Greg Barnhisel
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231162302
- eISBN:
- 9780231538626
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231162302.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This book reveals how the U.S. government reconfigured modernism as a trans-Atlantic movement, a joint endeavor between American and European artists, and shows that this had profound implications ...
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This book reveals how the U.S. government reconfigured modernism as a trans-Atlantic movement, a joint endeavor between American and European artists, and shows that this had profound implications for the art that followed and for the character of American identity. It draws on interviews, rare archival materials, and the stories of such figures and institutions as William Faulkner, Stephen Spender, Irving Kristol, James Laughlin, and the Voice of America. The book starts by showing how European intellectuals in the 1950s dismissed American culture as nothing more than cowboy movies and the A-bomb. It then details how American cultural diplomats tried to show that the United States had something to offer beyond military might and commercial exploitation. It shows how they deployed the revolutionary aesthetics of modernism to prove—particularly to the leftists whose Cold War loyalties they hoped to secure—that American art and literature were aesthetically rich and culturally significant. The book argues that, by repurposing modernism, American diplomats and cultural authorities turned the avant-garde into the establishment. It shows how they remade the once revolutionary movement into a content-free collection of artistic techniques and styles suitable for middlebrow consumption. It also documents how the CIA, the State Department, and private cultural diplomats transformed modernist art and literature into pro-Western propaganda during the first decade of the Cold War.Less
This book reveals how the U.S. government reconfigured modernism as a trans-Atlantic movement, a joint endeavor between American and European artists, and shows that this had profound implications for the art that followed and for the character of American identity. It draws on interviews, rare archival materials, and the stories of such figures and institutions as William Faulkner, Stephen Spender, Irving Kristol, James Laughlin, and the Voice of America. The book starts by showing how European intellectuals in the 1950s dismissed American culture as nothing more than cowboy movies and the A-bomb. It then details how American cultural diplomats tried to show that the United States had something to offer beyond military might and commercial exploitation. It shows how they deployed the revolutionary aesthetics of modernism to prove—particularly to the leftists whose Cold War loyalties they hoped to secure—that American art and literature were aesthetically rich and culturally significant. The book argues that, by repurposing modernism, American diplomats and cultural authorities turned the avant-garde into the establishment. It shows how they remade the once revolutionary movement into a content-free collection of artistic techniques and styles suitable for middlebrow consumption. It also documents how the CIA, the State Department, and private cultural diplomats transformed modernist art and literature into pro-Western propaganda during the first decade of the Cold War.
Samuel A. Floyd
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780195307245
- eISBN:
- 9780190651305
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195307245.003.0010
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This chapter aims to explore the trans-Atlantic movement of music from the Americas back to Africa, beginning in the early nineteenth century. In so doing, the chapter debunks the notion that the ...
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This chapter aims to explore the trans-Atlantic movement of music from the Americas back to Africa, beginning in the early nineteenth century. In so doing, the chapter debunks the notion that the movement of African musics was not affected by the emergence and influence of Diasporic practices. Musics that have been transformed are examined as they transform again while returning to Africa. Perceptions of African, Diasporic, and new musical practices are considered in the postcolonial age; in some areas cultural traditions exert the dominant force, while in other areas musics reflect a negotiation between tradition and modernity. Well-known composers of classical/art music are featured for the ways in which they combined European and African elements and idioms in the works. Important practitioners of kwela and isicathamiya are included, and these genres are considered as part of a larger, Diasporic trajectory.Less
This chapter aims to explore the trans-Atlantic movement of music from the Americas back to Africa, beginning in the early nineteenth century. In so doing, the chapter debunks the notion that the movement of African musics was not affected by the emergence and influence of Diasporic practices. Musics that have been transformed are examined as they transform again while returning to Africa. Perceptions of African, Diasporic, and new musical practices are considered in the postcolonial age; in some areas cultural traditions exert the dominant force, while in other areas musics reflect a negotiation between tradition and modernity. Well-known composers of classical/art music are featured for the ways in which they combined European and African elements and idioms in the works. Important practitioners of kwela and isicathamiya are included, and these genres are considered as part of a larger, Diasporic trajectory.
