The Total Work of Art in European Modernism (Signale: Modern German Letters, Cultures, and Thought)

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Review "Robert's comprehensive account is impressive, and the breadth of his references is matched by the pertinence and precision of his case studies from across European literature, art, architecture, music, and film..." (Elza Adamowicz Modern Language Review)"Roberts portrays the total work of art not simply as a particular and peripheral genre of modern culture but rather as a fundamental idea that responded to the experience of desacralization in modernity... This book is impressive in sweep, thought-provoking in its challenges to accepted cultural schemas, and fascinating in the details it uncovers along the way. In short: a grand synthetic account that truly holds together. It represents an important contribution to the re-thinking of modernism." (Peter Zusi, University College London Monatshefte)"There is much to admire in Roberts' study of the total work of art and he convincingly makes the case for its importance.... Roberts’ book provides a hugely insightful study of the total work of art. Most helpfully he uses this recurring motif as a way of breaking down conventional narratives about modernist politics, spirituality and aesthetic technique." (Claire Warden Consciousness, Spirituality and the Arts)"With this volume, Roberts completes a trilogy devoted to European modernism. Art and Enlightenment (1991) offered a critical assessment of Adorno's theory of modern music, while Dialectic of Romanticism proposed a 'civil' alternative to Romantic nostalgia and Enlightenment progressivism. This new book, on the tangled legacy of Richard Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk ('total work of art'), is equally original, in approach and detailed readings.... The author traces its origins to the French Revolution and German Romanticism, and then monitors the cultural resonance of Wagner's Parsifal, via Nietzsche and Mallarmé, which extends to the 20th-century avant-garde―particularly its odd mix of differentiation/synthesis of the arts, and its theatrical fusion of art and life. Finally he surveys the 'sublime' politics of Fascist spectacle, which Walter Benjamin famously reduced to the 'aestheticization of politics.' If the Nazis seem finally to have discredited the entire tradition, it nevertheless finds a spectral afterlife in contemporary theme parks and cyberspace. Ambitious, densely written, yet rewarding, this volume caps a remarkable achievement. Summing Up: Highly recommended." (Choice) Read more About the Author David Roberts is Professor Emeritus of German at Monash University. He is the author of Art and Enlightenment: Aesthetic Theory after Adorno and coauthor of Dialectic of Romanticism. A Critique of Modernism, among many other books. Read more