Brilliant Modernism

Illuminates how the power of light shaped early twentieth-century art, culture, and poetry.

In Brilliant Modernism, Nicoletta Asciuto takes readers on a journey through the electrified streets of the early twentieth century and explores the influence of this illumination on modernist poetry. This ambitious and geographically wide-ranging account of how poets responded to the changing cityscape is distinctive in its historicist approach and the enormous scope of the materials it examines, from Mina Loy's lamps for the modern home to lunar photography. Set against the backdrop of a world on the brink of massive changes, the book shines a light on forgotten women poets and artists whose contributions to the modernist movement have long been overshadowed by their male counterparts. Through a narrative that is as much about the aesthetics of light as it is about the poets themselves, Asciuto illuminates the vibrant and often volatile intersection of technology and culture.