Rebuilding Babel

Legacies of Modernism

Between 1890 and 1950 modernist art and culture set out to challenge century-old notions of the individual and the community, culture and politics, morality and freedom, placing into question the very foundations of Western civilization. The essays in this volume present a novel assessment of various manifestations of modernism in Germany and Scandinavia by posing the question of its critical and political impact beyond traditional polarities such as right vs. left, illiberalism vs. Enlightenment, apolitical vs. engaged. In drawing on a wide range of disciplinary perspectives, including literary studies, art history, film and visual studies, urban studies, musicology, political theory, and the history of science and technology, the essays in this volume reexamine modernism's bold inquiry into areas such as the relation of art to technology and mass politics, the limits of liberal democracy, the reconceptualization of urban spaces, and the realignment of traditional art forms following the rise of new media such as film. The volume's contributors share a belief in the timeliness of modernism's critical impulse for a contemporary age confronted with ethical and political dilemmas that the modernists first articulated and to which they attempted to respond.

Modern Architecture and an International Sensibility

Modern Architecture and an International Sensibility: A Curious Cross-Atlantic Constellation presents an alternative history of internationalism and modernism, with a focus on the role of architecture and spatial practices. Beginning at the tail-end of the peace movements— the turn of the twentieth century— and ending with the Nuremberg trials, the book highlights the part played by individual agency, social reform and architecture in moulding a working everyday definition of what it meant to be international during this time. By viewing internationalism through the lens of the individual and the body, both as initiator and subject, it is repositioned as an integral part of everyday life, rather than simply understood to be concerned with geopolitical relations between nations and their institutions. The book furthers a research methodology that is multidisciplinary and transnational. It will therefore be of interest to researchers and students of architecture and international history.

Rebuilding Babel: The Translations of W.H. Auden