We are excited to publish the newest book by Christopher Prendergast after the success of The Two Julys in 2024. This new essay collection is divided into three parts - Modernity and Modernism, Literary History, and Quarrels and Ghosts - which together trace the development of French literary history over the 19th and 20th centuries. Many of these essays have previously been published as journal articles or book reviews, but some are unpublished lectures or essays, and they collectively comprise over 40 years of thought.

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About the Book

Modernism’s Nightmare, Derrida’s Ghosts and Other Essays gathers together for the first time the published essays and unpublished lectures of Christopher Prendergast from the last forty years. This collection leads the way through 19th century French literature to the emergence of modernism and up until the arrival of Jacques Derrida and the shockwaves his presence sent through the academic world. Prendergast’s characteristically insightful criticism explores ideas of periodisation and history, surrealism and impressionism, lyric and literature, showing a passage through some of the trickiest and most intellectually rewarding avenues of European literary heritage.

About the Author

Christopher Prendergast is Emeritus Professor at Cambridge University and a Life Fellow of King's College. He has taught at the Graduate Centre of the City University of New York and at Copenhagen University, as well as holding visiting positions at UCLA, Princeton, and Berkeley. He specialises in French 19th and 20th century literature and cultural history, and has been twice winner of the Gapper Prize in French Studies. He is also an Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques.