My book Hope and Aesthetic Utility in Modernist Literature (Routledge, 2020) argues for the presence of hope in the modernist era by assessing the works and ideas of five writers and artists of the period: Henry James, D.W. Griffith, H.D., Melvin Tolson, and Samuel Beckett. The book’s narrative is built around the concept of aesthetic utility, a term I use to denote the capacity of artworks to effect social change. I argue that the optimism detectable in the works of the above writers is founded on their conviction of the reality of aesthetic utility. From James’s The Wings of the Dove to Griffith’s Birth of a Nation to Beckett’s Endgame, I investigate modernist artforms across nation, decade, and genre to show how writers of the period, often creating in times of great upheaval, worked out of the belief that art, so far from being an escape from the world, is essential for human flourishing and ultimately for cultural survival.

Download an excerpt from the book’s introduction here.