Modernity, sometimes also known as modernism or the modern project, is a period within literature and art dating to the late nineteenth century.

Important modernist writers include such names as Samuel Beckett, Bertolt Brecht, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Mann, T. S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein and Klaus Rifbjerg. Modernist literature often had a focus on realism and a critical view on society, politics and history.

Keynote speakers focusing on modernity typically talk about modernist literature and art, touching on elements of art and literature history.