James Joyce’s novel Ulysses is the essence of the concept of modernism. Ulyssess was at one point banned due to its expressing of sexuality. Essentially it shows that the same event can be seen from two angles at the same time. Ulysses is basically the same day over and over again from different views. It was modern in the sense that it had no single story with a beginning, middle and end, but a decentred narrative. It also plays on the concept of an unreliable memory and unreliable narrative. Nothing is definite and there is no conclusion. The book also explores the fragmentation of thought and the idea of merging dreams with reality.
It is debateable as to when modernism came about, but most people would argue it was between about 1880 and the First World War, 1914. This was about the same time as the broad cultural movement of surrealism. I would say that as the term modernism continues to evolve that Germany are a good example of it. In my opinion they are the most modern country in terms of culture, economy and art because of the depression after the Second World War they had to rebuild everything.
The thing about modernism is that one person can think something is modern and another person can think it’s not. This fits the concept that everything can be viewed from a different angle; everyone sees everything in a different way.
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