Modernist literature is a body of literary works and a cultural movement primarily spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries, characterized by a conscious break from traditional literary forms and themes. As an academic concept and research field, it investigates the aesthetic innovations, thematic concerns (such as fragmentation, alienation, and subjective experience), and historical contexts of this period's writing, analyzing its formal experimentation, challenge to conventional representation, and significant influence on subsequent literary history.