ABSTRACT
Looking at modernism and postmodernism through an inter-American lens this entry is foremost comparative and in a second instance relational. It is an ambitious endeavor to discuss both terms within a hemispheric dimension within the Americas. While US America defined itself early as an embodiment of modernity, modernist aesthetics represented a slow-train-coming. Critics agree that it is impossible to come up with all-inclusive and clear-cut definitions of modernism and postmodernism. Modernist literature appropriates ancient myths to give new order to a changed and changing world. Experiments with narrative voice and multiple narrative perspectives, techniques such as stream of consciousness, open verse and open forms of drama are connected with modernist literature in general. The fact that so many literary developments emerge from interaction, mutual influence, and dialogue require new hemispheric approaches to the writing of literary history in the Americas challenging, multiplying and diversifying both modernism and postmodernism in their conceptualization and historicization.
