United States Modernism and the Genteel Tradition

• 영문명: United States Modernism and the Genteel Tradition
• 발행기관: 한국영미어문학회
• 저자명: Samchool Lee(이삼출)
• 간행물 정보: 『영미어문학』영미어문학 제80호, 65~86쪽, 전체 22쪽
• 주제분류: 어문학 > 영어와문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2006.09.01

영문 초록

  This thesis suggests to approach United States modernism as an aesthetic project of the contemporary intellectuals and artists to revolt against the reign of the colonialist cultural tradition and ultimately to replace it with what they saw as genuine native culture at the turn of the twentieth century. To argue for the validity of a historical perspective in approaching United States modernism, the thesis examines the formalistic conceptualization of the art movement as pure aestheticism. In doing so, the thesis critically analyzes the shortcomings of the New Critical view and a particular leftist view presented by Andreas Huyssen on the nature of United States modernism. Despite their innate differences in the political inclination, both views commit the same mistake to disregard the existence of the genteel tradition as the preceding art tradition of United States modernism. The genteel tradition, even though primarily characterized by its idealized and Euro-centered view on art, was a cultural project to create a national culture through which the nation could recover its moral purity lost amidst the fast modernization process. United States modernism adopted the most radical experimentalism from European avant-garde arts in the need to surpass the limitation of the genteel tradition in the realm of artistic form. The ultimate goal of United States modernism, however, was, like that of the genteel tradition against which it revolted, to create a viable national culture through which the newly-emerged empire could express its genuine cultural spirit. In this sense, it is necessary to approach United States modernism through a close look at its ambivalent relationship with the genteel tradition in order to overcome the shortcomings of the formalistic approaches.

키워드

modernism the genteel tradition the avant-garde Andreas Huyssen