Spell it Modern: American Literature and the Question of Modernity

The idea of modernity and its relation to modernism and postmodernism remains as tangled today as it has
been from its inception, in spite of the many discussions and explanations it has generated. While the two set of terms are conceptually related, as the aesthetic and literary historical categories “modernism” and “postmodernism” necessarily imply a concept of modernity, the exact nature and configuration of that relation is far from clear, particularly as the concept of modernity on which both depend continues to be controversial and to generate
productive and perhaps interminable debate.
This book offers an attempt to examine the nexus of concepts, ideas, and problems around the three terms “modernity,” “modernism,” and “post-modernism” from the side of literary history, paying particular attention to the American literary scene and to the exemplarity of William Faulkner within it.