Modernism and postmodernism

My college has provided me with an anthology of Love through the Ages, including a reading list, glossary of poetic terms and extracts we may find useful. There are also articles that attempt to define modernism and postmodernism. Modernism is described as an earthquake which brought down many of the traditional structures of literature, art, architecture and music in the late 19th early 20th century. Following the metaphor of the earthquake, many of the structures it toppled have never been rebuilt.

In modernism, literature no longer relied on chronological plots with onniscient narrators. Instead there was a rise in the popularity of fragmented plot lines with interesting narratives; a movement away from traditional realism into the world of the experimental. Similarly, fundamental elements of painting such as realism and perspective were replaced by abstract and conceptual works of art. The movement represented a distintive shift in culture and society, whereas postmodernism is harder to define.

Postmodernism is seen as a phiosophical movement which replaces the objective with the subjective. It postulates that many, if not all, apparent realities are only social constructs and are therefore subject to change. Whereas modernism was seen as having an enlightening influence on culture, postmodernism seems to be more skeptic; it looks back at the past with irony and satire, focussing on novels that debate their own ends and thereby 'de-naturalise' their content. Although I have been introduced to the meaning of these movements I am still unsure of their precise description. This is something I would like to study further in order to coherently write about their influence on Love through the Ages.