Modernism in general was an art movement that started in the late 19th and reached its peak in the first half of the twentieth century. The basic idea was that every work of art should contain something new. In painting and music old conventions were abandoned and a lot of -isms emerged.
In literature modernism refers to innovative writers in the first half of the 20th century. James Joyce is the most representative novelist. In Ulysses he used the stream of consciousness technique. This means that we can read what goes on inside a character's head and how he perceives the world instead of what's objectively happening. Influenced by Joyce was Virginia Woolf. In her novel To the Lighthouse not much happens. It's all about the narrative technique. This makes it hard to read. Because of modernism the gap between highbrow and lowbrow literature has grown.
Marcel Proust was the most important French modernist novelist. His "roman fleuve" À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time) broke with the tradition of the plot-driven narrative and explored how the human memory works.
Another important European writer was Franz Kafka. His novel The Trial and his novella The Metamorphosis introduce elements of absurdity and dreamlike sequences. It shows how an individual can feel alienated from his environment and from modern life.
( Really hope this is what your looking for and i hope this helped)