English 11 / Unit 5: Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance
5.1 What Is Modernism?
Notes
Modernism (roughly 1910-1945) was a burst of experimentation after World War I, when many writers felt that old values and forms no longer fit a world shaken by war, technology and rapid change.
- Themes: disillusionment, alienation, loss of faith in tradition, the search for meaning.
- Techniques: fragmentation (broken, shifting structure), stream of consciousness (a character's thoughts rendered as they flow), multiple or unreliable narrators, and compressed, spare language.
- Ezra Pound's slogan was "Make it new."
- Modernists often leave readers to fill gaps and find meaning themselves.
- Worked example: a story that jumps between memories without warning, mirroring a confused mind, uses fragmentation and stream of consciousness.
Practice
Which event most strongly shaped the mood of Modernism?
The war's destruction produced disillusionment with old values.
Stream of consciousness is a technique that:
The technique imitates the mind's unfiltered movement.
Why might a Modernist writer choose a fragmented structure?
Form mirrors the feeling of disruption.
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