Modernism's Mythic Pose
Gender, Genre, Solo Performance
Modernist Literature and Culture Series

Modernism's Mythic Pose recovers the tradition of Delsartism, a popular international movement that promoted bodily and vocal solo performances, particularly for women. This strain of classical-antimodernism shaped dance, film, and poetics. Its central figure, the mythic pose, expressed both skepticism and nostalgia and functioned as an ambivalent break from modernity.

Series Editors' Foreword. Acknowledgments. Introduction.. I. Modern, Antimodern, and Mythic Posing. II. Gendered Identity and Embodiment. III. Biblical Typology and Classical Ritual. IV. Solo Genres. V. Modernist Kinaesthetics. Chapter 1. The Solo's Origins: Monodramas, Attitudes, Dramatic Monologues. I. Galatea's Reach: Gestures of the Monodrama. II. Veiled Motions: Emma Lyon Hamilton's Attitude. III. Goethe's Proserpina and Later Posers. IV. Barrett Browning: Naming "Aeschylus" and "The Virgin Mary". V. Types and Housewives in Christina Rossetti and Augusta Webster. Chapter 2. Posing Modernism: Delsartism in Modern Dance and Silent Film. I. Delsarte's Aesthetics of the Attitude. II. Disseminating Delsarte. III. Performing Delsartism: Genevieve Stebbins and the Early Motions of Modern Dance. IV. Performing Delsartism (Take Two): Denishawn and Hollywood. V. The Russian Delsarte: Kuleshov and Film Montage. Chapter 3. Positioning Genre: The Dramatic Monologue in Cultures of Recitation. I..

Carrie J. Preston has been an Assistant Professor of Womens Studies and English at Boston University.