Modern Literature : Realism And Modernism

The fallout after the World War 1 and the Great Depression saw the emergence of a literary preoccupation with the idea of fragmentation, and a 'cubist application ' to literature as a means of representing the 20th Century 'modern ' reality. Authors, poets, artists etc saw; cubism, expressionism and fragmentation as the best vehicles to depict the incomplete, broken lives of their subjects. With both modern and post modern literature making a conscious break away from previous realism, 20thC literature employed and explored subjectivism, whereby the author turned from the typical external reality to the inner consciousness of a character or subject, to reflect a motif/ theme as a whole. Modernist literature did so by exploring fragmentation in terms of narrative, how a character was constructed, the formation of passages and chapters, and how events unfolded. This typically surmounted to the creation of a sense of a chaotic universe, metaphysically unfounded, laced with the subconscious fears of characters and notions of alienation.

A common theme throughout American literature was the loneliness and alienation of people in society. Discrimination and hatred of others ways played a major role in the way people treated one another. The realism time period displayed an obvious separation of men and women. During the realism period, war and the cruelties of it played a major role in society, while the modernism time period displayed a major separation of whites and blacks. These feelings of alienation and loneliness are expressed into American literature today.

Literary realism is the literary or artistic portrayal of real life in an accurate manner, without false ideals and avoiding the supernatural, transcendental, or surreal events. However, concerning the subject of literary realism, Flannery O’Connor has written, “I am interested in making a good case for distortion because i am coming to believe that it is the only way to make people see”. Often in works of literature, distortion of reality gives the reader a different perspective on their perception of the real world. This can be seen in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, where the novel addresses real life concepts and events like war, death, and free-will in ways that do not cover up the reality of the events, but rather puts them in a new perspective.

The literary modernism time period was a movement in literature that started in the early 1890s and was very eventful. During this era there were many considerable events taking place such as The Great War (also known as “World War One”), which started in 1914. This War lasted for four years and finally ended in 1918, but its effects lasted much longer. The financial instability of Europe and death caused by this First World War gave people a sense of patriotism that unified them. It made people think of not only the society as a whole, but themselves as individuals ("Modernism."). This new individualist mindset made people think more about their thoughts and actions than they had ever previously done before. Because individuals thought

In other words, reading literature goes beyond just the words of the author. As readers, we become more aware of what the narrator and of what the characters might be feeling. There are feelings that form our underlying base of who we are and a lot of the times we avoid them because they’re a constant reminder of what’s real versus what we want to think is real. From time to time literature may make the readers thing of something personal that gives us a sense of reality. Through John Updike’s Rabbit Run, Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire, Margaret Atwood’s Happy Endings, James Joyce’s Araby, Patrick White’s The Vivesector, and Jorge Luis Borges’ Pierre Menard, Author of the ‘Quixote’ readers come to find a sense of reality within the characters portrayed through these works.

Literary realism’s goal is to invoke compassion within its readers. By learning and experiencing something of the characters’ lives in the story, one of the hopes for realism is that by invoking sympathy within the reader, social injustice may be dealt with.

Taking into account these various factors, the novel as a genre, simultaneously grew and developed in what has become the primary genre of contemporary books. These social, economic and political changes, treated separately were not enough to induce, the development of the novel. Rather it was the presence of circumstances and factors together that inundated the transition of the novel, illuminating its purpose as a social tool as well as a recreational

Literary Realism is a response to social conditions. In the late 19th century, writers took contemporary social issues and created a perspective that would expose the real dangers and damage created by various social conditions, such as colonization, injustices against women, and violence. These perspectives were not meant to influence a change in these conditions, but rather, bring attention to them. One of the most important factors of Literary Realism is that it is presented in an objective manner. By keeping these perspectives objective, writers were able to remove themselves from the issue in order to keep their authenticity.

Though not explicitly, the story explores the various meanings of fiction by defining it against three different words: nonfiction, the real, and truth. Fiction comes to have a multitude of meanings itself, from being a literary genre, a state of ‘unreality,’ or a lie. These nuances of meaning shine a light on the way that fiction works

Literary modernism was a reaction against realism which was developed to depict real rural life (Campbell, 2017). As people begun to relocate to city areas many writers and artist took to redefining the meaning of a realistic life. It was believed that one way of life no longer fit for everyone and modernism introduced literature and art that began to question and show various perspectives of life. Peter Childs explains that “modernist writing “plunges” the reader into confusing and difficult mental landscape which cannot be immediately understood…” (Childs 15). Uncommon poetry and prose stemmed from this modernist development. A popular one being Nella Larsen’s Passing, which encompasses two African American women who are particularly

The realism movement of the late nineteenth century produced works in literature that were marked by reduced sentimentality and increased objectivity. The goal was to let details tell the story, and remove noticeable bias of the author through scientific and detailed descriptions. While this form of storytelling undoubtedly is most accurate, it creates difficulties for authors to incorporate their themes into the story. This resulted in an increase in symbolism in realist works. The objects and descriptions within the story are the author’s vehicle for displaying the values and themes of the work. Light and darkness are symbols commonly used in literature, and have held specific symbolic

The Postmodernist movement begun after World War II in which, high and low culture are questionable in the view of society and Art. The postmodernist movement in literature creates a new set of ideals for fiction, such as the metafiction, the fable like representation in novels, the pastiche, irony, and satire. Fredric Jameson speaks about the movement and its theory in his essay “Postmodernism and Consumer Society”. He questions postmodernism in society as it creates the new societal norm of popular culture. On the other hand, Jean Baudrillard analyzes the simulacra of postmodernism in “The Precession of Simulacra”. Baudrillard speaks of the “truth” and “reality” also as a questionable representation for the reader. Yet, both critics

During the 20th Century, The modernist period was a time where both authors and artists began rejecting the idea of tradition and began experimenting their own ideas on structure. Many modernist writers reflect their own thoughts through their texts. This is exhibited in the two texts Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and Babylon Revisited by F. Scott Fitzgerald. These texts maintain dehumanisation of an individual through their jobs and examine the working system as well as capitalism and consumerism. However they also reflect a 1930s vision of the American Stock market crash and the significance of the Great Depression on individuals from the 20th Century.

Literature: the enlightenment, romanticism, realism, modernism, and postmodernism…. Where does one begin? To some, those words can be as scary as the word computer is to others. This essay is designed to help you become a great literary interpreter. Getting the motivation is three fourths of the battle to getting into the heads of the artists. To begin, an outline of some of the literary movements has been provided.

Between the end of the civil war in 1865 to about 1910, two styles of literature dominated American literature: realism and naturalism. Realism presents the world as it really is. One of the well known writers of realism, William Dean Howell’s, wrote “realism in nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material.” Realism in literature tends to be the plain and direct account of whatever is being written about. Writers of realism fill their work with facts to complement the readers’ feelings of the fact that these things can happen in their everyday lives. Realists are sure to write about normal, everyday people, living