"Continuing her analysis of modernism and its relation to earlier periods of literature and thought, Beryl Schlossman explores secular modernist use of female characters - "madonnas of modernism"--As emblems of forbidden desire. Although these works appear to depict characters who assume conventional gender roles, Schlossman asserts, their renderings of scenes of love ultimately blur gender identity and dissolve it in the text. Through an innovative use of style, her literary examples articulate an art of seduction and an aesthetic that transforms, suspends, or erases identity - individual, gender, social, and cultural."--Jacket.