Modernism, Science, and Technology: (New Modernisms)

From quantum physics and genetics to psychology and the social sciences, from the development of atomic weapons to the growing mass media of film and radio, the early 20th century was a period of intense scientific and technological change. Modernism, Science, and Technology surveys the scientific contexts of writers from H.G. Wells and Gertrude Stein to James Joyce and Virginia Woolf and the ways in modernist writers responded to these paradigm shifts. Introducing key concepts from science studies and their implications for the study of modernist literature, the book includes chapters covering the physical sciences, mathematics, life sciences, social sciences and ‘pseudosciences’. Including a timeline of key developments and guides to further reading, this is an essential guide to students and researchers studying the topic at all levels.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction: Modernism and Science Studies 2. The Physical Sciences and Mathematics 3. The Life Sciences 4. The Social Sciences 5. "Pseudosciences" Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Mark S. Morrisson is Professor and Head of Department at Penn State University, USA. A former president of the Modernist Studies Association, he is co-editor of The Journal of Periodical Studies and his previous books include The Public Face of Modernism: Little Magazines, Audiences, and Reception 1905-1920 (2001) and Modern Alchemy: Occultism and the Emergence of Atomic Theory (2007).

Review :
Mark Morrison’s slim but packed book, Modernism, Science and Technology, is a significant new addition to the “New Modernisms” series … This is a book that moves at speed and tosses out ideas, summarizes whole fields of study, and surveys important theoretical paradigms on almost every page: it might be thought of not just as a primer on its subject, but as a goldmine for seekers of dissertation or book topics. It is immensely rich and suggestive, as well as measured, as it surveys the terrain that may well be the key to the whole modernist enterprise. Its “Works Cited” is in itself a very valuable resource, and not just for the beginner in this area. It is a compendium, and yet it never reads as such; rather, the writer makes clear that he is not afraid to tackle the fundamental questions of how science relates to literature. Modernism, Science, and Technology will provide students and scholars working in literature and science, especially those focused on Modernism, with a succinct overview of the field. Modernism, Science, and Technology by Mark S. Morrisson is an engaging read, and a fine addition to the already existing work in the area of literature, science, and technology ... [This is] an incredibly useful book not only for modernist scholars, but for researchers and students of nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature more broadly. A rich and illuminating study whose often startling analyses encompassing a wide range of disciplines should have a real impact on the field ... Morrisson sets a fine example for future scholars of modernism interested in engaging with today’s fundamental rethinking of the universe via science. Modernism, Science, and Technology … mounts a powerful case for interdisciplinarity as the primary way by which the connections among the three nouns of its title have become legible, and by which modernist studies has been productively transformed by multiple discourses and fields of study.