Man and Woman in the Modern Era

Can modernity be feminine or masculine? Rita Felski's book is an attempt to rethink the concepts of modernity formed primarily on the basis of male experience. Balancing between historical-cultural and theoretical approaches, Felski analyzes the gender aspects of such vital concepts for modernity as nostalgia, consumption, women's writing, the popular, the sublime, evolution, revolution, deviation, etc. In her keen focus are male and female writers: from Georg Simmel, Emile Zola, Oscar Wilde, and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch to Rashild, Marie Corelli, and Olive Schreiner. How will our understanding of modernity change if we stop considering male experience as the main reference point and instead study texts written primarily by women or about women? This book is an attempt to answer this question, revealing diverse and often contradictory connections between femininity and modernity. Rita Felski is a professor at the University of Virginia.