Literary Modernism

Literary Modernism
Some 20th century avant-garde artists sought to put apart all what
preceded the world war and make it new, through shocking the
conventional reader and challenging the norms of the dominant
bourgeois culture.
Definition:
Modernism became the predominant literary and artistic movement

of the 20th century. Modernism is a broad term referring to the social
thought, cultural expressions, and artistic techniques that broke with
past traditions following the political upheavals across Europe in the
mid–1800s (including the French Revolution) through the horrors of
the first World War, as well as the scientific and technological
developments flowing from the Industrial Revolution.
Yet, Modernism also is a term that is specifically used in relation to a
precise style of fiction that attempted to chronicle the personal
alienation, cultural disruption, and even loneliness of living in a
century of rapid and often traumatic change.
Modernists were highly conscious that they were being modern, that
they were "making it new", breaking from the traditional ways of
writing both in poetry and prose fiction, representing the human
dystopian experience in a modern, urban, industrialized, believing in
the progress of society and a utopian vision of the human life through a
whole restructuring of the universe.
Background:
1/ The First World War was a mass destruction; thus, Modernism came
as a celebration of inner strength in a destroyed world. A manifestation
of the mankind's power to reshape the environment and identify the
existence.
2/ Alienation: breaking with history and tradition, assuming that people
came by chance and no one is born for a specific purpose, so it is up to
them to create their own truths.
3/ Grief over loss of the past, loss of everything people used to believe
in . Man lost faith in God, in dream and love; a modern world
characterised by lack of morals and pursuit of money.
4/ Rejection of Realism and Naturalism, and the concept of absolutism
(single existing reality perceived through observation). Instead,
Modernism tended to depict a lost community characterised by cultural
relativism.
5/ Rejection of tradition and a hostile attitude towards the past, which
was responsible for the world wars and the destruction of humanity.
1
Characteristics:
1/ Individualism: subjectivity was ever more valued and accepted in

literature. In Modernist literature, the individual is more interesting
than society.
2/ Experimentation in writing: Modernist writers broke free of old

forms and techniques, instead they made use of:
a- plot nonlinearity (fragmented structure)
b- focus on complex discontinuous forms rather than meaning to
disturb the reader
c- shifts in voices, the narrative is told from different perspectives
(fragmented perspective), with the omission of the omniscient narrator
d- use of allusions, symbolism and metaphor
e- language is no longer seen as transparent allowing us to "see
through" to reality; multiple meanings
f- rejection of the ideal hero, and traditional themes; literature of the
city and of marginalized people, taboos subjects, insertion of gay and
lesbian characters
g- breaking with conventional modes of writing resulted in
fragmentation, bold language, incomplete ideas, unusual syntax, rough
grammar.
h- use of interior landsacpe; the world is moved "inside"
i- open or ambiguis endings
3/ Absurdity: imagery of emptiness and cyclical motion, critique of

society through the use of irony and satire, manifesting the absence of
God. The carnage of two World Wars profoundly affected writers of
the period.
4/ Symbolism.
Themes:
_ the search for a ground of meaning in a world without God

_ Interest in the primitive and non-Western cultures.
_ Meaninglessness and absence of logic or causality.
_ Prevalence of social injustices
_ Sin seems to go unpunished, evil prevails.
_ Man has been forsaken and betrayed by God.
_ Importance of the unconscious mind; the quest for internal truth.
_ loss, despair and exile.
_ Worldwide destruction: the world witnessed chaos and destruction of
which modern man was culpable.
2
_ Other subjects questioned in Modernist literature are what is the
difference between wrong and right, what will our country's future be,
what is truth, life after death.. They often do not give answers and
make the readers draw their own conclusions.
Fragmentary techniques:
_ Modernism is notable for what it omits (the iceberg principle; only

1/8 is above the surface and can be seen). Omissions include
nonexistence of explanations, interpretations, summaries, lack of
connections, author's absence from the text implies discontinuity and
fragmented perspective.
_ The idea of order, sequence and unity in works of art is sometimes
abandoned in Modernism. The long work will be an assemblage of
fragments, the short work a carefully realized fragment "collage".
_ Fragments are drawn from diverse areas of experience, contemporary
life, popular culture, dream imagery, symbolism, moving across time
and space, shift from the public to the personal.
Formal features of poetry:
_Modern poetry is mostly sophisticated as a result of the sophistication

