Modernist Poetry: A Report on Maverick Voices and Modernity, 1890 – 1939

Koenraad Claes (Ghent University) reports on the conference, Maverick Voices and Modernity, 1890-1939. This report (the third of three) focuses on the changing scope of studies of modernist poetry.

The enduring relevance of conferences like Maverick Voices is one of the most fundamental issues in literary studies today. Few in the scholarly community will hold that any kind of clean break can be found between the literature of what is often called ‘the long nineteenth century’ (Romantic / Victorian / Edwardian / Georgian) and ‘Modernism,’ let alone that essentialist definitions could be found for either side of that imaginary divide. However, institutional compartmentalisation and pedagogical necessity often require us to stay within our neatly demarcated literary-historical niche. It is also clear that within studies of the literature of the early twentieth century, the pertinence accorded to studied authors still often depends on the degree to which they participated in…