Modernism in Literature

In 1924, Virginia Woolf wrote, “On or about December 1910 human

nature changed. All human relations shifted, and when human
relations change there is at the same time a change in religion,
conduct, politics and literature.” It was an era of turbulence, socio-
political changes and the beginning of a new world order in global
politics and word order in literature and arts.
Modernism thus designates a broad literary and cultural movement that
spanned all of the arts and even spilled into politics and philosophy. It
was the fear of an impending war that dominated the first decades of the
20th century. The publication of Origin of Species in 1859 marked the
erosion of religious belief simultaneous with the rise of new
technologies. The foundations of Christianity were shaken and Nietzsche
made his controversial statement, “God is dead, we have killed him”.
A change over from an agrarian society to the industrial resulted in the
destabilization of moral values resulting in a state of acute identity crisis
depicted in “the heap of broken images” in The Waste Land. Modernism
marks a break in the Renaissance tradition of Humanism and rejects the
centrality of the human subject/author, the notion of a permanent reality,
and the belief in the perennial significance and meanings of the literary
text established with the invention of printing.
The literature of the modern period has its roots in the literature of
Europe and grows out of a reaction to Realism and Naturalism. As a
reaction against Realism and Naturalism, some critics see in Modernism
at least four “isms” or literary movements that make up the literature of
the Modern era: impressionism, expressionism, surrealism, and
nihilism. Realism attempted to portray external objects and events, as
the common or middle class man sees them in everyday life,
impressionism tries to portray the psychological impressions these
objects and events make on characters, emphasizing the role of
individual perception and exploring the nature of the conscious and
unconscious mind. Realism tried to focus on these external objects and
events, expressionism tried to express the inner vision, the inner
emotion, or the inner spiritual reality that seem more important than the
external realities of objects and events. Realism focused on external
objects and events as they are, surrealism tried to liberate the
subconscious, to see connections overlooked by the logical mind, to
deny the supreme authority of rationality and so portray objects and
events as they seem rather than as they are. Whereas Realism tried to
show the supreme importance of rationality and reason, absurdist tried
to duplicate in literature the absurd conditions of contemporary life:
nameless millions dying in wars, commonplace horrors such as
Holocaust, a world in which mankind afloat in a chartless and
unknowable world void of spiritual centre, the ultimate absurd
circumstances in which contemporary humankind found itself.
Modernist literature did not employ continuous narratives, fixed points
of view and clear cut moral positions. It employed the technical qualities
like paradox and ambiguity praised by the New Critics. Writers like EE
Cummings and TS Eliot wrote prosaic poetry while Virginia Woolf and
DH Lawrence wrote poetic prose.
Themes of Modernism
Alienation
The era of modernist literature is one that is associated with the side of
life that every person experiences, but doesn’t really understand. One of
the dominant features of modernism is a feeling of alienation or
estrangement. This often is a feeling of being alone in the universe that
one lives in. When this happens, there are no community feelings or any
sense of belonging, not only does this theme cause the characters to be
lonely, but many times it makes them angry or depressed.
Doubt
A second theme that shows up in most modern literature is doubt. It may
be disbelief in religion, in happiness, or simply a lack of purpose and
doubt in the value of human life.
Search for truth
Finally, a third theme that is prevalent is a search for the truth. The
alienated character asks why and seeks answers regarding human
subjectivity. All of these themes that are found in modernism are a result
of the identity of a person. The identity can be a combination of
language, economic class, gender, race, and where one lives. These three
themes can be seen in several of the works of literature.

Modern Language and Style

Those pieces of literature we call Modern often use images and symbols
as typical and frequent literary techniques. There is a use of colloquial
language. They use language in a very self-conscious way, seeing
language as a technique for crafting the piece of literature just as an
artist crafts a piece of art like a sculpture or a painting. Language for
Modernists is a special medium that influences what that piece of
literature can do or can be.

Characteristics of Modernism
Individualism
In Modernist literature, the individual is more interesting than society.
Specifically, modernist writers were fascinated with how the individual
adapted to the changing world. In some cases, the individual triumphed
over obstacles. For the most part, Modernist literature featured
characters who just kept their heads above water. Writers presented the
world or society as a challenge to the integrity of their characters. Ernest
Hemingway is especially remembered for vivid characters who accepted
their circumstances at face value and persevered.
Experimentation
Modernist writers broke free of old forms and techniques. Poets
abandoned traditional rhyme schemes and wrote in free verse. Novelists
defied all expectations. Writers mixed images from the past with modern
languages and themes, creating a collage of styles. The inner workings
of consciousness were a common subject for modernists. This
preoccupation led to a form of narration called stream of consciousness,
where the point of view of the novel meanders in a pattern resembling
human thought. Authors James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, along with
poets T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, are well known for their experimental
Modernist works.
Absurdity
The carnage of two World Wars profoundly affected writers of the
period. Several great English poets died or were wounded in WWI. At
the same time, global capitalism was reorganizing society at every level.
For many writers, the world was becoming a more absurd place every
day. The mysteriousness of life was being lost in the rush of daily life.
The senseless violence of WWII was yet more evidence that humanity
had lost its way. Modernist authors depicted this absurdity in their
works. Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," in which a traveling
salesman is transformed into an insect-like creature, is an example of
modern absurdist works.
Symbolism
The Modernist writers infused objects, people, places and events with
significant meanings. They imagined a reality with multiple layers,
many of them hidden or in a sort of code. The idea of a poem as a riddle
to be cracked had its beginnings in the Modernist period. Symbolism
was not a new concept in literature, but the Modernists' particular use of
symbols was an innovation. They left much more to the reader's
imagination than earlier writers, leading to open-ended narratives with
multiple interpretations. For example, James Joyce's "Ulysses"
incorporates distinctive, open-ended symbols in each chapter.

Fragmented Structure
Prior to the 20th century, literature tended to be structured in linear,
chronological order. Twentieth century writers experimented with other
kinds of structures. Virginia Woolf, for instance, wrote novels whose
main plot was often "interrupted" by individual characters' memories,
resulting in a disorienting experience for the reader. Ford Madox Ford's
classic "The Good Soldier" plays with chronology, jumping back and
forth between time periods. Many of these writers aimed to imitate the
feeling of how time is truly experienced subjectively.
The Novel of the City
The 20th century is distinguished as the century of urbanism. As more
people moved to cities in Europe and America, novelists used urban
environments as backdrops for the stories they told. Perhaps the best
known of these is James Joyce's "Dubliners," a series of short stories that
all take place in various locales in Dublin. Other 20th century writers are
also closely associated with various urban centers: Woolf and London,
Theodore Dreiser and Chicago, Paul Auster and New York, Michael
Ondaatje and Toronto.
Writing from the Margins
The 20th century gave voice to marginalized people who previously got
little recognition for their literary contributions. The Harlem
Renaissance, for example, brought together African-Americans living in
New York to form a powerful literary movement. Writers such as
Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen and Zora Neale Hurston wrote fiction
and poetry that celebrated black identity. Similarly, female writers
gained recognition through novels that chronicled their own experience.
Finally, the post-colonial literary movement was born, with writers such
as Chinua Achebe writing stories on behalf of subjugated peoples who
had experienced colonization by Western powers.