Jun 18, · Modernistic literature is the expression of the modern era (). It tends to revolve around themes of individuality, the randomness of life, mistrust of government and religion and the disbelief in absolute truth. Literature scholars classify the years from to about as the Modernist period. During this period, society at every level underwent profound changes Jul 07, · Modernist literature rejects the old in favor of the new, embracing a newfound freedom of thought and expression. This shows itself largely in the content of modernist literature, which is unlimited and unrestricted. Previously, literature was confined to topics of natural beauty and blogger.comted Reading Time: 9 mins Through the work of writers such as T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats, and Joseph Conrad, modernism in literature shed light on the true nature of the heart of humanity. With this newly incorporated view of humanity, a new theory emerged involving psychology and the behaviors of men and women.5/5(1)
Essay on Modernism in Literature - Words | Bartleby
The literary movement that spanned from the late 19th century until roughly is referred to as modernism. The word modern refers to what is new, recent, essay modernism literature, and updated. Although modernism does deal with the futuristic and the new, it also covers vastly more topics and themes. Modernism reaches into rebellion, struggle and harsh realities. From there it stretches into abstraction and a break from idealistic vision. Modernism is only modern in the sense that it comes from the desire of those involved to break essay modernism literature from the old, traditional ways of thinking and expression and to come into their current situations with a new view of reality and art.
Most notably, World War I caused a drastic change of mind to all involved. This historical event gave momentum to the modernist movement by putting realities in front of people that were vastly different from the serene and beautiful ideals described in romantic or Victorian literature.
It was difficult to associate these works of art with the way the world had become; therefore, it was necessary to create a new way of expression. Modernist authors did not want to be confined by the traditional boundaries of literature, so they experimented in terms of style and content. The world changed and literature followed. There five major themes displayed in essay modernism literature literature. Essay modernism literature first is a representation of inner reality.
Modernist authors placed a greater emphasis on the psychological experience of the individual than on the outer realities. This caused much more focus to be placed on individual interpretation of circumstances and events.
Modernist authors did not write clear-cut, chronological stories as their predecessors had. Instead, their work followed no set order or boundary, mimicking the rapidly changing thoughts we would see if we could look into the mind of another person. Modernists had the desire to express their own individual thoughts as well as to encourage others to think for themselves and define their own experiences.
To this end, modernist literature is marked by a blurred distinction between the internal and the external. The second major theme in modernism is the rejection of norms. This includes structures such as the family structure, government, religion, gender roles, socioeconomic hierarchies, and perception of different races.
Modernist literature essay modernism literature the old in favor of the new, embracing a newfound freedom of thought and expression. This shows itself largely in the content of modernist literature, which is unlimited and unrestricted. Previously, literature was confined to topics of natural beauty and drama. Modernist literature spoke of every aspect of reality, putting the spotlight on the ordinary and simple rather than on the extraordinary.
Coinciding closely with the second theme is the theme of the grotesque. To be grotesque means to be unpleasant or displeasing. In modernist literature, authors would take something familiar or traditional and essay modernism literature it into something disturbing. By manipulating that thing, essay modernism literature, they were in a sense showing another side to a familiar story.
This falls neatly in line with rejecting of the norms, essay modernism literature, as many modernist authors would use subject matter and content that had been spoken of in classical literature and turn it into something very different and unnatural. The idea was to make the reader uncomfortable with what is commonplace and to question the true goodness of what was considered ultimately good. The fourth theme is that of technology, essay modernism literature.
In an effort to leap away from the past and into the future, many modernist authors were fond of writing about technology. Technology represents a new way of doing things in education, transportation, communication, commerce, and the daily activities of life. Much of the subject matter of modernist literature includes technology either as a main element of the story or as a background observation.
It is sometimes used to show improvement, but more often used to represent the increasing isolation of society and the cold, mechanical nature of the world. The last theme is the theme of structure and geometry. It is partially related to technology, essay modernism literature, in that it emphasizes functionality over decoration. This theme is displayed essay modernism literature the authors streamlining of description and embellishment, favoring instead shortened, functional definitions.
Along the same line with the themes of modernism are the styles used in modernist literature. Although there are many styles used in modernist literature, there are four many styles of writing that we will discuss, essay modernism literature.
Firstly, the style of imagism was highly present. Imagism involves using precise, clear, and sharp language in writing, rather than over-embellishment and exaggeration. Imagism called for a return to the directness of presentation and essay modernism literature of language, as well as a willingness to experiment with non-traditional views.
A distinct feature of imagism is its attempt to isolate a single image and reveal its essence. This focus essay modernism literature concisely describing a singularity, rather than a vast topic, is a definite stylistic change from the previous romantic and Victorian literary works. Secondly, modernist literature uses very symbolic language and content. This is noticeable in the amount of metaphors used by modernist writers.
