The Concept of Modernism

The term "modernism" is central to any discussion of twentieth-century literature and critical theory. Astradur Eysteinsson here maintains that the concept of modernism does not emerge directly from the literature it subsumes, but is in fact a product...

Astradur Eysteinsson is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Iceland.

Brave and admirable. Eysteinsson's exploration of modernism considers the reverberations and relations of modernism to other paradigms such as realism, literary history, postmodernism, and the avant-garde. His work, which also reveals a strong awareness of how modernism was and is understood outside the Anglo-American realm, is indispensable.

An exemplary study of the idea of 'modernism.'... Eysteinsson moves with remarkable ease from readings and discussions of the definitions and uses of the concept of modernism within literary criticism to the placement of the concept of modernism within literary history and to intelligent and illuminating readings of particular modernist literary text and authors.

Shari Benstock, University of Miami:

This is a work that will have lasting value. The Concept of Modernism engages in a dialogue with modernism's readers and critics at a crucial moment in the history of criticism. I am most impressed by Eysteinsson's abilities to work well at the levels of both literary history and theory and to focus clearly—and accurately—on texts and individuals.