Mark Whalan and Karen Leick on American Modernism

American modernism is a concept that is so slippery that even scholars don’t always agree on its definition. Is it a historical era, or a literary technique? Was Ernest Hemingway even a modernist? If so, which of his works are most modernistic?

For this discussion, we turn to Mark Whalan, editor of the compendious new volume, Cambridge History of American Modernism, and Karen Leick, one of its contributors, who places Hemingway in a conversation with other American modernists including Stein, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald. We discuss his work, his celebrity, the difference between the myth and the man, and the modern world in which he lived and wrote.

Join us for this fascinating conversation that tackles Hemingway and his place in the tradition of American literature!