私たちの生活はあらゆる側面で、大なり小なりモダニズムの洗礼を受けています。なぜ、どのようにモダニズムは生まれ、何をもってモダニズムと呼ぶのでしょうか。また、どのように20世紀以降の人々の生活に浸透していったのでしょうか。古典的なモダニスト作品、モダニズム運動、アヴァンギャルド、アートにおける「進歩」の概念など、モダニズムを特徴づけるキーワードや作品を検証し、モダニズムの全貌を明らかにします。
   

• Provides a coherent account of Modernism across various aesthetic and cultural fields
• Considers several aspects of Modernism including some classic modernist works, movements and notions of the avant garde, and the idea of 'progress' in art
• Examines Modernist ideas of the self, of subjectivity, irrationalism, people, and machines
• Looks at the political dimensions of Modernism

 
Is a tower block, your unmade bed, your lavatory basin, or the bicycle chained to the gate next door a work of art? Why should a novel have a beginning, a middle, and an end; or even a story? Whether we recognise it or not, virtually every aspect of our life today has been influenced in part by the aesthetic legacy of Modernism. 

In this Very Short Introduction Christopher Butler examines how and why Modernism began, explaining what it is and showing how it has gradually informed all aspects of 20th and 21st century life. 

Butler considers several aspects of modernism including some modernist works; movements and notions of the avant garde; and the idea of 'progress' in art. Butler looks at modernist ideas of the self, subjectivity, irrationalism, people and machines, and political definitions of modernism as a whole.