Modernism: A Literature in Crisis [Hardcover]

An engaging, approachable introduction to literary modernism
 
Modernism represented an astonishing outbreak of cultural innovation, spanning artforms and nations. It was centred around feelings of growing alienation in an industrial world, and a desire to change how people live together in society. Art, architecture, literature, and music all underwent a radical revolution.
 
Although it was confined to small coteries of artists and lasted no more than thirty years, its techniques were appropriated by mass culture and became familiar to millions of citizens who have never heard of Paul Klee or Gertrude Stein. It represents one of the most productive moments in art since the Renaissance, which in its scope, originality, and imaginative audacity has never been equalled.
 
Terry Eagleton presents a compelling and entertaining guide to modernism. From Ezra Pound to Virginia Woolf, James Joyce to H.D., Eagleton explores the literature and ideas of prominent modernists, emphasising the profound impact they had on subsequent generations.Mr. Eagleton makes the reasonable point that the new is not desirable in itself. . . . In one of many quips inModernism, he remarks that novelty is just the same old thing.James Campbell,Wall Street Journal

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Eagleton, alert to rash generalizations and simplistic explanations, is a tonic for lazy thinking and his new bookModernismis an intelligent and lively overview of the twentieth centurys artistic revolution.Sean Sheehan,The Prisma

“A finely judged, beautifully articulated, typically witty, and consistently surprising account of literary modernism written by one of contemporary criticism’s most trailblazing thinkers.”—Nathan Waddell, author ofA Bright Cold Day: The Wonder of George Orwell

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