1 Define modernism, using quotations from the introduction to Volume D of The Norton Anthology of American Literature or from one of the Modernist Manifestos (D: 335-350) (1499-1513). Then, apply your definition to at least three reading selections (poetry or fiction), using quotations from the reading selections that reveal the work’s (poem or story) modernist attributes. Each reading selection should be by a different writer. Please note that the manifestos themselves do not qualify as poetry or fiction, though it’s fine to use them as part of your discussion of modernism. You must still have three examples that are fiction or poetry (not non-fiction prose).
“Some writers rejoiced while others lamented; some anticipated future utopias while others believed that civilization had collapsed; but the period’s most influential voices believed that old forms would not work for new times, and were inspired by the possibility of creating something entirely new” (D: 6). (Everything following this quotation will help you write your essay.)
This quotation seems important: “At the heart of high modernist aesthetic lay the conviction that the previously sustaining structures of human life, whether social, political, religious, or artistic, had been destroyed or shown up as falsehoods, or, at best, arbitrary and fragile human constructions” (D: 14).
The section called “American Versions of Modernism” (D: 13-16) will help you choose writers to include.
