They wanted to create new literary forms.
They were coping with the psychological aftermath of World War I.
Mid-19th
The sound and the fury
Prose writers cannot use adjectives and adverbs to prettify their work.
In many cases, modernist writers made heavy use of symbolism.
Modernist writers often favored simple settings.
By exaggerating the truth (apex)
Writers from the Modernist period used individualism, intellectualism, and anti-realism in their writing. They also used experimentation in their writing extensively as change just for the sake of change.
Modernist writers of fiction tended to prefer indirect characterization. Modernist writers also preferred unreliable narrators. Other literary devices used in modernist writing were stream-of-consciousness and interior monologue.
Existentialism was one of the prominent philosophical influences on modernist writers, but not all modernist writers adhered to existentialism. Many modernist writers drew from a variety of philosophical and literary movements, such as surrealism, naturalism, and symbolism, to express their ideas and themes. Existentialism's focus on individual experience, freedom, and the search for meaning resonated with some modernist writers, but it was not the only philosophy impacting their work.
Virginia WoolfJames Joyce
larger; more varied
the use of stream of consciousness narration
By exaggerating the truth (apex)
Mid-19th
French writers and artists such as Charles Baudelaire, Gustave Flaubert, and Edouard Manet.