Summary

On 11 and 12 May 2012, the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis jointly helped organise the conference ‘Generation M: Resetting Modernist Time’, which was held at the University of Amsterdam and attended by a group of respected national and international scholars. 

Are Modernists aware of themselves as Modernists? Certainly, there is consciousness of shared enterprise – taking part in a “grrrreat littttterary period,” as one of Pound's memorable eruptions has it. Yet, even before period or style, comes the inevitable frame of shared generation. Before the “simultaneous order” of “the whole of literature of Europe from Homer,” as Eliot has it, the talented author must feel “his own generation in his bones.” The concept of generation – in the bones, beneath the skin, consumed and digested – serves to provide modernism with a vital undercarriage drawn from the human lifespan that continues to shape not least our own scholarly conceptions of “the movement,” and hence merits detailed examination.

To this end, the Generation M: Resetting Modernist Time conference sought to explore how exactly and why the generational note is struck by the writers and artists it helps to identify, as well as how the concept of “generation” can either help or hinder Modernist Studies.  The conference was also aimed at establishing an international transatlantic network called ‘Generation M’ and the publication of selected contributions.

Organisers

• Dr Rudolph Glitz

• Dr Lois Cucullu

• Prof. Aaron Jaffe

Speakers

Please refer to the programme below for a complete overview of all attendees.

Contact details

For more information about the Generation M conference, please contact

 The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis
Spuistraat 210 (room 113)
1012 VT Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Email: asca-fgw@uva.nl