Curious Disciplines - (Recencies Series: Research and Recovery in Twentieth-Century) by Sarah Hayden (Hardcover)

About the Book

Foregrounding Loy's critical interrogation of Futurist, Dadaist, Surrealist, and "Degenerate" artisthood, and exploring her poetic legacies today, Curious Disciplines reveals Loy's importance in an entirely novel way.

Book Synopsis

The transnational modernist Mina Loy (1882-1966) embodied the avant-garde in many literary and artistic media. This book positions her as a theorist of the avant-garde and of what it means to be an artist. Foregrounding Loy's critical interrogation of Futurist, Dadaist, Surrealist, and "Degenerate" artisthood, and exploring her poetic legacies today, Curious Disciplines reveals Loy's importance in an entirely novel way. Examining the primary texts produced by those movements themselves--their manifestos, magazines, pamphlets, catalogues, and speeches--Sarah Hayden uses close readings of Loy's poetry, prose, polemics, and unpublished writings to trace her response to how these movements wrote themselves, collectively, into being.

Review Quotes

"Curious Disciplines will encourage many scholars to consult Loy's published work with a fresh, inter-arts perspective and a renewed understanding of the avant-garde art circles of the early twentieth century."--The Review of English Studies

"A critical voice generating much energy and liveliness. Set aside time to read this book."--American Literary History

"This authoritative study is an impressive contribution to the literature [on Loy]. . . . Highly recommended."--Choice

"This will be regarded as the best book about Mina Loy's writing and as a useful history of the avant-garde."--Keith Tuma, editor of Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry