"Sketchy modernism". Issue 3 (1st September 2020) - Harris, Laurel
ABSTRACT: "Sketchy Modernism" argues for a definition of modernism that takes into account institutional failure and the precarity of academic labor. The adjective "sketchy, " defined as at once unfinished and foundational, serves here as a guide for rethinking our own scholarly commitments. I claim Jean Rhys as an exemplary "sketchy modernist, " considering how her novel Voyage in the Dark (1934) and her unpublished short story "The Imperial Road, " written in the early 1970s, offer insight into contemporary academic insecurity.