The History Of Modernism

The worldwide movement of modernism, based on rejection of past ideas while placing an emphasis on forms of art with a sense of innovation, took place during the twentieth century. This movement included all types of art including literature, music, and all artistic styles. These artists, writers, and composers experimented with multiple techniques and ideas in order for their work to contribute to the modernist era. These artists intended to reflect modern society in their work. According to Ben Nicholson, modernism’s radical shift in eras came about because young people hoped to modernize all forms of art within the society which helped to bring about many modernist artists including James Joyce, Henri Matisse, and Igor Stravinsky(“Modernism”

Artists take their art, literature, and music and create their work to contrast other works of the past, they use present time ideas and styles to make an appeasing piece of work for their audience. “History of Modernism” talks about the freedom the modernist artists embraced, they did whatever they wanted to their work to make it original and their own(par. 7). Modern styles does not only apply to art, literature and music. All things in society can have a modern look, modernism seen in fashion, architecture, and businesses has to do with the popular opinions of the people. The idea of modernism does not have to do with what people consider popular in the art world. Most people of the time period did not appreciate the literary works or the art created. The modernist art did not receive full appreciation until years later. The artists of the modernist era contributed to this movement of art because they no longer saw anything special or unique in the art they saw, writings they read or the music they heard. These artists felt the need to make all forms of art special and new again. When putting a modern spin on all the art it all of a sudden made an impression on the society. Leaving this impression on society allowed the time period to become the modernism time period. The radical ideas and rebellious actions of

James Joyce had many critics who despised his work and labeled him as an immature writer only for him to become one of the most well known writers of his time. Although not everyone agreed with his style Joyce believed “better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age”(qtd. In “James Joyce”). He knew he would not appease everyone but he still had a passion and he did not want to turn away from what he felt needed to be said on paper. He united many techniques in his writings including stream of consciousness and parallelism. This approach allowed Joyce to customize his work to relate to the modern day life. Dubliners, the first book Joyce wrote and had published, consisted of stories he had written over the years. These stories embodied the real of Dublin during the time that he lived there. Joyce continued to write with the intention of keeping a modern and realistic theme to his novels, stories and