ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to modernism will undoubtedly seem a prerequisite in a Research Companion on Ford Madox Ford, extending the topic to postmodernism may appear less necessary considering he died in 1939. It shows, fitting Ford’s literary technique within a distinct literary period, even one as heterogeneous as modernism, can prove a challenging, if not impossible task. The chapter examines the existing scholarship on the oft-debated question of Ford’s relationship to avant-garde and modernist movements, and as a result of its survey will propose an alternative view of the difficulty in situating Ford in a stable position within the aesthetics of his time. It examines criticism that posits Ford’s work as going beyond the divide between modernist and postmodern categories. The chapter devots to the English Review in Ford Madox Ford: A Dual Life, Saunders writes extensively on the role of the English Review within modernist movements, asserting that ‘The Review signalled the presence of English modernism’.
