Literature in English (1914-2000) Part 1: Background Reading
Modernism Modernism is one of the most influential movements in English literature of the twentieth century. It emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, gaining force especially after the devastation of the First World War (1914–1918). Writers and artists of this period felt that the old traditions of literature, religion, and morality could no longer express the fractured, uncertain condition of the modern world. They believed that the Victorian ideals of order, progress, and stability had collapsed, and so a new artistic form was needed to capture the complexities of modern life. Ezra Pound, one of the central voices of the movement, captured this spirit with his famous slogan: “Make it new.” A defining feature of Modernism is the break with tradition. Unlike the Victorians or the Romantics, who followed structured plots, moral lessons, and linear storytelling, modernist writers experimented with language, narrative, and form. For example, James Joyce’s novel...