About

The Modernist Web is a site dedicated to research into the beginnings, influence, and development of literary modernism. Although much of the content on this site is related to modernist poetry, it is hoped that over time the information on this site will be much broader in scope.

One of the most important goals of this site is to make modernist texts—which are widely considered to be difficult and inacessible—less daunting for readers new to the genre. To that end, we will be adding annotated hypertext versions of selected modernist texts to the site over time. These texts will have the "difficult" sections linked to explanatory material. The first poems to receive such treatment are Ezra Pound's Hugh Selwyn Mauberley and The Ur Cantos, while the first prose texts are the opening sections of James Joyce's Ulysses, Telemachus and Nestor.

Over time, it is our hope to add additional poems, novels, and so forth. If you have expertise in this area, or have a particular piece you wish to add to the site, please feel free to apply to become a contributor or editor. It is our hope that this site will grow rapidly, and that its content will be updated to reflect advances in modernist scholarship..

It is also our hope that this site can, over time, become a repository for digital versions of material related to modernism. To that end, we have begun to assemble an archive of digital versions of modernist magazines (such as Blast and The Little Review) found from a variety of sources around the web, or directly scanned in from the highest quality copies available to us. If you have any material that you wish to contribute, please register as an editor.

Please note that we are both conscious and respectful of copyright, and under no circumstances will copyrighted material knowlingly be posted without the express written permission of the copyright holder.