The Modernist Moment

High Modernism can be defined as the unlikely attempt to faithfully depict the fragmentation and randomness of modernity while remaining committed to the notion that art can construct a vision of coherence and beauty that might explain, reconcile, and even heal. Does this enterprise result in a dramatic break with traditional realism, or merely refine and interiorize it? Does its fine-grained psychology mark a retreat from engagement with political issues, or mount a daring challenge to the powers that be? We will press Conrad, Joyce, Woolf, Faulkner, T. S, Eliot, and others for answers to these defining questions.