Addis, V orcid.org/0000-0001-6127-7730 (2016) 'Man is the Measure': The Individual and the Tribe in Modernist Representations of the Primitive. Postgraduate English, 32. ISSN 1756-9761
Abstract
This interdisciplinary study investigates the tensions inherent within the ‘anti-modern’ element of early modernism and its relationship to Victorian and fin de siècle narratives of modernity. Using Sigmund Freud’s Totem and Taboo (1913), this essay examines how the primitive is represented in E.M. Forster’s short story ‘The Machine Stops’ (1909) and Stravinsky/Nijinsky’s ballet ‘The Rite of Spring’ (1913) and the ways in which those representations are utilised to relate contemporary concerns about modernisation and its effects on the individual. The use of the primitive in these early modernist works is built on a foundation of interest in primitive cultures fostered through popularised works of anthropological and ethnographic study, such as James George Frazer’s The Golden Bough (1890), and operates in relation to the primitivism movement in the visual arts. While Forster writes from the heart of the historic English countryside and Stravinsky from the backdrop of rural Russia, their works share concerns about the project of modernity and its impact on traditional ways of life. Yet in spite of the ‘anti-modern’ message of Forster’s and Stravinsky’s works, their uses of the primitive do not speak simply to a desire to return to a romanticised pre-modern age, but provide a counter-argument to modernity in the links drawn between excessive modernity (Forster) or industrialisation (Stravinsky) and the perceived savagery of primitive cultures.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This article is protected by copyright. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. |
Keywords: | Primitivism; Modernism; Stravinsky; E.M. Forster; Ballet Russes; Freud |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of English (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 06 Sep 2018 10:16 |
Last Modified: | 06 Sep 2018 12:49 |
Published Version: | http://community.dur.ac.uk/postgraduate.english/oj... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Durham University Department of English Studies |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:135362 |