Reconstructing Modernism: British Literature, Modern Architecture, and the State

270 Pages·2020·1.705 MB·English

by  Ashley Maher

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OXFORD MID-CENTURY STUDIES
The Oxford Mid-Century Studies series publishes monographs in several
disciplinary and creative areas in order to create a thick description of culture in
the thirty-year period around the Second World War. With a focus on the 1930s
through the 1960s, the series concentrates on fiction, poetry, film, photography,
theatre, as well as art, architecture, design, and other media. The mid-century is
an age of shifting groups and movements, from existentialism through abstract
expressionism to confessional, serial, electronic, and pop art styles. The series
charts such intellectual movements, even as it aids and abets the very best
scholarly thinking about the power of art in a world under new techno-political
compulsions, whether nuclear-apocalyptic, Cold War-propagandized,
transnational, neo-imperial, super-powered, or postcolonial.
Series editors
Allan Hepburn, McGill University
Adam Piette, University of Sheffield
Lyndsey Stonebridge, University of East Anglia
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 24/02/20, SPi
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 24/02/20, SPi
Reconstructing
Modernism
British Literature, Modern
Architecture, and the State
ASHLEY MAHER
1
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1
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© Ashley Maher 2020
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020931723
ISBN 978–0–19–881648–5
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198816485.001.0001
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Acknowledgments
I am grateful for the research funding that made Reconstructing Modernism
possible. A Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Fellowship at Washington University
in St. Louis and Mellon Foundation funding supported early work on this
project, and a Stevenson Junior Research Fellowship at University College,
Oxford, supported it in its latter stages. The Olin Fellowship Program, the
Washington University Department of English, and University College pro-
vided additional funding for archival research, and the University of Sydney
Department of English helped cover production costs. During my research
trips, the kind advice and assistance of the staff at the RIBA Drawings and
Archives Collection and at the British Library allowed me to make the most
of my time there.
I would like to thank the editors of ELH and the Journal of Modern
Literature for allowing me to revisit material published in those journals.
An early version of Chapter 3 appeared as “ ‘Swastika arms of passage leading
to nothing’: Late Modernism and the ‘New’ Britain” (Copyright © 2013 The
Johns Hopkins University Press) in ELH, Volume 80, Issue 1, Spring 2013,
pages 251–85. Short sections from the introduction and Chapter 1 were
published as “ ‘Three-Dimensional’ Modernism: The Language of Architecture
and British Literary Periodicals” (Copyright © 2019 Indiana University Press)
in the Journal of Modern Literature, Volume 43, Issue 1, Fall 2019, pages 71–83.
The thoughtful responses of the anonymous readers at both journals sharp-
ened my thinking at key moments for the project. Additional thanks go to
the estates of J. G. Ballard, John Betjeman, Wyndham Lewis, and George
Orwell, as well as to the British Library, the Imperial War Museum, the RIBA
Collections, and the Tate, for granting permission to incorporate material
from their holdings. Material from the J. G. Ballard Archives by J. G. Ballard.
Copyright © J. G. Ballard, used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK)
Limited. “Huxley Hall”, “Inexpensive Progress”, “The Planster’s Vision” &
“The Town Clerk’s Views” from Collected Poems by John Betjeman © 1955,
1958, 1962, 1964, 1968, 1970, 1979, 1981, 1982, 2001. Reproduced by per-
mission of John Murray, an imprint of Hodder and Stoughton Ltd. “On a
Ruined Farm near the His Master’s Voice Gramophone Factory” by George
Orwell (Copyright © George Orwell, 1934). Reproduced by permission of
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vi Acknowledgments
Bill Hamilton as the Literary Executor of the Estate of the Late Sonia
Brownell Orwell.
I was fortunate to receive feedback on this work from many different
people. Several chapters of this book profited from the responses of fellow
presenters, seminar members, and panel attendees at conferences of the
Modernist Studies Association as well as the House in the Mind Conference
at Wadham College, Oxford. I have likewise benefited immensely from the
wisdom and support of mentors and colleagues at Washington University in
St Louis, the University of Oxford, and the University of Sydney. I would
particularly like to thank Barbara Barrow, Dillon Brown, Kate Fama, Paul
Giles, Sarah Gleeson-White, Nick Halmi, Isabelle Hesse, Charlotte Kirchhelle,
