Modernism includes a broad range of features. Some of the most prominent ones include the following:

1. Experimentation—daringly original, searching for new forms of expression to respond to new, more technological age and recent revelations in human psychology and sexuality, Modernists are very subtle and dense in their symbolism, more reliant upon allusions to earlier literary works so as to suggestions of mythological meaning, and more inclined toward intellectual depth and brilliance.

2. Disillusionment—tending to reject the social, economic and spiritual values of Western culture, the modern writer can no longer accept the claims of the world, the usual morality seems counterfeit, a genteel indulgence; tradition, a wearisome fetter. The Red Scare, race riots, political and corporate corruption, and prohibition disillusioned many of the young writers, leaving a great number to relocate to Paris, London and
Rome.

3. Existentialism—Modernists also rejected traditional philosophical and religious systems of belief in favor of existentialism, which suggests a meaningless, chaotic, Godless world, where individuals may or may not give meaning to life.

4. Alienation—American Modernists feel like outsiders within their own culture; European residences and experimentation resulted from such alienation. Many Modernists searched for their own forms rather than tap into the traditional forms of their culture. Moreover, they believed their psychological states could not be adequately recorded in the traditional forms.

5. Control—particularly marked by control, Modernist poetry is precise, carefully crafted and reworked, hardly spontaneous outbursts of emotion or energy.

6. Freud and Jung—the psychology of these two inspired the imaginations of authors who experimented in their fiction and drama with hidden motives and universal archetypes.

7. Classical Antiquity—many Modernists draw inspiration from ancient Greek and Roman culture.

8. Primitivism—African art and American Indian art, both of which began to receive attention and celebration, inspired Modernists. Authors often turned to the most primitive settings in exploring Freud and Jungian theories of human psychology and sexuality. In addition, the Harlem Renaissance was fueled, in part, by a sense of pride in things African.

9. Harlem Renaissance—a feeling of pride in African heritage and in African-American culture blossomed between the World Wars in a number of cities, not just Harlem. While the artists of the Harlem Renaissance experimented with literary forms—often adapting musical structures to poetry, for instance—their work tends to be more accessible than many Modernists. However, like most Modernists, the American-African authors express disillusionment with American and its promises.

10. Proletarian art and literature—for many Modernists, from especially 1917 and the Russian Revolution to World War II, communism and socialism promised a new, more equitable culture. In the 1930’s proletarian art and literature thrived in America for that time only.