Modernism/Modernity

About the lecture

In this module, we explore the key terms ‘modernism’ and ‘modernity’, considering in how far they overlap or stand in opposition to each other. We begin by thinking about ‘modernity’ as a concept that has been applied to different historical periods, including the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the era of the Industrial Revolution. We then consider how the term ‘modernist’ first came to be applied to the art and literature of the late 19th and early 20th-century and explore how modernist writers themselves thought about their relationship to history on the one hand and modernity on the other.

About the lecturer

Max Saunders is Director of the Arts and Humanities Research Institute, Professor of English and Co-Director of the Centre for Life-Writing Research at King’s College London, where he teaches modern literature. He studied at the universities of Cambridge and Harvard, and was a Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge. He is the author of Ford Madox Ford: A Dual Life, 2 vols. (Oxford University Press, 1996) and Self Impression: Life-Writing, Autobiografiction, and the Forms of Modern Literature (Oxford University Press 2010); the editor of five volumes of Ford’s writing, including an annotated critical edition of the first volume of Ford’s Parade’s End: Some Do Not . . . (Carcanet, 2010). He has published essays on Life-writing, on Impressionism, and on a number of modern writers. He was awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship from 2008-10 to research the To-Day and To-Morrow book series; and in 2013 an Advanced Grant from the ERC for the Ego-Media 5-year collaborative project on Digital Life Writing.