Discussion Group: Transdisciplinary Modernism

In a joint event with the OCCT Review, this session of the Discussion Group hosted two of the journal’s contributors who introduced to us new issues and debates in the field of transdisciplinary modernism.

Niamh Burns, DPhil candidate in German Modernism (New College), commented Ariane Mildenberg’s Modernism and Phenomenology: Literature, Philosophy, Art (2017), a work that depicts a complex web of interrelations existing between phenomenological, artistic, and literary texts in the modernist period. 

Rowan Anderson, DPhil candidate in English Literature and Translation Studies (Trinity College), discussed Cross-Channel Modernisms (ed. by Claire Davison, Derek Ryan, and Jane A. Goldman, 2020), an interdisciplinary exploration of the influence of 'Channel crossings' on modernism centred upon the importance of the Channel as a symbolic site of cultural exchange between Britain and the rest of Europe.

The reviewers presented these books’ ideas in dialogue with each other and open a broader conversation about innovative cross-disciplinary approaches to modernism. Their reviews are available here. In addition, the editors of the OCCT Review provided a brief introduction to the Review, and explained how students can get involved.