of the modern age.
_Modern poetry is highly intellectual; it is written from the mind of the
poet and it addresses the mind of the reader.
_Modern poetry is pessimistic as a result of the bad condition of man
in many parts of the world.
_Modern poetry is suggestive; the poem may suggest different
meanings to different readers.
_Open form, following no rules.
_ Use of free or blank verse; lack of traditional meter, flexibility of
lines. It is irregular, written without metre and rhyme scheme and
sometimes written in prose like the pros poem.
_ Imagism: the use of a dominant image in the poem, and emphasis on
economy of expression (omissions, not telling the reader too much).
_ Juxtaposition of ideas rather than consequential exposition.
_ Intertextuality: borrowing and making reference to other texts,
cultures and languages.
_Use of allusions and multiple association of words.
_ Unconventional use of metaphor.
_ Importance given to sound to convey "the music of ideas'
_ Arbitrary use of capitalization, punctuation..
_Interest in politics and the political problems of the age.
_Interest in the psychology and in the subconscious.
_ Non-closed end.
3
_ Pioneers of Modernist verse; Ezra Pound, Thomas Eliot, William
Yeats...
Formal features of narrative:
Some Modernist literature (Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, William

Faulkner) relied on a style of writing known as stream-of-
consciousness , where the narrative followed the organic (and
sometimes chaotic) pathways of one or more characters’ thoughts.
Other modernist authors, such as Hemingway, sought to pare down the
comparatively flowery language of previous literary movements and
present the complexity of modern life through crisp, sharp detail. Many
Modernist writers sought to create work that represented not simply a
moment or a region (as in Realistic fiction) but a larger, universal truth
that transcended personal experience.
Some of the new techniques of the Modernist narrative
include blended imagery and themes, absurdism, nonlinear narratives,
and stream of consciousness—which is a free flowing inner
monologue.
The Modernist narration is A manner of presenting the thoughts or
utterances of a fictional character as if from that character's point of
view by combining grammatical and other features of the
character's 'direct speech' with features of the narrator's 'indirect' report.
American Modernism
American modernism is an artistic and cultural movement in the

United States beginning at the turn of the 20th century, with a core
period between World War I and World War II. Like its European
counterpart, American modernism stemmed from a rejection of
Enlightenment thinking, seeking to better represent reality in a new,
more industrialized world.
Unlike Europe which was damaged by wars, America entered the
20th century optimistically as a wealthy, strong world power. The
Modernist American movement was a reflection of American life in
the 20th century. In the quickly industrializing world and hastened
pace of life, it was easy for the individual to be swallowed up by the
vastness of things, left wandering, devoid of purpose. Social
boundaries in race, class, sex, wealth and religion were being
challenged. As the social structure was challenged by new incoming
views, the bounds of traditional standards and social structure
dissolved, and a loss of identity was what remained, translating
eventually into isolation, alienation and an overall feeling of
separateness from any kind of “whole”. The unity of a war-rallied
country was dying, along with it the illusion of the pleasantries it sold
4
to its soldiers and people. The world was left violent, vulgar and
spiritually empty.
Things went worse with the economic crisis which led to the Great
Depression (1930). The middle class worker fell into a distinctly
unnoticeable position, a cog much too small to hope to find recognition
in a much greater machine. Citizens were overcome with their own
futility. Youths’ dreams shattered with failure and a disillusioning
disappointment in recognition of limit and loss. The lives of the
disillusioned and outcasts became more focal. Ability to define self
through hard work and resourcefulness, to create your own vision of
yourself without the help of traditional means, became prized. Some
authors endorsed this, while others, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald,
challenged how alluring but destructively false the values of privilege
can be.
The literature of the period portrayed the chaotic American lifestyle,
its instability, confusion, and disillusionment. In poetry, Ezra Pound
founded the Imagist Movement which suggested the use of a single
image at a time than to confuse the reader with multiple fragments. On
the other side, Ernest Hemingway proposed "the iceberg principle",
believing that the Modernist text can shine only through implicity.

Literary Modernism

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Literary Modernism

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Literary Modernism

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Literary Modernism

Modernism became the predominant literary and artistic movement

1/ Individualism: subjectivity was ever more valued and accepted in

2/ Experimentation in writing: Modernist writers broke free of old

3/ Absurdity: imagery of emptiness and cyclical motion, critique of

_ the search for a ground of meaning in a world without God

_ Modernism is notable for what it omits (the iceberg principle; only

Formal features of poetry:

_Modern poetry is mostly sophisticated as a result of the sophistication

Formal features of narrative:

Some Modernist literature (Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, William

American modernism is an artistic and cultural movement in the

You might also like