Modernism
A major literary and artistic movement (roughly 1890s-1945) characterised by formal innovation, rejection of traditional narrative and poetic forms, fragmentation, stream of consciousness, complex allusiveness, and engagement with new philosophical ideas.
Real World
T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' (1922) opens mid-sentence, switches languages, fragments voices, and quotes without attribution — reflecting a post-WW1 Europe where traditional certainties had collapsed as violently as the trenches that inspired them.
Exam Focus
Always name the specific modernist technique (stream of consciousness, fragmented chronology) before explaining its effect — vague references to 'experimental style' lose marks.
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