Abstract：Modernity is a paradoxical concept which not merely denotes radical transformation and progress in modern society, but degeneration and alienation of human beings in modern age. In reality, modernity is logically characterized by the tensions and contradictions between enlightened modernity and aesthetic modernity. Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio depicts vividly the distorted and alienated grotesques who struggle through their lives in the provincial town. In the novel Anderson liberates himself from the fundamental aesthetic ideal: praise of harmony and beauty. The novel aims at disclosing the dark side effected by industrialization and rationalization in enlightened era, in which the predicaments of human beings and the conflicts between enlightened modernity and aesthetic modernity are emphasized.

Keyword：modernity;the grotesques;aesthetic modernity;