Nietzsche, Friedrich (1844–1900)
Friedrich Nietzsche, the son of a Lutheran minister, was a German philologist, philosopher, and iconoclast. He is best known for his controversial but powerful reevaluation…
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Intellectual Currents
This section focusses on the historical, sociological, philosophical, economic, political, and scientific context of modernism. Entries cover individuals, coteries, movements, and events. The primary criterion…
Symbolism Overview
Symbolism is a late-nineteenth-century literary movement centred mostly around the work of poets such as Stéphane Mallarmé, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, Philippe Villiers de L’Isle-Adam,…
Expressionism
Expressionism was one of the foremost modernist movements to emerge in Europe in the early years of the twentieth-century. It had a profound effect on…
Modernism in East Asia
The term ‘modernism’ is commonly used to describe some of the literary and cultural production of the early twentieth century in China, Japan, and Korea,…
Modernism in the Middle East and Arab World
Exploring modernity and its intellectual trends in the Middle East is a very fitting endeavour, as ‘Middle East’ itself is a ‘modern’ term which has…
Constructivism
Prior to World War II, Constructivism attracted little interest from British artists apart from the few involved with Circle in 1937. Circle consisted of a…
Modernism in Europe
We are living in a very singular moment of history. It is a moment of crisis, in the literal sense of that word. In every…
Acéphale
The name Acéphale refers to two related projects: one is a journal, founded by Georges Bataille (1887–1962), published between 1936 and 1939, whose articles often…
Kristensen, (Aage) Tom (1893–1974)
Tom Kristensen was the most influential exponent of Expressionism in 1920s Denmark. During this period he wrote both poetry and novels that gave voice to…
Existentialism
Existentialism is the term given to an interdisciplinary school of thought that focuses on the lived experience of human beings. Existentialism was especially popular in…
Alienation
From the Christian doctrine of original sin, through G. W. F. Hegel’s conception of freedom, and the situated subject of existentialist thought in the wake…
Apollo (1909–1917)
Apollo (Apollon, 1909–1917) was the third and last major Russian modernist art periodical before the revolution of 1917. Edited by the art critic and art…
Blixen, Karen (1885–1962)
Karen Blixen was a singular figure in 20th century Danish literary life. In the 1930s, when Blixen started writing, Danish literature was dominated by social…
Klossowski, Pierre (1905–2001)
French philosopher, writer, artist and translator Pierre Klossowski was born in Paris and raised in Switzerland, Germany and France. His education was influenced by Rainer…
Vaihinger, Hans (1852–1933)
Hans Vaihinger is known chiefly for the fictionalist outlook developed in his 1911 Philosophie des als ob (The Philosophy of As-If), a text that has…
Vitalism
Vitalism is a philosophy of life that ascribes a vital principle or animating life-force to the processes of living organisms. Against the assertions of mechanistic…
Fante, John (1909–1983)
American author John Fante (8 April 1909–8 May 1983) is best known for his Arturo Bandini novels, including The Road to Los Angeles (written 1933,…
Emmanuel Lévinas (1906–1995)
Emmanuel Lévinas was a French philosopher of Jewish–Lithuanian origins who drew strongly on German phenomenology in his investigations of intentionality, subjectivity, and ethics. An officer…
Organicism
Modernist organicism emphasizes the interrelationship between the natural world and society, and links sociocultural changes with nature, biology, and aesthetic forms in imagining the human…
Synge, John Millington (1871–1909)
J. M. Synge (pronounced “Sing”) is best known for his plays, first staged at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, that vividly depicted rural life in Ireland. His…
Hansson, Ola (1860–1925)
Ola Hansson was among the most innovative and ground-breaking authors and critics of early Swedish modernism. With his delicate prose sketches Sensitiva amorosa he established…
Bataille, Georges Albert Maurice Victor (1897–1962)
Georges Bataille (September 10, 1897–July 9, 1962) was a French writer who synthesized ideas from many disciplines. He converted to Catholicism at the start of…
Przybyszewski, Stanislaw (1868–1927)
Stanislaw Przybyszewski (1868–1927), highly controversial author of German tongue and Polish provenance, catalyst of German-Scandinavian modernity, and satanist, was widely read in Europe at the…
Brandes, Georg Morris Cohen (1842–1927)
The Danish literary critic Georg Brandes is known as the force behind the modern breakthrough in Scandinavian literature in the late 19th century. Inspired by…