Greetings! This editor’s note marks the publication of a new print issue of Modernism/modernity and thus a new cycle here on Print+. Issue 29.2 is—or soon will be—in your mailboxes and it’s another exciting collection of the best of modernist studies today. With every issue we share one article and one review from the print journal online, so you’ve already had the chance to read Shaj Mathew’s examination of the distinct practices of Persian flânerie of two figures, the fokoli and the farangimaab and Matt Levay’s review of Hannah Frank’s posthumously published monograph, Frame by Frame. Even more awaits you between the covers of the journal—the table of contents gives you a glimpse--but let me entice you with a little more detail:
Continuing our ongoing commitment to supporting global modernism, we are have two articles that look at modernism in East Asia in this issue: Tiao Wang & Ronald Schleifer offer a sweeping analysis of the Chinese poetic modernism of Shi Zhi situated in the context of what they call China's second Industrial Revolution of the 1980s reform period, an event seen as homologous with the establishment of corporate capitalism in the West in the 1880s while Ryan Johnson considers how Paul Claudel distinguishes himself among modernist orientalists in his vision of Japan as both scientifically ultramodern and antiquated. We are similarly delighted to participate in this moment’s dynamic conversations around modernism and dance with two pieces this issue: Michelle Clayton’s narration of a series of "encounters" with "recoveries of modernist dance" and "danced recoveries of modernism and Juliet Bellow’s consideration the machine aesthetic of Fernand Léger's "Ballet mécanique."
The remaining four articles offer new perspectives on a wide array of topics: Todd Nordgren examines how David Garnett's novella Lady Into Fox (1922) subverts narrative realism. Vaclav Lucien Paris examines the figure of Jan Welzl, a gold-digger, hunter, and storyteller, to develop a theory of "eccentric primitivism." Sandra Zalman unpacks the myth of MoMA's origins with reference to the museum's founder Alfred H. Barr's (in)famous chart of modern art; asks why this origin myth has persisted. And finally, Sophie Corser detailed examination of the way Ulysses mediates the question of Homeric authorship, with reference to the "Eumaeus" episode. In short, as I think you can hear, the print issue continues to offer the kind of richness we’ve come to expect from Modernism/modernity.
And, if you’ve been paying attention here, you’ll know we’ve been busy in Print+ world as well. Since I last wrote to you, we’ve kept up our pace of new content every week. This includes: an article on modernism and liberalism exclusive to Print+; book reviews, including a capsule review—please keep them coming; some really exciting new reviews of old books—Benjamin Kahan on Gilmore Millen’s Sweet Man, Lisa Tyler on Harry Crosby’s poems, and Carey Snyder on Edith Zangwill’s The Call; and some truly astonishing, groundbreaking blog posts on playwright Adrienne Kennedy, blurry photography, trans femininity, and queer anachronism.
One of my goals since taking responsibility for editing the Print+ piece of the journal has been to promote, foster, and encourage you to take advantage of our social annotation tool, built into the platform. You can find instructions here. Once you have created an account and are logged in, you can highlight and annotate any content on the site. Hover your cursor over part of an article, and a pop-up box will appear on the right side of your browser window, where you can make marginal notes. You can set those annotations to be public, private, or—perhaps most useful of all—set up a new private group for a seminar. Social annotation is a terrific teaching tool—students can see what interests their peers, you can point them to key moments in an argument, and you can see where they have questions or moments of confusion. If you are using hypothes.is on our platform, please let me know! I’d love to feature your experiences in a future note or even as a blog post here.
And with that, I wish you all good things as a new academic year starts for many of us and as you dive into this fresh new issue of our journal. I am so grateful for all of you—readers, reviewers, and contributors alike!
—Anne E. Fernald