The Highs and Lows of Modernism: a Cultural Deconstruction
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The Highs and Lows of Modernism: A Cultural Deconstruction Emma West Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Critical and Cultural Theory) School of English, Communication and Philosophy Cardiff University January 2017 Summary Over the past two decades, scholars have shown that the modernist ‘Great Divide’ between high and low culture is culturally-constructed, reductive and oversimplified. Yet, despite these critical disavowals, the field of modernist studies is still informed by the Divide’s binary systems of evaluation and classification. ‘High’ and ‘low’ texts are studied in isolation and modernism is privileged over popular culture. This thesis argues that we must address the Great Divide’s structure if we are to move beyond it. The Divide is underpinned by three structural myths: that of essence (texts are inherently high or low), mutual exclusivity (texts are either high or low) and precedence (high texts come before low ones). Over the course of four chapters, this study seeks to define, challenge and reconfigure the Great Divide, exploring new approaches which allow us to study texts from across the cultural spectrum together. After an initial chapter which maps out the Great Divide in early-twentieth-century Britain, the following three chapters interrogate the structural myths in turn. Chapter 2 disputes the myth of essence, arguing that both ‘little’ and ‘popular’ magazines are shaped by external factors; Chapter 3 considers travel posters, showing that they exhibit apparently mutually-exclusive aesthetic and publicity functions at once; and Chapter 4 examines the extent to which innovations in mass-market fashion predated their modernist counterparts. Informed by theory but rooted in print culture, this thesis combines cultural history and deconstruction to displace the Great Divide as a system of classification and reinstate it as an object of study. Only by viewing high, low and middlebrow texts together can we trace the effects that socio-economic conditions, prevailing aesthetic norms and audience demands had on a text’s production, circulation and reception. 1 Declaration This work has not been submitted in substance for any other degree or award at this or any other university or place of learning, nor is being submitted concurrently in candidature for any degree or other award. Signed Emma West Date 16/01/2017 STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD in Critical and Cultural Theory. Signed Emma West Date 16/01/2017 STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. The views expressed are my own. Signed Emma West Date 16/01/2017 STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available online in the University’s Open Access repository and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed Emma West Date 16/01/2017 STATEMENT 4: PREVIOUSLY APPROVED BAR ON ACCESS I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available online in the University’s Open Access repository and for inter-library loans after expiry of a bar on access previously approved by the Academic Standards & Quality Committee. Signed Emma West Date 16/01/2017 2 Contents Summary 1 Declaration 2 Contents 3 List of Illustrations 4 Acknowledgements 7 Introduction The ‘Battle of the Brows’: High, Low and Middlebrow in Modern(ist) Britain 9 Chapter 1 ‘a deep and jagged fissure’: Mapping the Great Divide 38 Chapter 2 ‘you , the public’: Norms, Readers and Modern(ist) Magazines 85 Chapter 3 ‘Cubists and Tubists’: Art versus Commerce in Interwar Travel Posters 151 Chapter 4 ‘an art which is wholly of today’: Modernism, Fashion and Cultural Translation 209 Conclusion or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Great Divide 251 Works Cited 267 3 List of Illustrations Figure 1.1: D’Ecaville, ‘If you ate acorns’, in Edgar Wallace, ‘Amongst the 45 Highbrows’, Britannia and Eve , 1.6, November 1928 Figure 1.2: Robert Scholes, ‘high and low’, in Paradoxy of Modernism 54 Figure 1.3: Umberto Eco, ‘Revised Semantic Model’, in A Theory of Semiotics 55 Figure 1.4: Umberto Eco, ‘elementary tree’, in A Theory of Semiotics 57 Figure 1.5: Elementary Tree, Binary Semantic Model 57 Figure 1.6: Excerpt from the ‘P eople’ strand, Binary Semantic Model 59 Figure 1.7: Binary Semantic Model, 1890 -1955 67 Figure 1.8: Culture, Binary Semantic Model, 1890 -1955 68 Figure 1.9: People, Binary Semantic Model, 1890 -1955 69 Figure 1.10: Texts, Binary Semantic Model, 1890 -1955 70 Figure 2.1: Excerpt from the ‘texts’ strand, Binary Semantic Model 97 Figure 2.2: Timeline for Selected Periodicals, 1890-1950 (after Brooker and 10 5 Thacker, ‘General Introduction’, p. 