What is Modernism In Literature?

Uswa Zaheer
3 min readSep 7, 2021

The modern age is another term for modernism. It flourished in the twentieth century. It is the opposite of the Victorian era. It is a response to World War One. It is also known as the Age of War and the Age of depression.

  1. Major works: Poetry, short stories, and novels were the movement’s works.
  2. Discoveries: There have been several discoveries in science, psychology, painting, architecture, and art.
  3. Class Difference: There is a huge class difference between the rich and the poor.
  4. Cultural Values and Beliefs: Everything in this movement, including cultural values and beliefs, was questioned. Even God’s existence It is even questioned whether God exists.
  5. Vote: For the first time in history, This movement gave women the right to vote.
  6. Art: Modernism was the first artistic movement.

Imagism:

Modernism is the forerunner of Imagism. It began in 1912. It is known as the “contemporary poetry grammar school.” Poetry and short stories are works of Imagism. Ezra Pound, Hilda Doolittle, Amy Lowell, and William Carlos were among the prominent poets.

SYMBOLISM:

Symbolism is not a new concept, but it is a modernist innovation. In “To the Lighthouse,” for example, Virginia Woolf used symbolism such as a window, which represents a flaw in understanding, and a lighthouse, which represents strength, bravery, and majesty.

Figures of This Movement:

  1. James Joyce:

James Joyce, an Irish novelist, created the term “anti-hero” in literature. Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man are famous works. He used a technique known as “stream of consciousness.”

2. Virginia Woolf:

Virginia was a novelist who focused on novels. She is known as a feminist. She published an essay about their professions. She uses the technique of stream of consciousness in literary work.

3. Ezra Pound:

Poet Ezra Pound wrote poetry. He gave the theory to make it new. In a Metro Station, The Cantos, and Abc of Reading are some of his literary works.

Features of Modernism:

  1. Modernist poets write about new topics and issues,
  2. Work creative and distinctive.
  3. There was an industrial revolution, as well as technological advancements.
  4. Stream-of-consciousness technique
  5. To use an inner monologue.
  6. In literary work, there was no chronological order.
  7. Cultural values and beliefs have changed.
  8. Care for nature.
  9. It distinguishes new literary forms, concepts, and styles.

To conclude, the literary movement modernism has discussed in this article in which there is development in every field. Its work differs from those of past literary works. It positively affects writing.

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Uswa Zaheer

Freelance writer. My passion is writing. I enjoy writing on a variety of subjects and learning new concepts.