Wyndham Lewis and the Cultures of Modernity

Making a strong case for a revaluation of Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957), this collection argues that significant aspects of Lewiss writing, painting, and thinking have not yet received the attention they deserve. The contributors explore Lewiss contributions to the production and circulation of modernism and assess the links between Lewiss writing and painting and the work of other key contemporary figures, to position Lewis not only as one of the first twentieth-century cultural critics but also as one who anticipated the work of the Frankfurt School and other social theorists. Familiar topics and themes such as Vorticism receive fresh appraisals, and Lewiss significance as a philosopher-critic, novelist, and artist becomes fully realized in the context of his associations with important figures such as John Rodker, Charlie Chaplin, Evelyn Waugh, Naomi Mitchison, and Rebecca West. Lewis emerges as a figure whose writings on politics, corporate patronage, shell shock, anthropology, art, and cinema extend their influence into the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.