Fluidity and Form in Modern Life: The Intellectual Vision of Jerrold Seigel
This forum is dedicated to an assessment of the work of the intellectual and cultural historian Jerrold Seigel, the author of such landmark books as Marx’s Fate (1978), Bohemian Paris (1986), The Private Worlds of Marcel Duchamp (1995), and The Idea of the Self (2005). The premise of the forum’s eight essays is that Seigel’s work, in addition to making major contributions to the field of European history, also expresses a distinct intellectual vision, related notably to the character and dilemmas of modern life. After an introduction providing an overview of Seigel’s career and focusing on his interest in “fluidity” and “form” as the competing poles of the modern experience, each contributor analyzes a recurring theme in Seigel’s thought: “self” (Gerald Izenberg), “life” (Anthony La Vopa), “art” (Thomas Ort), “boundaries” (Debora Silverman), “chains of continuity” (Theodore Koditschek), “form” (Michael Behrent), and “consistency and discontinuity” (Thomas Laqueur).
Seigel Forum, Introduction: The Shape of a Career: An Introduction
Michael C. Behrent
Seigel Forum, Part I: Self: The Limits of Autonomy
Gerald Izenberg
Seigel Forum, Part II: Life: Biography as Conflictual Coherence
Anthony J. La. Vopa
Seigel Forum, Part III: Art: To be "Inside" or "Outside" Culture
Thomas Ort
Seigel Forum, Part IV: Boundaries: Bourgeois Belgium and "Tentacular" Modernism
Debora L. Silverman
Seigel Forum, Part V: Chains of Connection: Rethinking the Bourgeoisie
Theodore Koditschek
Seigel Forum, Part VI: Form: An Apollonian Modernity
Michael C. Behrent
Seigel Forum, Part VII: Consistency and Discontinuity: My Seigelian Life Cycle (or, Growing up with Jerry)
Thomas W. Laqueur