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Modernist Studies Association 15: Brighton

Modernist Studies Association 15: Brighton Seminar: Modernist Fantasy

Leaders: Glenn Willmott & Leif Sorensen

Many genres of fantastic writing flourished in the pulps, comics, children's literature and film in the early twentieth century.  Although horror, fantasy and SF were important to the everyday culture of the modernist era, high modernism and the fantastic are rarely studied together.  How does the popularity of fantastic writing complicate existing narratives of modernist reading and writing practices?  Are certain ontologies, aesthetic strategies, approaches to character and subjectivity, ethical situations, or political concerns peculiar to modernism and fantasy?  We welcome participants who wish to discuss the significance of fantasy writing as a cross current in elite and popular cultural production.