“New contours suggested by old words”: la modernité américaine au tamis de l’archéologie poétique
In the first half of the 20th century, modernity was equally characterized by its willful amnesia of the immediate past and by its fascination for deep time, new excavations, surviving images, and retrospective writing. Such a hesitation between the forgetful present and the ill-defined past was und...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Institut des Amériques
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| Series: | IdeAs |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/ideas/2354 |
| _version_ | 1797305858413035520 |
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| author | Aurore Clavier |
| author_facet | Aurore Clavier |
| author_sort | Aurore Clavier |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the first half of the 20th century, modernity was equally characterized by its willful amnesia of the immediate past and by its fascination for deep time, new excavations, surviving images, and retrospective writing. Such a hesitation between the forgetful present and the ill-defined past was undoubtedly stronger in the United-States, tormented as the country was by its “young” history and a “prehistory” the conquering ideology of Manifest Destiny had almost entirely buried. The national narrative, whose very incipit was often displaced on the timeline, remained a consistent focus not only for historians but also for cultural thinkers and artists who attempted to (re)invent a nation they deemed either immature or time-worn, against the founding myths of Genteel America. Between new births and “renaissance(s)”, inventions and rediscoveries, modern America was thus repeatedly examined through the prism of its own history, the revisions of the past enabling the contours of the contemporary to shift. This analysis aims at examining the historiographical and archeological enterprise led by American authors and cultural critics from the 1910s to the interwar period, in order to define the motifs and tools it contributed to shape. What antecedents did modernism select for itself? What time periods did it choose to unearth to better take root (not without imposing a certain form of revisionism in its turn)? How were these readings and excavations nourished by the geographical plurality of the continent, its obsessive “Frontier” opening up to long-neglected horizons—Central America, the Caribbean, or the “buried nations” (W. Frank) hidden within its own boundaries? Above all, how did modernity reinvent new modes of past-rewriting, by submitting unitary discourse, canonical omissions and the illusion of the single origin (G. Agamben) to critical distance, heterogeneous documents and poetic dissemination? |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T00:32:43Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8336b40cb6044953b302976df01cf42a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1950-5701 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T00:32:43Z |
| publisher | Institut des Amériques |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IdeAs |
| spelling | doaj.art-8336b40cb6044953b302976df01cf42a2024-02-15T13:54:40ZengInstitut des AmériquesIdeAs1950-57011110.4000/ideas.2354“New contours suggested by old words”: la modernité américaine au tamis de l’archéologie poétiqueAurore ClavierIn the first half of the 20th century, modernity was equally characterized by its willful amnesia of the immediate past and by its fascination for deep time, new excavations, surviving images, and retrospective writing. Such a hesitation between the forgetful present and the ill-defined past was undoubtedly stronger in the United-States, tormented as the country was by its “young” history and a “prehistory” the conquering ideology of Manifest Destiny had almost entirely buried. The national narrative, whose very incipit was often displaced on the timeline, remained a consistent focus not only for historians but also for cultural thinkers and artists who attempted to (re)invent a nation they deemed either immature or time-worn, against the founding myths of Genteel America. Between new births and “renaissance(s)”, inventions and rediscoveries, modern America was thus repeatedly examined through the prism of its own history, the revisions of the past enabling the contours of the contemporary to shift. This analysis aims at examining the historiographical and archeological enterprise led by American authors and cultural critics from the 1910s to the interwar period, in order to define the motifs and tools it contributed to shape. What antecedents did modernism select for itself? What time periods did it choose to unearth to better take root (not without imposing a certain form of revisionism in its turn)? How were these readings and excavations nourished by the geographical plurality of the continent, its obsessive “Frontier” opening up to long-neglected horizons—Central America, the Caribbean, or the “buried nations” (W. Frank) hidden within its own boundaries? Above all, how did modernity reinvent new modes of past-rewriting, by submitting unitary discourse, canonical omissions and the illusion of the single origin (G. Agamben) to critical distance, heterogeneous documents and poetic dissemination?https://journals.openedition.org/ideas/2354poetrymodernismAmericasarchaeologyhistoriographygeography |
| spellingShingle | Aurore Clavier “New contours suggested by old words”: la modernité américaine au tamis de l’archéologie poétique IdeAs poetry modernism Americas archaeology historiography geography |
| title | “New contours suggested by old words”: la modernité américaine au tamis de l’archéologie poétique |
| title_full | “New contours suggested by old words”: la modernité américaine au tamis de l’archéologie poétique |
| title_fullStr | “New contours suggested by old words”: la modernité américaine au tamis de l’archéologie poétique |
| title_full_unstemmed | “New contours suggested by old words”: la modernité américaine au tamis de l’archéologie poétique |
| title_short | “New contours suggested by old words”: la modernité américaine au tamis de l’archéologie poétique |
| title_sort | new contours suggested by old words la modernite americaine au tamis de l archeologie poetique |
| topic | poetry modernism Americas archaeology historiography geography |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/ideas/2354 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT auroreclavier newcontourssuggestedbyoldwordslamoderniteamericaineautamisdelarcheologiepoetique |