Claas Kirchhelle, Joe Loewenstein, Peter Marks, Bill Maxwell, Melanie
Micir, Anca Parvulescu, Vince Sherry, Tiffany Stern, Anna Teekell, Abram
Van Engen, and Laura Varnam for their encouragement and their invaluable
comments on the work in progress.
I am greatly indebted to the series editors—Allan Hepburn, Adam Piette,
and Lyndsey Stonebridge—for their incisive responses to my proposal and
for welcoming this project into the Mid-Century Studies Series. A special—
and very warm—thanks goes to Allan for the care with which he has shep-
herded this project to completion. His discerning eye and generous advice
have significantly improved the manuscript. In addition, I would like to
thank the anonymous reader, whose report was transformative for the
framing of my argument, and Aimee Wright, who has had an answer ready
for each of my many questions.
It would be impossible to express my gratitude to Marina MacKay, whose
contagious enthusiasm for mid-century literature led me to this project. She
has been a tireless booster and mentor, as well as a model of intellectual
curiosity and clear thinking. It is also my pleasure—and privilege—to thank
Kathy McQueen for kindling my passion for literary study and to thank
Ken Egan, Charles Ess, Randall Fuller, Erin Kenny, Michael Hill, Peter
Meidlinger, and Jo Van Arkel for challenging me to ask big questions and
think across disciplinary boundaries.
I count myself lucky to have been born into a family of readers. I owe
many thought-provoking conversations about literature and history to my
brother, Shawn Maher. My parents, Tom and Cheryl Maher, made the public
library a second home and were the earliest audience for my writing.
Finally, it is with great fondness that I would like to thank David Ruvolo.
Amid change—and moving countless boxes of books across land and sea—
he has been an unflagging source of laughter and support.
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction: Brave New Worlds, Brave New Words,
and Brave New Rooms 1
Early Modernist Utopianism: Roger Fry, Wyndham Lewis, and
D.H. Lawrence 8
Reassessing Modernist Interdisciplinarity 27
Trajectories 34
1. Waugh, Betjeman, Lewis, and the Missed Future of Modernism 40
Initial Appreciations 46
The Threatened National Future 56
Decline and Fall 61
Growing Reservations: Frederick Etchells and Wyndham Lewis 71
2. Aldous Huxley and the “Brave New World” of Architectural
Modernism 81
Architecture and Governance 84
Brave New World, Eyeless in Gaza, and the Future of
British Literature 104
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow: World War II
Draws the Dystopian Future Nearer 123
3. “Swastika arms of passage leading to nothing”: Bowen,
Isherwood, Orwell, and the “New” Britain 129
The New Architecture and “The New Britain” 132
The New Britain and the Old Literary Modernisms 137
“The mischief was in her own and other rooms”:
The Politicization of Architectural Style 143
“This did not look like home; but it looked like something—
possibly a story”: Language and Architecture Intersect 157
“The thin air which had taken the house’s place”:
Rethinking Modernism 167
4. Planning for War and Peace: Betjeman, Orwell, Waugh,
and the Dystopian Documentary 174
Towards a New Britain: Modern Architecture at War 176
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viii Contents
Documenting the Future: The British Documentary
Movement and Things to Come 180
Betjeman’s Anti-Planning Documentaries and Literature 189
Orwell’s Leftist Anti-Planning 197
Nineteen Eighty-Four 205
Evelyn Waugh’s Near Future 209
Love Among the Ruins 216
Epilogue: Modernist Afterlives: J. G. Ballard’s
“Handful of Dust” 223
Bibliography 241
Index 255
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List of Illustrations
0.1 Wyndham Lewis’s “Vorticist Composition” of 1915 15
Image credit: “Vorticist Composition,” 1915, Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957).
Presented by Miss Ethel M. Saunders in memory of her sister 1963.
Photo credit: ©Tate, London 2018.
2.1 The Penguin Pool in The New Architecture and the London Zoo 88
László Moholy-Nagy, director, The New Architecture and the London Zoo.
1936. Distribution Moholy-Nagy Foundation, 2007.
3.1 Viewing the Model of the New Coventry in A City Reborn 136
Dylan Thomas, writer, A City Reborn 1945. Production Gryphon Films,
Distribution bfi.org.uk.
3.2 Rural Cottages in a World War I Propaganda Poster 169
“Your Country’s Call.” 1915. ©Imperial War Museum (Art.IWM PST 0320)
3.3 World War II Propaganda Poster Featuring Modernist Housing 170
Abram Games. “Your Britain—Fight for It Now (Housing).” 1942.
©Imperial War Museum (Art.IWM PST 2909)
4.1 Aerial Perspective and Plastic Furniture in the New Everytown 188
H.G. Wells, writer, Things to Come. 1936. Production London Films,
Distribution Criterion Collection, 2013.
4.2 Tower Blocks in “An Englishman’s Home” 192
John Betjeman, writer, “An Englishman’s Home.” Bird’s Eye View. 1969.
Production BBC, Distribution bbc.co.uk.