism in a Global Context
Peter J. Kalliney
Modernism’s Print Cultures
Faye Hammill and Mark Hussey
Forthcoming Titles
Modernism, War, and Violence
Marina MacKay
Modernism and the Law
Robert Spoo
The Environments of Modernism
Alison Lacivita
Modernism,
Science, and
Technology
Mark S. Morrisson
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published 2017
© Mark S. Morrisson, 2017
Mark S. Morrisson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing
from the publishers.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or
refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be
accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4742-3341-5
PB: 978-1-4742-3342-2
ePDF: 978-1-4742-3344-6
ePub: 978-1-4742-3343-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Series: New Modernisms
Cover design: Daniel Benneworth-Grey
Cover image © Getty Images
Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
For Laura, Devin, and Ciara
vi
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments viii
1 Modernist culture, modernist science 1
2 The physical sciences and mathematics 37
3 The life sciences 83
4 The social sciences 117
Coda 149
Glossary of key terms from science studies 157
Works cited 160
Index 171
ACkNOWlEDgMENTS
Bringing together the diverse and seemingly disparate threads
of scholarship on modernism, science, and technology into a
recognizable pattern, useful to students new to the field and scholars
with some familiarity, is a project I had long wished to undertake.
But it took the confluence of two remarkably persuasive forces to
make it realizable: an enthusiastic invitation to contribute such a
volume to the exciting New Modernisms Series at Bloomsbury, and
a sabbatical in the middle of my term as head of a large English
department. For the former, I thank Sean Latham, Gayle Rogers,
and David Avital, whose generous encouragement and welcome
advice made the new series the ideal venue in which to publish
the book. For the latter, I am grateful to the College of the Liberal
Arts and Penn State University for the precious research leave that
allowed me to read and write, and read some more.
I thank the Tate for generous permission to reproduce Umberto
Boccioni’s Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, and Chris Sutherns
for his gracious assistance; ARS and the Philadelphia Museum
of Art for permission to reproduce Marcel Duchamp’s The Bride
Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass); and
the Kröller-Müller Museum for permission to reproduce Fernand
Léger’s Nudes in the Forest.
In addition to David Avital, I thank the Bloomsbury editorial and
production team, including Mark Richardson, James Tupper, and
Grishma Fredric at Deanta, for bringing this project into print with
welcome speed and courtesy, and I am grateful to Ryan McGinnis
for his expert work on the index. Finally, I must thank my children,
Devin and Ciara, for reminding me daily of the pleasures of the
present even as I immersed myself in the fascinations of the past,
and my wife, Laura Reed-Morrisson, who expertly commented on
every page of this book and inspired me when I needed it most.
1
Modernist culture,
modernist science
“Make it new,” prescribed Ezra Pound—the modernist poet,
impresario, political lightning rod, contrarian, coiner of phrases,
and launcher of movements. Modernists and avant-gardists of the
early twentieth century exceled at bold statements heralding a brave
new now. In 1924, Virginia Woolf famously observed that “on or
about December, 1910, human character changed,” and five years
later, Eugene Jolas proclaimed that “the revolution in the English
language is an accomplished fact.” Moreover, this reconfigured
present of modernism often hinted at an alluring—or frightening—
future that was already in the process of coming into the world, an
ontological eruption. The Great War and other violent upheavals
of the period could render those invocations simultaneously
exhilarating and terrifying, even apocalyptic. William Butler
Yeats, in “The Second Coming,” powerfully captured this tone:
“what rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards
Bethlehem to be born.”1
As the war drew to a close, four empires had collapsed, and
the old aristocracies had lost much of their privilege. Future wars,
totalitarianism, social, cultural, economic, political, and religious
tumult, and the postcolonial world of later decades were visible
on the horizon. Scholars have focused on modernism’s emergence
in the context of such globally significant events, and rightly so.
An “age of empire” and the “long nineteenth century,” to use Eric
Hobsbawm’s phrases, were ending. Yet some of these dynamics
looked quite different across the Atlantic, where America was