Who are some writers from the 20th century that were associated

>>8721480

How was Wallace Stevens not a modernist? Especially his later poems concerned so much with epistomology. His poesy was cultured by a love of everything oriental as well, and was almost as much of a japanophobe as Pound. He was one of the poster children for "make it new".

Hemingway and Fitzgerald I can see, but there are different brands of "modernism" which are distinct from the Woolf and Proust legacy.

Modernism is a very loose concept. A good /lit/ thread could be made out of attempts to define modernism, actually.

>>8721583
I think you meant to say "japanophile".

Also, Beckett and Nabokov.

>>8721642
Modernism: In the late 19th and 20th century how people lived changed. Cities got bigger, a lot of people were living in crowded areas and machines did a lot more work. There was also a big war that killed a lot of people because of machines and new technologies. All of this happened really quickly and artists and writers felt its effects. Having more people around you all the time makes you feel insignificant, like you're a cog in a machine. Big wars that kill hundreds each day makes life seem a lot more mechanical and chaotic. Books became really popular at the time because so many more were printed and available so the average artist had a lot more influence, including foreign and translated stuff they wouldn't have read in years past. All of this was jarring and made people question their identity and their thoughts about the world. It seemed silly to believe in one comprehensive viewpoint because of all this variety and chaos: whether that was your cultural upbringing, your religious views or whatever. Modernists rejected "realism," the idea that something could be perfectly captured. Critics (people who judge art) could read the same thing or view the same art and come to several different conclusions. Artists sought to tell similar stories but change HOW they did it. Modernism was an attempt to say "all those stories we tell have a lot of the same underlying structure, independent of culture or religion."

DH Lawrence is an interesting case of someone almost always presented with the modernists despite having nothing in common with them

>>8721704
>"all those stories we tell have a lot of the same underlying structure, independent of culture or religion."
Yeah I dig this, I also think the modernists sought to examine how this structure was reflected in chaotic modern life, what TS Eliot callled the mythic method.

Modernism was so based, why did we ever move on?

>>8721642
Modernism is a cultural reaction to the industrialization of the late 18th and 19th century, and although it is reflected in literature and art, it began as a cultural change in the consensus of thought.
I'm not sure that there really is a debate, or a rejection to what Modernism and Postmodernism mean. It is true that Modernism and Postmodernism have broad definitions and will ultimately overlap with other literary traditions, however it is incorrect to say that "Modernist believe that systems of thought might lead us to a perfected form of humanity." Modernism and Postmodernism are not an antithesis to each other but rather reactions to cultural movements. Modernism is a reaction to society becoming more industrialized and mechanized in the 18th and 19th century, and postmodernism is a reaction to the modernist reaction.
It would be more correct to state that Modernism is a rejection of realism and an attempt to deal with the impact of modernization, like urbanization, industrialization, and the growing feelings of alienation, and anomie. This rejection of realism also overlaps with surrealism. Some tenets of modernist literature would be:
* A Validation of private experiences through aesthetics and inwardness
* Stream of consciousness subverts chronological narrative
* Radical experiments with form and language
* Predilection for fragmented forms and collages of eclectic material
* Exploration of psychological disorders
* Uses avant-garde techniques to critque/condemn mass culture and fascism
* Challenges bourgeois norms of gender and sexuality
* Critiques bourgeois values: business ethics, utilitarianism, materialism
* Apocalyptic overtones, comic grotesquerie, violent eroticism
To give a few examples of modernist works from American literature one can consider: The Great Gatsby, Tender Buttons, The Sun Also Rises, Tropic of Cancer, The Day of the Locust
Postmodernism on the other-hand is more difficult. Essentially it is a deconstruction of, and reaction against modernism and the academicism and elitism that was perceived to be part of it. Alternatively, postmodernist literature takes on a more self aware tone, embracing ideas like intertextuality (the idea that one texts meaning shapes another) through uses of sampling, pastiche, and parody. A few characteristics of Postmodernist literature would be:
* Self-reflexive focus on the compositional process of writing
* Ironic inclusion of modernist artistic codes and conventions
* Confusion on the ontological level
* Anti-metaphysical focus on the contingency of knowledge and the role of chance
* Subversion of "high" culture/ "mass" culture distinctions
* Ironic Stereotyping replaces psychological characterization
* Interest in cybernetic themes such as entropy, and communication
* late-capitalist issues such as hyperconsumption and media imperialism
A few works to exemplify this would be: Pale Fire, V, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Public Burning, How German Is It, White Noise, Et Tu Babe

>>8721760
bc structuralism needed to be left behind and quantum physics/developments in abstract math made the world a lot wierder.

>>8721822
>quantum physics/developments in abstract math made the world a lot wierder.
Why does this necessarily have to impact literature/society?

Boy is Stevens' poetry cozy. Ultimate blanket-and-hot-chocolate-while-it-snows-outside reading material.

>>8722079
What are some of his best poems?

>>8722079
I didnt like him