Modernism: a Short Anthology of Modernist Poetry with an Introduction (original) (raw)
Related papers
English Studies
In academic work on modern British poetry, there is a tacit assumption that any poet belonging to the first rank must needs be a "Modernist". Consequently, scholars and critics are keen to have poets they admire fit in under the "Modernism" umbrella. That desire has led to an extension of the conceptalways notoriously hard to defineto the point of meaninglessness. Proceeding from a conviction that modernity affected every poet in the early twentieth century, and that no tenable line of demarcation between different "schools" survives careful scrutiny of what people actually wrote, Marianne Thormählen proposes that "Modernism" in the context of British poetry be employed as a designation for the period from 1910 to 1939. Used as a chronological term, the concept would no longer carry a presumption of quality (or a lack of it). Hitherto neglected good poetry from the period would stand to gain the attention it deserves, as academics abandon the literary quarrels of a bygone age in order to focus on why and how poetry matters.
Modernism: Evolution of an Idea
This book traces the development of the term "modernism" from its origin in the early twentieth century through its consolidation in anthologies and classrooms to its radical expansion in recent decades.
Modernism as it appears (or misappears) under postmodern eyes
Neohelicon, 2009
In view of recent studies on the avant-garde, the modern and the postmodern, the essay deals with the chance of visualizing a unified epochal stream of modernism as part of the humanistic tradition, contrasted with examples of its "formulaic" postmodernist criticism. Defining "modernism" has been a pastime of literary critics and historians ever since the early decades of the last century. Especially in France the idea of modernity was in the focus of artistic endeavour from the mid-nineteenth century, yet literary schools or movements were not called "modern" or "modernist". These terms were widely used, they occurred even in titles of books of poetry (e. g. Poèmes modernes by François Coppée in 1869). Names for schools of poets or titles for their periodicals were matters of meticulous choice with an intention to avoid mere generalities. This was the case with the two volumes of Le Parnasse contemporain (1866 and 1869) as the founders hesitated over a choice of denominations like "formists", "stylists" or "impassibles". For the description of the modern a rich stock of varieties was applicable from "parnassiens" to "decadents" and "symbolists". Some groupings were labeled by the titles of the short-lived reviews they were associated with. In the 70s and 80s of the nineteenth century dozens of small reviews were published in Paris. Memorable titles include Renaissance,
A movement towards modifying traditional beliefs in accordance with modern ideas, especially in the Roman Catholic Church in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is a style or movement in the arts that aims to break with classical and traditional forms. Modernism is a philosophical movement that, along with cultural trends and changes, arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among the factors that shaped modernism were the development of modern industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities, followed then by reactions of horror to World War I. Modernism also rejected the certainty of Enlightenment thinking, and many modernists rejected religious belief. Modernism, in general, includes the activities and creations of those who felt the traditional forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, philosophy, social organization, activities of daily life, and even the sciences, were becoming ill-fitted to their tasks and outdated in the new economic, social, and political environment of an emerging fully industrialized world. The poet Ezra Pound's 1934 injunction to "Make it new!" was the touchstone of the movement's approach towards what it saw as the now obsolete culture of the past. A notable characteristic of modernism is self-consciousness and irony concerning literary and social traditions, which often led to experiments with form, along with the use of techniques that drew attention to the processes and materials used in creating a painting, poem, building, etc. [4] Modernism explicitly rejected the ideology of realism [5][6][7] and makes use of the works of the past by the employment of reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision and parody. [8][9][10] Modernism The Modernist Period in English Literature occupied the years from shortly after the beginning of the twentieth century through roughly 1965. In broad terms, the period was marked by sudden and unexpected breaks with traditional ways of viewing and interacting with the world. Experimentation and individualism became virtues, where in the past they were often heartily discouraged. Modernism was set in motion, in one sense, through a series of cultural shocks. The first of these great shocks was the Great War, which ravaged Europe from 1914 through 1918, known now as World War One. At the time, this " War to End All Wars " was looked upon with such ghastly horror that many people simply could not imagine what the world seemed to be plunging towards. The first hints of that particular way of thinking called Modernism stretch back into the nineteenth century. As literary periods go, Modernism displays a relatively strong sense of cohesion and similarity across genres and locales. Furthermore, writers who adopted the Modern point of view often did so quite deliberately and self-consciously. Indeed, a central preoccupation of Modernism is with the inner self and consciousness. In contrast to the Romantic world view, the Modernist cares rather little for Nature, Being, or the overarching structures of history. Instead of progress and growth, the Modernist intelligentsia sees decay and a growing alienation of the individual. The machinery of modern society is perceived as impersonal, capitalist, and antagonistic to the artistic impulse. War most certainly had a great deal of influence on such ways of approaching the world. Two World Wars in the span of a generation effectively shell-shocked all of Western civilization. Major Modernist Writers
MODERNISM UNVEILED: A FRESH PERSPECTIVE ON EXPLORING MODERNISM
International Journal of Recent Advances in Multidisciplinary Research , 2023
This is a review of "Phenomenology and Cultural Difference in High Modernism"-an interdisciplinary study which casts a new light on the epistemology and discourses brought to bear upon the literature of modernism. Issues of modernist genre, aesthetics, history of ideas, characteristic tropes, cross disciplinary paradigms, etc.) are examined in the nexus of modernist culture. This has been the fourth book published by Dr. Maria Ana Tupan, affiliated with the