This provocative book shows how the mass abandonment of rural vernaculars (such as the Irish language, Italian dialects, and French patois) shaped European literary modernism. Seán Ó Ríordáin in Ireland and Pier Paolo Pasolini in Italy reshaped minor languages as experimental poetic idioms; the decline of the Irish language deeply affected the work of James Joyce; the disappearing dialects of northern France were a source of complex inspiration for Marcel Proust. Drawing on a broad range of linguistic and cultural examples to present a major reevaluation of the origins and meaning of European literary modernism, Barry McCrea shows how a genuinely comparative analysis can force us to rethink national literary traditions.
- | Author: Barry McCrea
- | Publisher: Yale University Press
- | Publication Date: Apr 28, 2015
- | Number of Pages: 200 pages
- | Language: English
- | Binding: Hardcover
- | ISBN-10: 0300185154
- | ISBN-13: 9780300185157