ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book introduces modernism as a series of mutually informing European and non-Western aesthetic innovations. It provides two key tools essential to the study of modernism: how to closely read modernist texts and paintings and how to contextualize those close readings in the histories, locations and intercultural exchanges that inform modernist works. The book covers several nineteenth-century literary movements – symbolism, aestheticism and decadence that directly influenced the major modernist avant-garde groups. It discusses the revolution in language and the crisis of reason, including the discovery of the unconscious, as well as the impact of new technologies and media on modernist artistic production. The book explores modernist fiction, poetry and drama from around the world in terms of their aesthetic and critical engagement with modernity.
