Trends and Movements

 Hello everyone,

            This blog is a part of a reflective exercise on various trends and movements in English literature during the modern and post-modern age.

This introductory presentation covers a range of trends and movements.

 

Trends and Movements Before and After World war from AakashChavda4

     

Modernism 

Modernism is a loosely categorized international artistic and intellectual trend that emerged in the late 19th century, reaching its most extreme development on the brink of World War I. This cultural shift grew out of the transformation in philosophical, scientific, political, and ideological thinking brought about by the Industrial Revolution's impact on society. The movement's influences extended beyond just before World War I to also shape the ideas and environment of the post-war period. Modernist writers broke the traditional norm of writing literature and practiced many different writing forms and styles. During the early 20th century, authors like Henry James, Virginia Woolf, and Joseph Conrad explored narrative innovations by experimenting with temporal shifts and changes in points of view in their novels, and they employed the technique like Stream of Consciousness. 

"Make it New" and "Beak the Pentameter" were the watchwords of the modernism given by Ezra Pound. Moreover, Wasteland was also published in 1922, and became the archetypal modernist text, a modern epic poem. 

Modernism also gave rise to other smaller movements as well, such as, Expressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Imagism, Objectivism and Postmodernism.

Characteristics of Modernism

• After the turmoil of First World War, people lost their belief in everything and their perception towards the reality of life was changed. 
• "Origin of Species" by Charles Darwin, an evolution theory challenged traditional religious beliefs, and explained the diversity of life on earth. 
• People started to question the values of imperialism, and realism is questioned.
• An individual is at the center of the modernism.
• Modernist writers were greatly influenced by critical and rational minds of Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud and Fredrich Nietzsche, who raised the questions of existence and rationality of mind.
• Modernism in literature is marked by strong reaction against traditional writing norms, writers practiced many new literary form and styles., and developed new styles, such as, the use of unreliable narrator and stream of consciousness technique. 

Characteristics of Modernist Literature

•  Refusal of coherent meaning
•  Rejection of realism
•  Subjectivity
•  Split temporalities
•  Unstable identity
•  Idiosyncratic language
•  Metafiction
•  Experimental forms
•  Split identities
• 10. Focus on interiority
• 11. Unreliable narrator

Modern writers prioritize the way a story is told, often experimenting with new forms. This breaks away from the traditional storytelling of the 19th century. In modernism, there's an appreciation for narrators who may not be completely trustworthy and sometimes have divided perspectives. In modern stories, the narrator is often the main character, and because they're personally involved in the events, they might not tell the story objectively. These narrators often trick readers by hiding events or switching perspectives. Unlike realistic narrators, modern ones don't have the same level of authority. Modern stories frequently focus on identity, which is portrayed as more flexible and uncertain compared to older literature.

Post-modernism

The term Post-modernism comes from Modernism, the earlier movement that influenced modern ideas, style, and behavior. Specifically, it refers to the Modernist movement in the arts and its cultural trends. In art, Modernism rejected the idea to sticking too closely to realism and instead used elements from the past in new ways. They did this by repeating, combining, rewriting, reusing, revising, and making fun of old ideas in their creations.

Douglas Mann describes Post-modernism, that

'It can be explained as a collection of critical, strategic, and persuasive methods that use ideas like diversity, repetition, trace, the imitation of reality, and exaggerated reality to challenge other ideas such as being there, identity, historical advancement, and having a single clear meaning.'

Characteristics of Post-modernist Literature

• Ambivalent stance towards realism
• split temporalities
• ironic narrator
• metafiction
• fragmentation
• multiple points of view
• focus on exteriority
• pastiche
• irony
• black humor
• intertextuality

Comparison Between Modernism and Post-modernism

 

Modernism (late 19th century - mid 20th century):

 

• Belief in universal truths and grand narratives about the human experience
• Focus on order, logic, rationality, objective truth
• Literary features like stream of consciousness, interior monologues
• Belief in social progress through science and technology

Postmodernism (1950s - present):

•  Skepticism of universal truths and grand narratives, emphasis on pluralism 
•  Focus on fragmentation, subjectivity, randomness, and uncertainty
•  Blurring of boundaries between high and low culture
•  Use of pastiche, irony, playfulness, mixing of styles
•  Rejection of distinction between "high" and "low" culture
•  Doubt about or rejection of social progress narratives
•  Emphasis on the role of language and discourse in constructing realities

Modernism sought order and universal truths guided by rationality and science, while postmodernism questions grand truths and emphasizes multiplicity, subjectivity, irony, and the limits of language in capturing realities. Postmodernism challenges ideals and assumptions central to modernism.

(Generated with the help of Claude AI)

Surrealism

The anger that came after World War I slowly went away, and Surrealism took its place. Surrealism is a lasting art movement that looks into how the human mind works. Surrealism was a movement in literature and visual art. The movement was a response to the damage caused by what its members viewed as the "rationalism" that had influenced European culture and politics in the past. This rationalism had led to the devastating events of World War I. Andre Breton was the spokesperson of the surrealist movement, and published Surrealist Manifesto in 1924. Andre Breton and Spanish artist Salvador Dali gave lectures on the surrealism. Surrealist emphasized on nature's power over humanity. 

This artwork, crafted during a classroom activity, falls within the genre of surreal painting. Its interpretation is open-ended, and from my viewpoint, the abstract forms in the painting bear a resemblance to the structure of the coronavirus. 

Expressionism 

Expressionism is an art movement in early20th century, which is not only associated with art but also with literature as well. Expressionism is an artistic style where the artist tries to show how things make people feel, rather than just showing what things really look like. The artist achieves this by changing things, making them bigger or simpler, using imagination, and applying bold and intense elements like strong colors or energetic shapes. In literature writer bring out true emotion of characters, which is often dark and scary, and through this writers tried to explored true nature of human psyche. 

Notable Expressionist Artists:- 

Edvard Munch, Egon Schiele,  Ernst Ludwig, Kirchner Wassily,  Kandinsky Emil Nold, Amedeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutine, Franz Marc, Kathe Kollwitz,  James Ensor

Expressionism in literature started as a response to things like caring too much about money, people being too comfortable, everything becoming machines and cities growing fast, and families having too much control in European society before World War I. It became the main way of writing in Germany during and right after World War I.

"Murderer, the Hope of Women", is a play by painter Oskar Kokoschka, originally published in 1909 is often considered as one of the first expressionist play. 

Thank you.

Word count- 1165

Images used- 4

Videos- 2

References:

da Vinci, Leonardo. “Expressionism | Definition, Characteristics, Artists, Music, Theater, Film, & Facts.” Britannica, 14 February 2024, https://www.britannica.com/art/Expressionism. Accessed 3 March 2024.

Matteo, Virginia. “What's the Difference Between Modernism and Postmodernism in Literature?” Owlcation, 27 October 2023, https://owlcation.com/humanities/Whats-The-Difference-Between-Modernism-and-Postmodernism. Accessed 2 March 2024.

North's, Astrid. “Postmodernism Explained.” Owlcation, 20 October 2023, https://owlcation.com/humanities/Postmodernism-Explained. Accessed 2 March 2024.