Modernist Literature Essay - 2369 Words

Modernism emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century, following World War I and flowing through the â€Å"roaring twenties.† Materialism, crime, depression, and change filled this era. Reflecting the revolutionary time period, modernism itself was a revolution of style. Musicians, artists, and writers broke away from traditional, conventional techniques to create new, rebellious art. Modernism, in other words, was a change in how artists represented the world in their works. Passionate, sporadic jazz music—referred to as â€Å"jungle music†Ã¢â‚¬â€danced through the music scene. Painters such as Pablo Picasso and Wassily Kandinsky stroked over the paintings of impressionist, representationalist artists, such as Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas.†¦show more content†¦Before artists concerned themselves with what they said; now they were most concerned with how they said it. Therefore, content and subject matter became back-up dancers to style. H emingway’s The Sun Also Rises, for instance, revolves around a few characters that go from cafà © to cafà © drinking and chatting nonchalantly. Another modernist artist, T.S. Eliot, writes a long, beautiful poem entitled â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufruck† about a man contemplating asking a girl out, and William Carlos Williams describes a plain red wheelbarrow in one of his poems. However, the reader does not become frustrated with these simple, somewhat shallow plots because the style triumphs. For example, J. Alfred Prufruck’s silly contemplation of courtship does not seem so silly because Eliot has a charming style. The Great Gatsby is another huge triumph of style over content. Although the novel itself is about tragedy and loss and should leave one feeling very depressed, the reader feels quite the opposite. In other words, Fitzgerald’s writing brings pleasure despite his dismal subject matter. Not only are the subject matters of modernist works unconventionally simple, but the sentences and word choices are also quite uncomplicated. Modernist writers left behind the showy, overwritten, sentimental writing that was common before them and wrote leaner works. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses short, simple sentences throughout the work. For instance,Show MoreRelatedRhetorical Analysis Of Ezra Pound s His Philosophy And The Rallying Cry For Modernist Literature1780 Words   |  8 PagesEzra Pound was one of the most famous and influential figures in the Modernist literature movement. â€Å"Make it new† was his philosophy and the rallying cry for Modernist literature. Whilst the Modernists tried to capture the new by a â€Å"persistent experimentalism, it rejected the traditional (Victorian and Edwardian) framework of narrative, description, and rational exposition in poetry and prose† . Modernist literature not only rejected the old in terms of form, but also in subject matter- ModernismRead MoreThe History of Modernist Literature2326 Words   |  9 Pagesï » ¿ Modernism, as an artistic movement, was notoriously explicit about depicting sex. Indeed much of the history of Modernist literature involves censorship and legal embargoes against work which was deemed too obscene to be permitted general availability and Modernist novels ranging from Joyces Ulysses to Henry Millers Tropic of Cancer would have to overcome legal hurdles before they could be read. The importance of Paris as a center for publication activity cannot be understated here: both JamesRead MoreThe Modernist Movement Of Literature2005 Words   |  9 PagesThe modernist movement in Literature came about in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as authors began to consciously break from traditional writing styles and experiment with new methods of storytelling. These authors drew their inspiration from the real world and their own experiences. Every aspect of the world has its own influence from historical events to developments in psychological theory. The authors of the modernist era, such as William Faulkner, Virginia Woolf, T.S. ElliotRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem The Dead By James Joyce1280 Words   |  6 Pagesthoughts, and sorrows in their fragmented societies. Authors such as James Joyce, T.S. Elliot, and Virginia Wolfe gave voice to these individuals through their implementation of a stream of consciousness writing style that became a key feature in the modernist literary movement. In his short story â€Å"The Dead†, the final tale in his collection Dubliners, James Joyce represents the struggles of a well-respected figure whose depression and low self-esteem causes him to agonize over an annual speech he givesRead MoreModernism: Just another Word for the 20th Century599 Words   |  2 Pagescompositions. Whereas in the Victorian era (which came after the Romantic Period), the subject matter for poetry was often socially-oriented. Victorian literature often saw a drive for social advancement. There was a set of standards and codes of conduct making people have, what was seen as â€Å"proper† behaviour. This in turn led to Modernism. The Modernist Period was first a reaction against the previous Victorian culture. Intellectuals and artists of the 20th century believed that the previous era’s wayRead MoreEssay about The Power of Horace McCoy’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?2674 Words   |  11 PagesThe Power of Horace McCoy’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? Professor’s Comment: The premise of this essay is to highlight the capacity of Noir literature to defy Modernist values and pioneer later avant-garde literary movements. This student produced a focused, organized, well supported essay. Nearly half a century has passed since most films and texts in the Noir tradition were created, yet one may wonder how much is really known about these popular American products. Scholars remain fascinatedRead MoreThe Modernist Period Of American Literature1155 Words   |  5 PagesOne World, Many Colors During the Modernist period of American Literature we find a common theme which is ever so prominent in multiple works of literature by numerous authors, the theme being the limitations of race and the expansion of opportunities of race. We begin to see a boom and growth in this type of literature around the 1920’s especially in the African American community through the Harlem Renaissance. Through the Harlem Renaissance we see a growth and expansion of opportunities in theRead MoreDubliners:How is it related to Modernism?1657 Words   |  7 PagesReading a modernist novel entails bearing in mind a whole new world of ideas, a quite different perspective of giving life to those ideas than other written works and certainly a new aspect of accepting those ideas as a reader. It is not easy to pinpoint modernisms roots and it is also difficult to say exactly what it expresses. However, one thing that is clearly proved in a modernist novel is the fact that there is a change in th e understanding of the human self and the interaction between charactersRead MoreIndividual and Society in Virginia Woolfs Novel quot;mrs Dallowayquot;1036 Words   |  5 PagesAccording to Viktors Ivbulis (1995: 23 - 29) in Modernist fiction a special attention is paid to an individual who degrades because of the pressure from the society and is therefore shown as a small part of the society being unable to do miracles. Moreover, the 20th centurys fight for the power makes the rights of an individual be dependent on the rights of the society. This individual is not a personality anymore that was established in the 19th century literature. It is a simple person, who is depressedRead MoreModernism Vs. Modernist Modernism1335 Words   |  6 Pagesdiscovered that modernist literature is greatly rooted in the philosophical movement of modernism that took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This was a movement that centered on the heightened awareness of the sel f. The atrocities and shock factors of World War I greatly contributed to the development of modernist thought. There began a significant focus on the self-conscious. For example, the stream of consciousness novel became a frequently used form of literature. In fact