ABSTRACT
If I happen to mention to someone that I'm currently writing about gen~erand modernity, I'm likely to be asked at some later date how my work on modernism is progressing. This symptomatic confusion of a historical period (modernity) with an artistic movement (modernism) is not unduly surprising, given the circular logic that frequently frames the discussion of these two terms. The modernist artwork is seen to offer exemplary insights into the modem condition, crystallizing the contradictory impulses of an epoch through its use of radical and experimental form. For the literary critic, it seems as if the very idea of the modern is synonymous with modernist innovation. On the other hand, our own view of what modernity is has itself been influenced by the cultural power, prestige and visibility of particular modernist icons: the fractured figures of Picasso, the parodic gestures of Brecht, the verbal fireworks of Joyce. We typically derive our view of the modem not only from the metanarratives of historical and sociological thought, but also from the primacy of certain exemplary works of high art in received histories of Western culture. The modernist canon, paradoxically, is seen to provide a heightened perception of a historical reality that it has itself helped to construct.
