Fashioning Vienna : Adolf Loos's Cultural Criticism

ISBN-13: 9780415221764 / Angielski / Twarda / 2000 / 240 str.

Janet Stewart

Opis

In recent years there has been a surge of interest in the Viennese architect, essayist, lecturer, and sometime art patron, Adolf Loos. This book seeks, through an examination of the form and content of his texts, to extend our understanding of Adolf Loos and his role in the struggle to define the nature of modernity in Vienna at the turn of the century. Focusing on the sense of paradox which structured Loos's thought allows this book to introduce a new Loos, simultaneously modern and traditional, who functioned as a sensitive barometer of conflicts played out in fin-de-siecle Vienna.

Recenzje

'A revealing analysis of Viennese thinker whose enthusiasm for western modernity - which for him ws exemplified by the manners and attire of the English gentleman - was curiously old-fashioned.' - Architecture Today

'This is an excellent book that will further expand our understanding of the peculiarities of Viennese modernism and serve a new generation of students and scholars alike.' - The Art Book

'Janet Stewart's fascinating new study finally provides a corrective to this limited and specialized reception of Loos.' - Modernism/Modernity

'Presents perhaps the most complete and sharply drawn picture to date in English of Loos as cultural critic.' - Harvard Design Magazine

Spis treści

List of Illustrations. Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. Investigating and Excavating. 2. The Other: National Cultural Mythologies. 3. The Self: Social Difference in Loos's Vienna. 4. The Display and Disguise of Difference. 5. Locating the Narrative: The City, its Artefacts and its Attractions. Conclusion: The Non-Contemporaneity of Loos's Critique. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

O autorze

Janet Stewart is Lecturer in German at the University of Aberdeen, where she also contributes to the teaching of Cultural History. In association with the University of Edinburgh, she is involved in establishing a Centre for Austrian Studies in Aberdeen.