Manet, Flaubert, and the Emergence of Modernism

Manet, Flaubert and the Emergence of Modernism weaves together art history and literary criticism in a joint study of the canonical fathers of modernism. In this work, Arden Reed contests the Greenbergian view that equates modernism with purity of formal means. Modernism, he argues, is a matter of genre bending, hybridization, as well as movements between text and image. Focusing on key works by Manet and Flaubert, Reed articulates a novel understanding of the cultural imagination of early modernism. He shows how Manet and Flaubert actively mix and contaminate their work: Flaubert with images, Manet with narration. Moreover, Reed extends the argument to the twentieth century, claiming we cannot understand twentieth century modernism so long as we remain locked within single disciplines.

• First full length joint study of Manet and Flaubert, considered the fathers of modern painting and literature, respectively • Tight focus on specific paintings and story • Extensive research written in accessible style

1. Framing Manet and Flaubert; 2. In and around ‘1866’: Paris, Coubert, the salon of 1868; 3. The stain of modernism; 4. Canvassing the Jeune dame; 5. Allegory of beholding; 6. Stained glass: graphing Saint Julien; 7. Domestic stains: graphing Félicité.

‘Manet, Flaubert and the Emergence of Modernism: Blurring Genre Boundaries may be read as an exercise in deconstruction, but the emphasis put on art-historical contextualization makes it a brilliant example of what scholarship in visual culture ought to be today.’ Image & Narrative

\'… valuable contribution to studies of how the two canonical \'fathers\' of Modernism began to \'make it new\'.\' The Art Newspaper