Final answer:
Modernist writers, inspired by Ezra Pound's maxim "Make it new!", sought to break traditional literary norms with experimental forms and expression.
Step-by-step explanation:
Modernist Writers and the "Make it new" Maxim
The phrase "Make it new!" articulated by poet Ezra Pound encapsulates the essence of Modernist literature. This avant-garde literary movement began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was marked by a deliberate break from traditional forms and narrative structures. Modernist writers sought to experiment with language, form, and literary techniques to represent an increasingly complex and fragmented world.
Poets and authors including Marianne Moore, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf contributed to this style, differing in their approaches with what is termed High and Low modernism. High Modernism, featuring works like T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," was characterized by its formality and often-pessimistic view of change, whereas Low Modernism, seen in the works of William Carlos Williams, favored a more casual structure and a tendency to experiment with form. Conversely, modernist prose writers such as Faulkner and Gertrude Stein were known for their narrative experiments, from the use of multiple narrative voices to abstract storytelling, as in Stein's Tender Buttons.
The modernists' departure from conventional storytelling also manifested in the exploration of characters' inner lives and stream-of-consciousness writing. In Joyce's Ulysses, the focus on a character's interior thoughts rather than external events exemplified this approach. Similarly, Hemingway's minimalist style and terse prose left much unsaid, implying the deeper unspoken truths of his narratives. The culmination of these various approaches reflects the Modernist intention to refresh literature, creating new ways to perceive and understand the rapidly changing world.