My article has its point of departure among the artists of the 20th-century avant-garde, who worked with a distinct awareness of their modernity and yet adopted an intellectual vantage point that enlarged their vision, to the extent of allowing them to embrace at once modern art and the art of the Neolithic age. Among them T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry, who variously responded to the drawings of Magdalenian artists, or to the art of Homer, while having recourse to modern science, chemistry especially, in order to explain literary phenomena. Such views are examined by focusing on the transformative power of the arts in Victorian and Edwardian culture and society. The article investigates such a scenario by dwelling first on the epistemic horizon in which science, art and literature conspire together to mould the modern mind. Subsequently the article moves à rebours, in order to suggest the possible reasons for such hermeneutic proximity. The strategy that allows the artists and critics to move forward and backwards in time is due to their insistence on analogy, which allows them to examine side by side the very modern and the very old. In addition to analogy, optical technology allows them to assess art from a visual point of view, thus emphasizing formal values: in sum the tools adopted have their symbolic and practical equivalent in chemistry. Such are the transformative powers that promote intermedial dynamics among the arts, and they date back to Victorian times, where they appear under the shape of the grid. The grid is the container in which the achievements of Victorian culture, industry and art are ordered and organized. The grid provides the structure to the Crystal Palace housing the Great Exhibition in 1851, and the grid is the structure presiding over modern chemistry, owing to the tabular arrangement of chemical elements envisaged by Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev and first published in 1869. Such grids suggest that the epistemic width invoked by the avant-garde artists—its wide connective capability, its conceptual emphasis on analogy among a variety of different experiences—can be traced back to the Victorian and Edwardian age.

Victorian Arts and the Challenge of Modernity: Analogy, the Grid, and Chemical Transformations = Les arts victoriens et le défi de la modernité : analogie, ‘grille’ et transformations chimiques / F. Orestano. - In: CAHIERS VICTORIENS ET ÉDOUARDIENS. - ISSN 0220-5610. - 2019:89(2019 Jun). (Intervento presentato al 58. convegno The Transformative Power of the Arts in Victorian and Edwardian Culture and Society : Congrès de la SAES, atelier de la SFEVE, Utopia(s) and Revolution(s)) [10.4000/cve.5059].

Victorian Arts and the Challenge of Modernity: Analogy, the Grid, and Chemical Transformations = Les arts victoriens et le défi de la modernité : analogie, ‘grille’ et transformations chimiques

F. Orestano
2019

Abstract

My article has its point of departure among the artists of the 20th-century avant-garde, who worked with a distinct awareness of their modernity and yet adopted an intellectual vantage point that enlarged their vision, to the extent of allowing them to embrace at once modern art and the art of the Neolithic age. Among them T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry, who variously responded to the drawings of Magdalenian artists, or to the art of Homer, while having recourse to modern science, chemistry especially, in order to explain literary phenomena. Such views are examined by focusing on the transformative power of the arts in Victorian and Edwardian culture and society. The article investigates such a scenario by dwelling first on the epistemic horizon in which science, art and literature conspire together to mould the modern mind. Subsequently the article moves à rebours, in order to suggest the possible reasons for such hermeneutic proximity. The strategy that allows the artists and critics to move forward and backwards in time is due to their insistence on analogy, which allows them to examine side by side the very modern and the very old. In addition to analogy, optical technology allows them to assess art from a visual point of view, thus emphasizing formal values: in sum the tools adopted have their symbolic and practical equivalent in chemistry. Such are the transformative powers that promote intermedial dynamics among the arts, and they date back to Victorian times, where they appear under the shape of the grid. The grid is the container in which the achievements of Victorian culture, industry and art are ordered and organized. The grid provides the structure to the Crystal Palace housing the Great Exhibition in 1851, and the grid is the structure presiding over modern chemistry, owing to the tabular arrangement of chemical elements envisaged by Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev and first published in 1869. Such grids suggest that the epistemic width invoked by the avant-garde artists—its wide connective capability, its conceptual emphasis on analogy among a variety of different experiences—can be traced back to the Victorian and Edwardian age.
Cet article a pour point de départ les artistes de l’avant-garde du xxe siècle qui, tout en étant conscients de leur modernité, adoptèrent un point de vue intellectuel qui leur donna une vision si large qu’ils purent embrasser à la fois l’art moderne et l’art du néolithique. Parmi eux, T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf et Roger Fry réagirent chacun à leur manière aux dessins des artistes magdaléniens ou à l’art d’Homère tout en ayant recours à la science moderne — la chimie, en particulier — pour expliquer des phénomènes littéraires. Leur point de vue est analysé au prisme du pouvoir transformateur des arts dans la culture et la société victoriennes et édouardiennes. L’article se penche tout d’abord sur l’horizon épistémique où science, art et littérature se liguent pour modeler l’esprit moderne. À partir de là, l’article suit une progression à rebours afin de suggérer les raisons qui ont pu présider à une telle proximité herméneutique. La stratégie qui permet à ces artistes et critiques d’avancer et de reculer dans le temps se fonde sur une insistance sur l’analogie, ce qui leur permet d’examiner côte à côte le très moderne et le très ancien. Outre l’analogie, la technologie optique leur permet d’évaluer l’art d’un point de vue visuel et ainsi de mettre en valeur la forme: en somme, les outils adoptés ont leur équivalent symbolique et pratique dans le domaine de la chimie. Tels sont les pouvoirs transformateurs qui promeuvent une dynamique intermédiale entre les arts; ces pouvoirs remontent à l’époque victorienne où ils apparaissent sous la forme d’une ‘grille’. Cette ‘grille’ est le contenant dans lequel sont classées et organisées les réalisations de la culture, de l’industrie et des arts victoriens. C’est la grille qui donne sa structure au Crystal Palace qui abrite l’Exposition Universelle de 1851 ; la grille est également la structure qui règle la chimie moderne, grâce au tableau des éléments chimiques élaboré par le chimiste russe Dmitri Mendeleïev et publié pour la première fois en 1869. D’après ces grilles, il apparaît que l’origine de l’ampleur épistémique invoquée par les artistes de l’avant-garde — sa capacité de connexion, l’accent conceptuel qu’elle met sur l’analogie dans un éventail d’expériences diverses — remonte à l’époque victorienne et édouardienne.
analogy; chemistry; the ‘grid’; Krauss; Modernist arts; Victorian arts; analogie; chimie; la ‘grille’; Krauss; arts modernistes; arts victoriens
Settore L-LIN/10 - Letteratura Inglese
giu-2019
http://journals.openedition.org/cve/5059
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/651683
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