American Literature / Unit 14 AML 1301 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Modernism: The Break and Its Causes
Captions available
The idea
Modernism is the early twentieth century's break with inherited forms, driven by a war that discredited the old vocabulary, by cities and machines, by Freud and by new physics. In poetry it meant abandoning regular meter, decorative diction and the comfortable speaking voice.
In practice
A break with the forms, after a war.
Where people slip
The break is deliberate and announced.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
- Nothing. This is a starting point.
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