Modernism
is a literary term that is difficult to define because it encompasses so a broad range of
literature. It was a response to the increasing mechanization of life brought on by
industrialism and the machine, and by the disorienting effects of World War I. However, it began
before that war as more and more intellectuals began to question Victorian and Edwardian
assumptions about social and political organization.
Literary modernism is
characterized by experimentation in language and form. It was influenced by writers and thinkers
such as Nietzsche, who termed language a "prison house," Marx, who questioned
capitalism, and Freud, who uncovered unconscious patterns of thought and sexual impulse. In
response, writers began to move away from "objective" narrative, in which words were
expected to function as a "clear window pane" on reality. Instead, they opted for
subjective, interior narratives, often written either in the first person or through a
third-person...
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