(also note the discussion of related concepts in the intro to our Norton).
Initially, we attempted to define Modernism along a continuum from the “Modern,’ to “Modernity,” to “Modernization,” and finally “Modernism.” Modern occupies a more simple semantic register, and merely marks the “just now” or the “new.” Modern English, in this sense, is distinct from Old or Middle English. Modernity, we found, embodies Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment progress in the sciences, psychology, philosophy, and other arenas. We discussed values of personal (and political) autonomy, and the recognition of inalienable rights. Secular Humanism and scientific rationality began to complicate and challenge traditional religious world views. We discussed the Second Law of Thermodynamics (entropy), Darwin (evolution / degeneration), Heisenberg (uncertainty principle), Rutherford (splitting atoms), Curie (radioactivity), Einstein (relativity), Freud (unconscious, multiple ‘selves’), and the invention of the X-ray. In short, things were changing—and fast! We discussed Modernization, then, as the outcome or application or effect of Modernity: things like industrialization and urbanization and the many inventions and commodities that accompanied them. Modernism, finally, names the myriad ways in which artists responded to modernization and the consequences of modernity. If the Modernists are the players, modernity and modernization represent the game—a game that the modernists variously embraced or rejected in their work (and often, as in Crane, at the same time). Modernism, as a term, was applied in retrospect to try to capture the energies of numerous artistic movements all of which were innovative or experimental in their own way. These include Futurism, Vorticism, Imagism, Surrealism, Impressionism, Cubism, etc.