Baudelaire’s celebrated definition of modernity was contextually specific, not universal.

Evidence

What is modernity? Baudelaire is often thought to have definitively answered this question when he wrote: ‘Modernity is that which is ephemeral, fugitive, contingent upon the occasion’. The context of this remark, the essay ‘The painter of modem life’, makes it clear that it reflects Baudelaire’s specific concern to characterize an art which discovers the eternal in the transitory as opposed to an abstract and academic cult of timeless beauty. Nevertheless, his definition seems to capture an experience particular to the past two centuries summed up by David Frisby as ‘the newness of the present’. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 136

Categorization

• XREF: Contests a widely-quoted Baudelaire line; relevant to Jameson’s notion of the postmodern ‘newness’ obsession. — connects to: Baudelaire defined modernity as half transient and half eternal — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 105; Guénon critiqued modernity from within non-Western traditions, not Western theory; Baudelaire coined the word modernity in 1859 while articulating how poetry survives capitalism — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 860

Broader Connections

• Baudelaire defined modernity as half transient and half eternal #corroborates (0.72) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 105
• Guénon critiqued modernity from within non-Western traditions, not Western theory #exemplifies (0.70)