Reading Fragments and Fragmentation in Modernist Literature [Hardcover]

As a critical term, fragment is more of a starting-point than a definition. Fragment and fragmentation have been used to describe damaged manuscripts; drafts; notes; subverted grammatical structures; the emergence of vers libre; from formal verse; texts without linear plots; translations; quotations; and works titled Fragment regardless of how formally complete they might appear. This book offers a phenomenological reading of modernist literary fragments, arguing that fragments create states of conflicted embodiment in which mind and body cannot cleanly separate. Drawing on the concept of aestheticism as an overstimulated body, each chapter connects fragments to experiences of physical and emotional ambiguity. The author introduces fragmentation as an aspect of what Julia Kristeva and Helene Cixous term ecriture feminine;, and offers new readings of the texts that Stephane Mallarme struggled to finish.

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction (I thought of Fragilion, that shy figure) Chapter One: Reading Fragments and Fragmentation: Theories and Approaches Chapter Two: Translating Stphane Mallarm's Cento Chapter Three: Funny Fragments, Lunatic Sport Chapter Four: Kaleidoscopic Cities, Historical Kitsch Conclusion: Fragments as Dream-Texts Bibliography Index