Movements in Literature
Renaissance/Early-Modern Period: 14th century (modern european history)
Introduced elements of:
Scientific revolution
Artistic Transformation
Religious Reform
Other elements introduced:
Renaissance (Meaning)
A rebirth of classical learning and knowledge through the rediscovery of ancient texts
A rebirth of European culture in general
Rebirth (Rinascita)
Rediscovery of ancient classical
texts and learning and their applications in the arts and sciences.
The results of these intellectual activities created a revitalization of
European culture in general.
Romanticism: 18th century (western Europe)
Introduced elements of:
Stressed strong emotion
Individual imagination as a critical authority
Overturning of previous social conventions,
particularly the position of the aristocracy
Elevation of the achievements
of what it perceived as heroic individuals and artists.
Romaticism strongly valued:
- Foreign/Unfamiliar locations and the distant past
- Old poetical forms
American Transcendentalism: 1836 to 1860. (a philosophical and literary movement in New England) IV
Writers of that time
A small group of intellectuals who were
reacting against the orthodoxy of Calvinism and the rationalism of the Unitarian Church
Which lead them to develop instead their own faith centering on the divinity of humanity and the natural world.
Movement seeking a new spiritual and intellectual vitality, transcendentalism had a great impact on American literature and on such diverse authors as Hawthorne, Melville.
Inspiration from:
Idealistic concepts from romantic German philosophy
Mystical aspects were partly influenced by Indian and Chinese religious teachings.
The beliefs that God is in each person and in nature and
that individual intuition is the highest source of knowledge led to an optimistic emphasis on individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of traditional authority.
Introduced elements of:
Questions of theology and philosophy
- Contained papers on art - Music - Literature, mostly German literature; translations from ancient “Oriental Scriptures”; original modern “scriptures” in the form of Alcott’s Orphic Sayings; and finally, a good deal of verse.
Inspired the Suffragette Movement
Inspired Antislavery/Abolitionist Movements
Inspired utopian/social experiment movements
Enlightenment/Age of Reason: 18th Century (European philosophy)
Writers of that time
Were driven by the belief that their
purpose was to lead the world toward progress and out of irrationality, superstition, and tyranny (cruel and oppressive government)
Thought of themselves as courageous and elite.
: Introduced elements of
Historical intellectual movement
The American and French Revolution
The Latin American independence movement
The Polish Constitution of May 3
Leading to the birth of socialism
Other elements introduced
Classical eras in music
The neoclassical period in the arts (Western cultural movement)
Realism/Naturalism: 19th century (cultural movement in France)
: Introduced elements of
Depiction of fact or reality, rather than imaginary subjects
A Movement in theater, film, and literature that seeks to
replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to
Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic idealistic, or even supernatural treatment.
Writers of that time
Realism seeks only to describe
subjects as they really are, naturalism also attempts to determine "scientifically" the underlying forces (i.e. the environment or heredity)
Before most believed that one's heredity and surroundings decide one's character. (Freud's mentality vs the other psychologists theory)
Post-Modernism:
: Introduced elements of
Both modern and postmodern literature represent a break from 19th century realism, in which a story was told from an objective or
omniscient point of view.
In character development, both modern and
postmodern literature explore: subjectivism, turning from external reality to examine inner states of consciousness, in many cases drawing on modernist.
Literature of this era does not set
itself against modern literature as much as it develops and extends the style,
making it selfconscious and ironic.
There's shift in the
role of the "inner narrative of the self," from the self at war with itself to the self
as arbiter, pointing to the phenomenological roots of postmodern thought.
Modernism: 1900 to 1940
: Introduced elements of
Concepts as disjointed timelines.
Distinguished by emancipatory metanarrative
Culture became politically important.
Reject the subject of Cartesian dualism
Collapse narrative into a collection of disjointed fragments and overlapping voices.
Stream of consciousness writing
Writers of that time
Attempt to move from realist literature to introduce concepts as disjointed timelines.
Contemporary metanarratives were failing with World War I, the rise of trade unionism, and ageneral discontent.
Reaction to the emergence of city life as a central force in society.
Revolutionist of that period :
Enlightenment. Artists of the Age of Reason/Enlightenment: in Literature: Benjamin Franklin, Voltaire, Thomas Jefferson, Diderot, Spinoza, Thomas Paine
Revolutionist of that period :
Artists of of Romanticism in Literature: Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, Blake, Keats,
Tennyson, Longfellow, Browning.
Revolutionist of that period :
Artists of the Renaissance in Literature: Boccaccio, Petrarch, Dante, Erasmus,
Shakespeare, More, Marlowe, Machiavelli, Rabelais
Literary techniques introduced :
Introduced concepts as disjointed timelines.
Changed realist literature into concepts as disjointed timelines.
The absence of a central, heroic figure
Rejecting the solipsism of Romantics
Reject the subject of Cartesian dualism & Collapse narrative into a collection of disjointed fragments and overlapping voices.
Going beyond the limitations of the realist novel & Stream of consciousness writing
Factors of social or historical change
Politically important in litterature
Marked pessimism, a clear rejection of the optimism apparent in Victorian literature.
"a common motif in modernist fiction is that of an alienated individual, dysfunctional individual trying in vain to make sense of a predominantly urban
and fragmented society".
Both modern and postmodern literature represent a break
from 19th century realism, in which a story was told from an objective or
omniscient point of view.
In character development, both modern and
postmodern literature explore: subjectivism, turning from external reality to examine inner states of consciousness, in many cases drawing on modernist.
Hierarchy Mastery
Revolutionist of that period :
Artists of Modernism in Literature: T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, Virginia Wolf, James Joyce, George Orwell,
Literary techniques introduced :
Characterized by a focus on belief and piety
Attempted to use rationalism to demonstrate the existence of a supreme being.
-Analyze the natural philosophy and ethics - Political theories of the age.
At the time Piety and Belief were used to :
-Empirical philosophical ideas in applied it to political economy
government sciences (physics, chemistry and biology.)
Literary techniques introduced :
Stress and Strong Emotion
Trepidation, awe, and horror as aesthetic experiences
Introduction to Adrenaline Rush like while reading Horror
Individual imagination as a critical authority
Which allows freedom within or from classical notions of form in art
Overturning of previous social conventions,
particularly the position of the aristocracy
Old Poetic Forms
Ballads were revalued Ruins were sentimentalized as iconic of the action of Nature on the works of men. and mythic and legendary material (use to be seen as "low" until this era where it was seen as "high" litterary)