The Review of Contemporary Fiction

Manifesto: A Century of Isms by Mary Ann Caws
Ben Donnelly

Mary Ann Caws, ed. Manifesto: A Century of Isms. Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2001. 713 pp. $35.00.

These days, when an interviewer suggests that an artist is part of some genre or movement, the preferred response seems to be, "I’m not consciously trying to work that way. I create for myself. I think the category was created by critics." It’s a response that’s both modest and strident, and shows how we elevate the image of the artist as an individualist, even a recluse. A century ago, the impulse was the opposite. The modern artist would issue a proclamation of intent, often composed with colleagues, often before any actual art was created. These broadsides, both major and obscure, are collected in Mary Anne Caws’s anthology. While some of the tracts included are measured and still insightful, the charm of this book lies in the unhinged wail of the peak years, when all of society was in artists’ crosshairs. Example: the dairy, Kurt Schwitters proposed, is unnatural. The solution? Attach rubber tubes to freely grazing cows, run the conduits for miles like gas lines, thus allowing a city dweller to milk a personal cow on demand, udder by udder. Enthusiasm is the common sentiment. The zeal of the early modernists overshadows the nationalism and callousness that darkens some manifestos, and it proves the sincerity of their declarations. In 1921, the Baroness Else Von Freytag-Loringhoven essayed on Joyce, designating him the paragon of modern writing, then admitted, "I have not read ‘Ulysses.’ As a story it seems impossible . . . to James Joyce’s style I am not yet quite developed enough . . . no time now. . . . From snatches I have had shown me it is more worth while than many a smooth coherent story." This enthusiasm seems absent in our age of irony and expertise. It’s as though a whole century’s supply of exclamation points were used up. Even if the bellowing appears silly now, the manifesto can be more worthwhile than many a smooth coherent argument. [Ben Donnelly]


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The Review of Contemporary Fiction Manifesto: A Century of Isms by Mary Ann Caws Ben Donnelly Mary Ann Caws, ed. Manifesto: A Century of Isms. Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2001. 713 pp. $35.00. These days, when an interviewer suggests that an artist is part of some genre or movement, the preferred response seems to be, "I’m not consciously trying to work that way. I create for myself. I think the category was created by critics." It’s a response that’s both modest and strident, and shows how we elevate the image of the artist as an individualist, even a recluse. A century ago, the impulse was the opposite. The modern artist would issue a proclamation of intent, often composed with colleagues, often before any actual art was created. These broadsides, both major and obscure, are collected in Mary Anne Caws’s anthology. While some of the tracts included are measured and still insightful, the charm of this book lies in the unhinged wail of the peak years, when all of society was in artists’ crosshairs. Example: the dairy, Kurt Schwitters proposed, is unnatural. The solution? Attach rubber tubes to freely grazing cows, run the conduits for miles like gas lines, thus allowing a city dweller to milk a personal cow on demand, udder by udder. Enthusiasm is the common sentiment. The zeal of the early modernists overshadows the nationalism and callousness that darkens some manifestos, and it proves the sincerity of their declarations. In 1921, the Baroness Else Von Freytag-Loringhoven essayed on Joyce, designating him the paragon of modern writing, then admitted, "I have not read ‘Ulysses.’ As a story it seems impossible . . . to James Joyce’s style I am not yet quite developed enough . . . no time now. . . . From snatches I have had shown me it is more worth while than many a smooth coherent story." This enthusiasm seems absent in our age of irony and expertise. It’s as though a whole century’s supply of exclamation points were used up. Even if the bellowing appears silly now, the manifesto can be more worthwhile than many a smooth coherent argument. [Ben Donnelly]

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