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Definition
Modernism refers to a change in expression caused by a glowing sense of alienation in an era of industrialization, global capitalism, and scientific progress. This change was also seen in literature. Although pre-war works are also considered modernism, they are fundaentally connected to World War 1.
Influenced by the war, its works have an atmosphere of disillusionment and emotiness. Also, there are many vague descriptions and open-endings.
Key Characteristics
1. Experimentation: such as blended imagery and themes, absurdism, nonlinear narratives, and stream of consciousness
2. Individualism: Modernist literature typically focuses on the individual, rather than society as a whole.
3. Multiple perspectives: Written from the first-person perspective of multiple characters
4. Free verse: Nonmetrical, nonrhyming lines
5. Literary devices: symbolism and using imagery to make it easier to understand\
Examples
James Joyce - Ulysses and Finnegans Wake
Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse
Gertrude Stein - Three lives
Ezra Pound - The Cantos
T.S. Eliot - The Waste Land
William Faulkner - The Sound and the Fury
Sources
Modernist Literature Guide: Understanding Literary Modernism - 2023 - MasterClass
Periods_of_English_Literatures.PDF (muni.cz)
Haruka Kimura
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