Founders of Modernism
Ezra Pound (1885-1972)
Ezra was a critic, poet, impresario, and propagandist. He had connections to the era's most influential writers of prose and poetry. Having placed a value on novelty and formal experimentation, Pound helped define what we see as the avant-garde to this day.
Pound traveled throughout Europe and picked up many different ideas of the cultures. One very influential country on him was France. From France, in 1913 he got the encouragement to define the three tenets of imagism:
Even thought the idea of Imagism was short lived, it played an important role in introducing modernist sensibilities to English language poetry.
Ezra was a critic, poet, impresario, and propagandist. He had connections to the era's most influential writers of prose and poetry. Having placed a value on novelty and formal experimentation, Pound helped define what we see as the avant-garde to this day.
Pound traveled throughout Europe and picked up many different ideas of the cultures. One very influential country on him was France. From France, in 1913 he got the encouragement to define the three tenets of imagism:
- Direct treatment of the 'thing,' whether subjective or objective.
- To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.
- As regarding rhythm: to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not the sequence of metronome.
Even thought the idea of Imagism was short lived, it played an important role in introducing modernist sensibilities to English language poetry.
Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965)
Eliot picked up where the imagists left off. T.S. Eliot is alone in the amount of praise and attention he received as a modernist poet. The contribution he is most known for is the return he brought back to highly intellectual, allusive poetry. His productions were entirely in the modernist style. One main characteristic of his work is the manner in which he moves from very high, formal verse into a more conversational and easy style. Eliot's layering of meanings and contrasting of styles in his poetry is what marks Modernism, and him in particular. Along with being a main contributor to the modernism movement in literature, Eliot was the pioneer in the use of irony in poetry.
Eliot picked up where the imagists left off. T.S. Eliot is alone in the amount of praise and attention he received as a modernist poet. The contribution he is most known for is the return he brought back to highly intellectual, allusive poetry. His productions were entirely in the modernist style. One main characteristic of his work is the manner in which he moves from very high, formal verse into a more conversational and easy style. Eliot's layering of meanings and contrasting of styles in his poetry is what marks Modernism, and him in particular. Along with being a main contributor to the modernism movement in literature, Eliot was the pioneer in the use of irony in poetry.
The Lost Generation (WWI)
The Lost Generation is a group of writers and thinkers who have become synonymous to the idea of modernism in literature. The term alone refers to the spiritual and existential hangover left over by the destruction of the war. Individuals in the group include Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Waldo Pierce, and many others. They appeared in the wake of WWI, which contributed to their similar ideas that all truth became relative, conditional, and in flux. The war showed them that there was no divine being in control of the world, and that absolute destruction was kept in check through the tiniest of margins.
The Lost Generation is a group of writers and thinkers who have become synonymous to the idea of modernism in literature. The term alone refers to the spiritual and existential hangover left over by the destruction of the war. Individuals in the group include Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Waldo Pierce, and many others. They appeared in the wake of WWI, which contributed to their similar ideas that all truth became relative, conditional, and in flux. The war showed them that there was no divine being in control of the world, and that absolute destruction was kept in check through the tiniest of margins.
Legendary Modernist Writers
(Names highlighted in blue include a link.)
- Bishop, Elizabeth (1911-1979)
- Conrad, Joseph (1857-1924)
- Doolittle, Hilda (1886-1961)
- Eliot, Thomas Stearns (1888-1965)
- Faulkner, William (1897-1962)
- Fitzgerald, F. Scott (1896-1940)
- Hemingway, Ernest (1899-1961)
- Hughes, Langston (1902-1967)
- James, Henry (1843-1916)
- Lawrence, D. H. (1885-1930)
- Lowell, Amy (1874-1925)
- Pound, Ezra (1885-1972)
- Shaw, George Bernard (1856-1950)
- Stevens, Wallace (1879-1955)
- Williams, Tennessee (1882-1941)
- Woolf, Virginia (1882-1941)
- Yeats, William Butler (1865-1939)