Anything in art,music or literature which is very modern or ahead of its time is called avant-garde.

VOA: special.2010.04.18

We're not going to be studying it necessarily for how important it was for Medieval and Early Modern Literature, for example.

也不会研究它,对于中世纪及早期现代文学的重要性，等等。

耶鲁公开课 - 新约课程节选

This ambivalence that I'm describing is at the center of modern literature generally.

我所叙述的这种矛盾,是始终存在于现代文学的中心思想中的。

耶鲁公开课 - 现代诗歌课程节选

All of this has to be yoked together in the imagery of a good poem, particularly of a metaphysical poem, and this model of complexity is what matters both for modern literature and for literary criticism.

一首好诗,的应该融合这些意象，尤其一首玄学诗，同时，这种复杂性,在现代文学,和文学批评中都十分重要。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选

I see this as a course that's an introduction to the literature of a period, to modern poetry.

我觉得，这只是一门引导性课程,引导大家关注某一时期的文学创作和现代诗歌。

耶鲁公开课 - 现代诗歌课程节选

Now as yet we haven't said anything about literature, and the fact is there is no hermeneutic art devoted to literature during the early modern period and for most of the eighteenth century.

到现在为止我们还没有讲到文学，在现代的早期和18世纪大部分时候,都没有任何关于文学的诠释学研究。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选