22) Figure 2.3: Advertisement for London Correspondence College, London 107 Magazine , September 1920 Figure 2.4: Advertisement for John Hassall School, London Magazine , 107 September 1920 Figure 2.5: Advertisement for Associated Fashion Artists, London Magazine , 108 October 1921 Figure 2.6: Cover, Royal Magazine , January 1921 126 Figure 2.7: Cover, Tyro , 2, 1922 126 Figure 2.8: Cover, Lloyd’s Magazine, November 1920 127 Figure 2.9: Cover, Pearson’s , January 1920 127 4 Figure 2.10: Cover, Royal Magazine , November 1906 129 Figure 2.11: Cover, Royal Magazine, May 1911 129 Figure 2.12: Cover, London Magazine , September 1916 129 Figure 2.13: Cover, London Magazine , May 1918 129 Figure 2.14: Cover, Windsor Magazine , October 1915 129 Figure 2.15: Cover, Windsor Magazine , August 1917 129 Figure 2.16: Cover, Lloyd’s Magazine , January 1921 130 Figure 2.17: ‘“ Tyronic Dialogues —X. and F.”’, Tyro , 2, 1922 133 Figure 2.18: ‘Lipschitz’, Tyro , 2, 1922 134 Figure 2.19: ‘Wadsworth’, Tyro , 2, 1922 134 Figure 2.20: ‘Gossamer for Goddesses’, Royal Magazine , January 1921 136 Figure 2.21: Detail from ‘Gossamer for Goddesses’, Royal Magazine , January 137 1921 Figure 2.22: ‘ESSAY ON THE OBJECTIVE OF PLASTIC ART IN OUR TIME’, 139 Tyro , 2, 1922 Table 1: Comparison of periodical codes in the Royal and the Tyro 147 Figure 3.1: E. McKnight Kauffer, Soaring to Success! Daily Herald – the Early 160 Bird , 1919 Figure 3.2: Excerpt from E. McKnight Kauffer, ‘The Poster and Symbolism’, 161 Penrose Annual , 16, 1924 Figure 3.3: T. D. Kerr, Electrification! , Progress Poster No. 1, Southern, 1925 185 Figure 3.4: T. D. Kerr, Steam! , Progress Poster No. 2, Southern, 1925 185 Figure 3.5: T. D. Kerr, The Viaduct , Progress Poster No. 3, Southern, 1925 185 Figure 3.6: Artist unknown, Margate , Southern, 1925 186 Figure 3.7: Artist unknown, Where the South Downs Slope to the Sea , Southern, 186 1925 Figure 3.8: Algernon Talmage, Aberdeen , LMS, 1924 190 Figure 3.9: Cayley Robinson, British Industries: Cotton , LMS, 1924 191 Figure 3.10: Norman Wilkinson, Galloway , LMS, 1927 197 5 Figure 3.11: Tom Purvis, The Trossachs , LNER, 1926 198 Figure 3.12: Horace Taylor, Gleneagles Hotel , LMS, c1928 19 8 Figure 3.13: Norman Wilkinson, The ‘Coronation Scot’ Ascending Shap Fell, 20 1 Cumbria, 1937 Figure 3.14: Norman Wilkinson, HMY ‘Britannia’ Racing the Yacht ‘Westward’ in 20 1 the Solent, 1935 , undated Figure 4.1: Anna Van Campen Stewart, ‘Fashions’, Good Housekeeping , March 22 7 1923 Figure 4.2 : Pattern No. 40,572, ‘Summer in the Office!’, Modern Weekly , July 2 23 2 1927 Figure 4.3: Anna evening dress, ‘Clothes —and the Woman’, Theatre World , 23 2 October 1927 Figure 4.4: ‘Tess about Town’, Modern Weekly , 2 July 1927 23 4 Figure 4.5: ‘Pockets are Trimmed’, Home Notes , 18 February 1928 236 Figure 4.6: ‘Pride in your Pocket’, Modern Weekly , 2 July 1927 236 Figure 4.7: Madge Garland, ‘Fashions feminine and Otherwise’, Britannia and 242 Eve , November 1929 Figure 4.8: Blanche B. Elliott, ‘Living in One’s Own Times’, Bystander , 22 April 24 3 1931 6 Acknowledgements My first and greatest thanks must go to a man who has become not only a trusted and irreplaceable mentor but also a true friend: my supervisor, Laurent Milesi. Over the last eight years, Laurent has been an unfailing source of support and guidance on all matters academic and otherwise: I cannot express how much I have valued his guidance during the conception, researching and writing of this thesis, as well as during the mammoth task of organising our 2013 Alternative Modernisms conference. His patience, kindness and generosity has been unparalleled throughout; thank you for everything, Laurent. I could not have undertaken this PhD without the support of an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Doctoral Award; thank you to the AHRC and to Chris Weedon and Ian Buchanan for giving me feedback on, and acting as references for, that initial application. Thank you to the School of English, Communication and Philosophy for awards for library research and conference attendance, and the British Federation of Women Graduates, who awarded me the Elen Wynn Vanstone Scholarship in 2013; this fund enabled me to undertake the long stretches of primary and archival research that formed the basis for Chapters 2 and 4. In 2012, I was lucky enough to spend 3 months at the Library of Congress, Washington DC, as part of the AHRC’s International Placement Scheme. Particular thanks to Mary Lou Reker, who made my stay at the Kluge Center an absolute pleasure, and Jan Grenci and the team in the Prints and Photographs Division, who spent 12 weeks traipsing between the study room and storeroom in search of every British poster in their collection.