In the last half-century Ludwig Wittgenstein's relevance beyond analytic philosophy, to continental philosophy, to cultural studies, and to the arts has been widely acknowledged.
Wittgenstein's
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus was published in 1922 - the annus mirabilis of modernism - alongside Joyce's
Ulysses, Eliot's
The Waste Land, Mansfield's
The Garden Party and Woolf's
Jacob's Room. Bertolt Brecht's first play to be produced,
Drums in the Night, was first staged in 1922, as was Jean Cocteau's
Antigone, with settings by Pablo Picasso and music by Arthur Honegger. In different ways, all these modernist landmarks dealt with the crisis of representation and the demise of eternal metaphysical and ethical truths. Wittgenstein's
Tractatus can be read as defining, expressing and reacting to this crisis. In his later philosophy, Wittgenstein adopted a novel philosophical attitude, sensitive to the ordinary uses of language as well as to the unnoticed dogmas they may betray. If the gist of modernism is self-reflection and attention to the way form expresses content, then Wittgenstein's later ideas - in their fragmented form as well as their "ear-opening" contents - deliver it most precisely.
Understanding Wittgenstein, Understanding Modernism shows Wittgenstein's work, both early and late, to be closely linked to the modernist Geist that prevailed during his lifetime. Yet it would be wrong to argue that Wittgenstein was a modernist
tout court. For Wittgenstein, as well as for modernist art, understanding is not gained by such straightforward statements. It needs time, hesitation, a variety of articulations, the refusal of tempting solutions, and perhaps even a sense of defeat. It is such a vision of the linkage between Wittgenstein and modernism that guides the present volume.
Ardoin, Paul: - Paul Ardoin is Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio, USA.
Gontarski, S. E.: - S. E. Gontarski is Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English at Florida State University, USA. He is the author or editor of 29 books and, with Paul Ardoin and Laci Mattison, he is series editor of the Bloomsbury series, Understanding Philosophy, Understanding Modernism. The serie editors were also volume editors for the initial books in that series: Understanding Bergson, Understanding Modernism (Bloomsbury, 2013) and the follow-up, Understanding Deleuze, Understanding Modernism (Bloomsbury, 2014). Gontarski's recent books are: Beckett's "Happy Day" A Manuscript Study (2017) and Revisioning Beckett: Samuel Beckett's Decadent Turn (Bloomsbury, 2018).
Matar, Anat: - Anat Matar is a Senior Lecturer of Philosophy at Tel Aviv University. She is the author of From Dummett's Philosophical Perspective (1997) and Modernism and the Language of Philosophy (2006), and co-editor (with Anat Biletzki) of The Story of Analytic Philosophy: Plot and Heroes (1998) and (with Abeer Baker) of Threat: Palestinian Political Prisoners in Israel (2011). Her articles focus mainly on analyses of Wittgenstein written from the perspective of post-modernist philosophy.
Mattison, Laci: - Laci Mattison is Assistant Professor of 20th Century British Literature at Florida Gulf Coast University, USA.
