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Only Connect : A passage from Modernism to Postmodernism

Nicolau, Felix LU (2016)
Abstract
In Cultural Communication: Approaches to Modernity and Postmodernity (2014) I studied the evolution of the canon as a result of the aesthetical and ideological transformations during the 20th century. The elaboration of the canon comports distinctions in terms of the relationship between modernism and postmodernism. Jennifer Ashton insisted on the transformations suffered by the regime of texts. The Eliot-type modernism adopted the autonomy of the text (or what postmodernism would call the “close text”) and the determination of its meanings, whereas the postmodern text will be “open” and indeterminate in terms of meaning (Ashton 2005: 1). Reader-response theory tries to reduce ambiguity, but ultimately this is an issue related to the... (More)
In Cultural Communication: Approaches to Modernity and Postmodernity (2014) I studied the evolution of the canon as a result of the aesthetical and ideological transformations during the 20th century. The elaboration of the canon comports distinctions in terms of the relationship between modernism and postmodernism. Jennifer Ashton insisted on the transformations suffered by the regime of texts. The Eliot-type modernism adopted the autonomy of the text (or what postmodernism would call the “close text”) and the determination of its meanings, whereas the postmodern text will be “open” and indeterminate in terms of meaning (Ashton 2005: 1). Reader-response theory tries to reduce ambiguity, but ultimately this is an issue related to the cultural level of the readership. The acceptance of an increased openness for our messages implies a reduced intention of dominance in the act of communication. If we take serious account, though, of Jürgen Habermas’s description of modernism as a sequel of the Enlightenment project, it results that the canonizing process relies solely on rationality and equity. (Less)
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author
publishing date
type
Book/Report
publication status
published
subject
keywords
poststructuralism, postmodernism, Modernism, canon (literature), Counter-culture
pages
256 pages
publisher
Fractalia
ISBN
978-606-94005-5-5
language
English
LU publication?
no
additional info
Felix Nicolau is Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Communication, The Technical University of Civil Engineering, Bucharest, Romania and visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities, Lund University, Sweden. He defended his PhD in Comparative Literature in 2003 and is the author of eight books of literary and communication theory: Morpheus: from Text to Images. Intersemiotic Translations (2016), Take the Floor. Professional Communication Theoretically Contextualized (2014), Cultural Communication: Approaches to Modernity and Postmodernity (2014), Comunicare şi creativitate. Interpretarea textului contemporan (Communication and Creativity. The Interpretation of Contemporary Text, 2014), Homo Imprudens (2006), Anticanonice (Anticanonicals, 2009), Codul lui Eminescu (Eminescu’s Code, 2010), and Estetica inumană: de la Postmodernism la Facebook (The Inhuman Aesthetics: from Postmodernism to Facebook, 2013), five volumes of poetry (Kamceatka – time IS honey, 2014) and two novels.He is member in the editorial boards of “The Muse – an International Journal of Poetry” and “Metaliteratura” magazines. His areas of interest are translation studies, the theory of communication, comparative literature, cultural studies, translation studies, British and American studies, and Romanian studies.
id
3af93ea1-71f7-493d-bc1c-9d89b5166b47
date added to LUP
2018-01-24 21:19:10
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:37:36
@book{3af93ea1-71f7-493d-bc1c-9d89b5166b47,
  abstract     = {{In Cultural Communication: Approaches to Modernity and Postmodernity (2014) I studied the evolution of the canon as a result of the aesthetical and ideological transformations during the 20th century. The elaboration of the canon comports distinctions in terms of the relationship between modernism and postmodernism. Jennifer Ashton insisted on the transformations suffered by the regime of texts. The Eliot-type modernism adopted the autonomy of the text (or what postmodernism would call the “close text”) and the determination of its meanings, whereas the postmodern text will be “open” and indeterminate in terms of meaning (Ashton 2005: 1). Reader-response theory tries to reduce ambiguity, but ultimately this is an issue related to the cultural level of the readership. The acceptance of an increased openness for our messages implies a reduced intention of dominance in the act of communication. If we take serious account, though, of Jürgen Habermas’s description of modernism as a sequel of the Enlightenment project, it results that the canonizing process relies solely on rationality and equity.}},
  author       = {{Nicolau, Felix}},
  isbn         = {{978-606-94005-5-5}},
  keywords     = {{poststructuralism; postmodernism; Modernism; canon (literature); Counter-culture}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{07}},
  publisher    = {{Fractalia}},
  title        = {{Only Connect : A passage from Modernism to Postmodernism}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}