Knowra European modernism European modernism European modernism was a broad movement in the arts, emerging in the late nineteenth century, that challenged inherited forms and styles through formal experiment and new ways of representing modern life.
Modernity : The social and cultural condition associated with industrialization, urbanization, and rapid change. Modernist artists recast experience shaped by expanding cities, technology, and social upheaval.
The Waste Land : A 1922 poem by T. S. Eliot that juxtaposes voices, literary allusions, and fragments of modern life. Its collage structure became a landmark example of modernist poetic form.
Virginia Woolf : An English novelist and essayist whose fiction explored consciousness, memory, and social life. Her novels made shifts in perception and time central to modernist narrative.
Academic art : Art produced within or modeled on official academies, with emphasis on established genres, techniques, and standards. Modernist departures challenged the academies’ authority over artistic form and subject.
Abstract art : Art that does not aim to depict recognizable objects or scenes directly. Modernist experiments helped make nonrepresentational form a central artistic possibility.
Avant-garde : Artists and writers who pursue experimental work against established cultural conventions. Its commitment to artistic innovation gave modernism much of its oppositional character.
Ulysses : A 1922 novel by James Joyce that follows a day in Dublin through experimental prose and shifting styles. Its linguistic and narrative experiments radically expanded the modern novel.
James Joyce : An Irish novelist and short-story writer known for linguistic and narrative experimentation. His work pushed modernist prose toward dense allusion and radical formal play.
Realism : An artistic approach that represents ordinary life and social conditions without idealization. Modernists often rejected realism’s conventions while retaining its attention to contemporary experience.
International Style : A modern architectural style characterized by clean lines, open plans, and minimal ornament. Modernist architectural ideas became an influential international design language.
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