Modernist Writings and Religio-scientific Discourse H.D., Loy, and Toomer [Paperback]

Addresses?the early twentieth-century intersection of scientific and religious discourse exploring literary modernism through the lens of cultural history,?focusing?on the works of H.D., Mina Loy, and Jean Toomer.?It covers a range of topics such as?electromagnetism and sexuality, dance, and theories of spiritual evolution.Introduction '[T]he electric incitement of Eros': Electromagnetism, Sexuality, and Modernism Seeking 'a sort of clairvoyant material plane': Spirituality and the Moving Body Negotiating the Racialized Body: Theories of Spiritual Evolution and the 'American Race' Coda

Vetter s Modernist Writings and Religio-scientific Discourse offers a fascinating overview of convergences between late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century metaphysical, scientific, and literary speculations about the sexual body, the body in motion, and the racialized body. Moving easily between meditations by sexologists, physical trainers, dance theorists, and eugenicists, on the one hand, and preachers, Mesmerists, Theosophists, and Christian Scientists on the other, Vetter demonstrates the wash of extra-literary ideas through literary documents, published and unpublished, by H.D., Mina Loy, and Jean Toomer. The result is a rich and dynamic picture of the flux and struggle of ideas that constitute a cultural moment. - Adalaide Morris, John C. Gerber Professor of English, The University of Iowa

Having read widely in both relevant published and archival work as well as extra-literary texts - including popular periodicals and heterodox religious tracts - Vetter has succeeded in developing a nuanced, sophisticated, and interdisciplinary approach to her material. This monograph will appeal to a number of different constituencies within modernist literary studies, including scholars who are interested in material and cultural history, theories of gender and sexuality, and the unpublished works of three important modernist writers: H.D., Loy, and Toomer. lÔ