Williams, Raymond (1921–1988)
The critic, cultural historian and novelist Raymond Williams was an influential theorist of the emergence of literary and cultural modernism, and a key figure in…
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Bakhtin, Mikhail (1895–1975)
Mikhail Bakhtin was a Russian philosopher and thinker whose long career concerned aesthetics, ethics, literary and cultural theory, linguistics, and sociology. His earliest works, in…
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,…
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,…
Modernism in Latin America
In Latin American intellectual history, modernism is a term that can be usefully and accurately applied to at least two distinct intellectual movements: a clearly…
Celtic Twilight, The (1893; revised 1902)
The Celtic Twilight is a collection of folk tales gathered by William Butler Yeats during his interviews with members of the rural working class in…
Collins, Janet (1917–2003)
Magical on stage, elusive off stage, Janet Collins was an enigmatic and complex presence in twentieth-century dance. As the first full-time African American ballerina at…
Horton, Lester (1906–1953)
Lester Horton, regarded as one of the founders of American modern dance, worked outside the established center of New York City, establishing a permanent dance…
Regionalists, The
The visual artists known as the Regionalists rose to prominence in the United States during the 1930s. They advocated the use of realistic styles to…
Scholem, Gershom (1897–1982)
Gershom Scholem was born in Berlin to Arthur and Betty Hirsch Scholem. Though raised in an assimilated Jewish and German nationalist household, Gerhard Scholem grew…
Afrocubanismo in Music
Afrocubanismo was an esthetic trend in art music during the first half of the twentieth century focusing on African cultural features in Cuban society. The…
Contemporary Poetry and Prose
Contemporary Poetry and Prose was an avant-garde magazine edited by Roger Roughton that ran for ten issues between the spring of 1936 and the autumn…
The New Age
The New Age was a weekly British literary magazine published from 1894 to 1938. Established by Frederick A. Atkins (1864–1940) in October 1894, the New…
The Group of Seven
The Group of Seven was a group of Canadian landscape painters working in the early 1900s that developed a distinct style of painting tied to…
Weaver, Harriet Shaw (1876–1961)
Harriet Shaw Weaver was a political activist and magazine editor best remembered for her literary and financial support of the modernist writer James Joyce (1882–1941).…
Athenaeum, The
The Athenaeum, “A Journal of Literature, Science, and the Arts,” was published weekly in London between 1828 and 1921. John Middleton Murray was appointed as…
First Statement
Based out of Montreal, First Statement was a modernist ‘little magazine’ published between August 1942 and July 1945 for a total of thirty-three issues. John…
Madge, Charles (1912–1996)
Charles Madge is best known as a founder of Mass Observation, but he was also an accomplished poet, a journalist, and a social scientist. Madge…
Altenberg, Peter (1859–1919)
Born in Vienna on 9 March 1859, the Jewish-Austrian poet Peter Altenberg (birth name: Richard Engländer) became a literary sensation with his characteristically telegraphic writing…
Monte Verità (1900–)
During the first two decades of the 20th century, Monte Verità, a hill on the west side of Ascona in southern Switzerland, was the site…
Little Magazines
In the history of modernism, little magazines were often the first venues to publish unknown authors who are now considered the leading lights of twentieth-century…
Darktown Follies (Lafayette Theatre, Harlem, 1913)
One of the earliest large-scale musical revues to be created and performed by an all-Black cast, Darktown Follies premiered in 1913 at the Lafayette Theatre…
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…
von Heidenstam, (Carl Gustaf) Verner (1859–1940)
Verner von Heidenstam was a Swedish poet and prosaist whose name is closely associated with modern Swedish nationalism. He is counted among the most influential…
Boghossian, Alexander (Skunder) (1937–2003)
Alexander Boghossian, better known as Skunder, was one of the most prominent figures of African modernism. Born in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia in 1937 to…