Cezanne, Murder and Modern Life offers an original approach to early French modernism, one informed by the art s unprecedented psychological intensity. Focusing on the early work of Paul Cezanne, it offers a competing version for modern painting rooted in the evocation of emotive expression, emblematized by scenes of murder, sexual violence, and anxious domesticity. Mobilizing contexts rarely brought to bear on our understanding of art in the age of Impressionism, let alone the work of Cezanne, this book investigates the culte du moi and the conceptions of authorial function in art and...

"Is Paris Still the Capital of the Nineteenth Century?" The question that guides this volume stems from Walter Benjamin's studies of nineteenth-century Parisian culture as the apex of capitalist aesthetics. Thirteen scholars test Benjamin's ideas about the centrality of Paris, formulated in the 1930s, from a variety of methodological perspectives. Many investigate the underpinnings of the French capital's reputation and mythic force, which was based largely upon the city's capacity to put itself on display. Some of the authors reassess the famed centrality of Paris from the vantage point of...