modernism (arts)

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In the arts, a general term used to describe the 20th century's conscious attempt to break with the artistic traditions of the 19th century, particularly strong in the period between World War I (1914–18) and World War II (1939–45). Modernism is based on a concern with form and the exploration of technique as opposed to content and narrative. In the visual arts, direct representationalism gave way to abstraction (see abstract art); in literature, writers experimented with alternatives to orthodox sequential storytelling, using techniques involving different viewpoints (such as writing as if in the mind of a character in the story; known as the stream of consciousness technique; in music, the traditional concept of key was challenged by atonality; and in architecture, Functionalism ousted decorativeness as a central objective (see Modern Movement).

Literary modernism
Influences upon literary modernism can be found in European fiction (for example, in the work of French writer Marcel Proust). In the English language, modernism was centred both in the UK and the USA. Influential modernist writers in the UK include the Anglo-American poet, critic, and playwright T S Eliot, Irish writer James Joyce, and English writers D H Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. In the USA, the poet and critic Ezra Pound was an influential modernist, who was especially influential over T S Eliot.

Critics of modernism have found in it an austerity that is seen as dehumanizing. Postmodernism developed as a reaction to modernism, but has had to compete with new and divergent modernist trends, for example high-tech in architecture.

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