In general, nothing is skin-deep in modernist writing, essay modernism literature. There is a deeper, symbolic meaning behind most characters, places, names, and other elements of the story. This was a very anti-idealist style of writing as it attempted to show life in its gritty particulars and humble realities. Symbolism takes the literature away from realism, abstracting the ugly truth from any and all situations.
Those who wrote with this style believed that there were some absolute truths that could not be written about directly, choosing instead to represent these things through metaphorical and suggestive writing. They endowed images and objects with symbolic meaning in order to point the reader essay modernism literature the direction of the truth without saying it straight-out. Symbolism brought with it a freer flow in the writing of poetry.
Modernist authors did not want to hinder themselves or their message by being confined to consistency of stanzas, essay modernism literature, rhyming, or any other traditionally accepted norms in poetry. They chose instead to follow whatever form and flow that would best suit their particular pieces of literature, without paying any attention to specific rules or consistency. Third on the list of styles used is vorticism.
This was a style of writing that attempted to relate art to industrialization and machinery. It opposes sentimentality and promotes the mechanical and futuristic. Lastly, there is the style of expressionism. Expressionism was the tendency of modernist authors to present the world from a subjective perspective, distorting the view in order to essay modernism literature an emotional response. Although similar to symbolism, expressionism is different in that the author wished more to lead the reader to the specific personal emotions, moods, and ideas of the author instead of general feeling and emotion.
This style was brought about largely by the perceived dehumanization essay modernism literature of industrialization and the growth of cities. These are the styles and themes of modernism used by those who are considered the major writers of the modernist movement. This literary movement was mostly displayed in British literature.
The most notable authors who wrote in the UK are T. Eliot, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Ezra Pound, and Gertrude Stein. Eliot was a poet who lived from He was born in Essay modernism literature. Louis, essay modernism literature, Missouri, USA, but moved to England in Eliot had a distinguished career in literature, and even received the Nobel Prize in literature in James Joyce was born in and died in Born in Ireland, Joyce moved to continental Europe after university and stayed abroad for most of his life.
The last major author of the modernist movement was Virginia Woolf, who lived from She was born in London, and lived in England her whole life, essay modernism literature.
Woolf is considered one of the major writers of the modernist movement because of the content and style of her work. She wrote many essays and stories with feminist undertones, and had strong opinions on the liberation and education of women.
She was a member of the Bloomsbury Group, an intellectual society of writers in England. Among the lesser known modernist writers is Ezra Pound, essay modernism literature, who lived from He was born in the US, but spent most of his life living abroad in different parts of Europe.
He was a friend to T. Eliot, and even essay modernism literature him to translate and publish some works in England. Another lesser known writer is the author Gertrude Stein. Born in Pennsylvania, essay modernism literature, USA, inStein was raised in the US.
She moved to Paris in the early s, where she stayed until her death in She was primarily a novelist and a poet. It is divided into 5 titled sections which all share a link to the common themes of death, essay modernism literature, disillusionment, barrenness, and rebirth displayed throughout essay modernism literature poem.
Eliot portrays a vivid picture of a very hopeless post-war life, with the evidence essay modernism literature death and desperation everywhere, essay modernism literature. He describes the horrible circumstances that man finds himself in, and is unable to escape from. This all comes from the post World War I mentality and shock that existed in the time the poem was written, essay modernism literature.
The mood of the poem is very gloomy, shown by the various gloomy scenes depicted as well as the constant search for answers by the persona. As well, the persona speaks with a very resigned tone, as if surrendering to the realities and problems of the world. Although the poem has consistent themes, it is set in many different places of which there is no connection or consistency throughout the different sections.
The settings vary from a fancy room, to a bridge in London, to the banks of the Thames River, even to an unnamed desert place. Each setting serves the purpose of the section in which it is written, and paints a very good picture for essay modernism literature reader of the circumstances Eliot is writing about.
The first section, Burial of the Dead, talks of high hopes of the rebirth of the world after the war, but overshadows this with the futility of the new life and the hopelessness of the efforts. The second section, A Game of Chess, speaks about the perversion of humanity and the degrading social and moral values of society.
It starts out by describing a beautiful scene, but as soon as the characters are introduced we encounter sadness of all types.
Overview of Modernism in Literature
, time: 2:01Modernism in Literature Free Essay Sample
Through the work of writers such as T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats, and Joseph Conrad, modernism in literature shed light on the true nature of the heart of humanity. With this newly incorporated view of humanity, a new theory emerged involving psychology and the behaviors of men and women.5/5(1) Jun 18, · Modernistic literature is the expression of the modern era (). It tends to revolve around themes of individuality, the randomness of life, mistrust of government and religion and the disbelief in absolute truth. Literature scholars classify the years from to about as the Modernist period. During this period, society at every level underwent profound changes Jul 07, · Modernist literature rejects the old in favor of the new, embracing a newfound freedom of thought and expression. This shows itself largely in the content of modernist literature, which is unlimited and unrestricted. Previously, literature was confined to topics of natural beauty and blogger.comted Reading Time: 9 mins
No comments:
Post a Comment