Modernism Mummified Author(s): Daniel Bell Source: American Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 1, Special Issue: Modernist Culture in America (Spring, 1987), pp. 122-132 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2712633 . Accessed: 27/03/2014 09:37 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 192.80.65.116 on Thu, 27 Mar 2014 09:37:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MODERNISM MUMMIFIED DANIEL BELL HarvardUniversity IN HIS INTRODUCTION TO THE IDEA OF THE MODERN,IRVING HOWE QUOTES THE famousremark of VirginiaWoolf, as everyonedoes sincehyperbole is arresting, that"on or aboutDecember 1910 humannature changed." Actually, Mrs. Woolf had writtenthat "human character changed." She was referring(in herfamous essay,"Mr. Bennettand Mrs. Brown,"written in 1924) to the changesin the positionof one's cook or of thepartners in marriage."All humanrelations have shifted-thosebetween masters and servants,husbands and wives,parents and children.And when human relations change there is at thesame time a changein religion,conduct, politics and literature."' Thissearch for a transfigurationinsensibility as thetouchstone of modernity has animatedother writers.