Casebier (emeritus, U. of Southern California and visiting, U. of Miami) seeks to convince art historians and critics that the style terms modern, postmodern, and surreal have non-trivial meaning; that it is possible to tell them apart; and that it is possible for all three styles to be present in the same work of art. Focusing on cinema because he knows it best, he traces the vectors involved in writing the various histories of the three styles. Among his arguments is that surrealism is not just another form of modernism, but actually developed alongside of and independent from it. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
