Brilliant Modernism

Cultures of Light and Modernist Poetry

Illuminates how the power of light shaped early twentieth-century art, culture, and poetry.

In Brilliant Modernism, Nicoletta Asciuto takes readers on a journey through the electrified streets of the early twentieth century and explores the influence of this illumination on modernist poetry. This ambitious and geographically wide-ranging account of how poets responded to the changing cityscape is distinctive in its historicist approach and the enormous scope of the materials it examines, from Mina Loy's lamps for the modern home to lunar photography.

As the glow of gas lamps gave way to the piercing beams of the new era, poets navigated a world where light dictated social standing, gender roles, and the very rhythm of life. Brilliant Modernism is a story of contrasts—the starkness of electric light against the softness of the moon, the traditional against the modern, and the male-dominated world against the rising tide of female empowerment. Asciuto reworks our understanding of the modernist moment, reimagining the influence of figures such as T. S. Eliot, Lola Ridge, Gwendolyn B. Bennett, and Rosa Rosà.

Set against the backdrop of a world on the brink of massive changes, this book shines a light on forgotten women poets and artists whose contributions to the modernist movement have long been overshadowed by their male counterparts. Through a narrative that is as much about the aesthetics of light as it is about the poets themselves, Asciuto illuminates the vibrant and often volatile intersection of technology and culture.

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