List of literary

movements

Literary movements are a way to divide literature into categories of similar philosophical, topical,
or aesthetic features, as opposed to divisions by genre or period. Like other categorizations,
literary movements provide language for comparing and discussing literary works. These terms
are helpful for curricula or anthologies.[1]

Some of these movements (such as Dada and Beat) were defined by the members themselves,
while other terms (for example, the metaphysical poets) emerged decades or centuries after the
periods in question. Further, some movements are well defined and distinct, while others, like
expressionism, are nebulous and overlap with other definitions. Because of these differences,
literary movements are often a point of contention between scholars.[1]

The list …

This is a list of modern literary movements: that is, movements after the Renaissance. Ordering
is approximate, as there is considerable overlap.
 Notable
Movement Description
authors

Richard
17th-century English royalist poets, writing primarily about Lovelace,
Cavalier Poets
courtly love, called Sons of Ben (after Ben Jonson) William
Davenant

John Donne,
Metaphysical 17th-century English movement using extended conceit, George
poets often (though not always) about religion. Herbert,
Andrew Marvell

Eliza Haywood,
Romantic fiction popular around 1660 to 1730; notable for
Delarivier
Amatory fiction preceding the modern novel form and producing several
Manley, Aphra
prominent female authors[2]
Behn

Alexander
18th-century literary movement based chiefly on classical
The Augustans Pope,
ideals, satire and skepticism
Jonathan Swift

A precursor to the romantic movement, Sturm und Drang Johann

is named for a play by Friedrich Maximilian Klinger. Sturm Wolfgang von
Sturm und Drang and Drang literature often features a protagonist which is Goethe,
driven by emotion, impulse and other motives that run Friedrich
counter to the enlightenment rationalism.[3][4] Schiller

Mary Shelley,
Victor Hugo,
Lord Byron,
19th-century (1800 to 1860) movement emphasizing
Camilo Castelo
Romanticism emotion and imagination, rather than logic and scientific
Branco, Adam
thought. Response to the Enlightenment
Mickiewicz,
José de
Alencar

Dark romanticism 19th-century American movement in reaction to Edgar Allan

Transcendentalism. Finds man inherently sinful and self- Poe, Nathaniel
destructive and nature a dark, mysterious force Hawthorne,
Herman
 Melville, Edwin
Arlington
Robinson

Washington
Distinct from European Romanticism, the American form
Irving,
emerged somewhat later, was based more in fiction than
American Nathaniel
in poetry, and incorporated a (sometimes almost
Romanticism Hawthorne,
suffocating) awareness of history, particularly the darkest
Ambrose
aspects of American history
Bierce

Ann Radcliffe,
Bram Stoker,
Fiction in which Romantic ideals are combined with an
Gothic novel Harper Lee,
interest in the supernatural and in violence
Edgar Allan
Poe

William
Wordsworth,
A group of Romantic poets from the English Lake District
Lake Poets Samuel Taylor
who wrote about nature and the sublime
Coleridge,
Robert Southey

Dante Gabriel
19th-century, primarily English movement based
Rossetti,
Pre-Raphaelitism ostensibly on undoing innovations by the painter Raphael.
Christina
Many were both painters and poets
Rossetti

Ralph Waldo
19th-century American movement: poetry and philosophy
Emerson,
Transcendentalism concerned with self-reliance, independence from modern
Henry David
technology
Thoreau

Realism Late-19th-century movement based on a simplification of Gustave

style and image and an interest in poverty and everyday Flaubert,
concerns William Dean
Howells,
Stendhal,
Honoré de
Balzac, Leo
Tolstoy, Fyodor
 Dostoevsky,
Frank Norris,
Eça de Queiroz,
Machado de
Assis

Émile Zola,
Stephen Crane,
Guy de
Late 19th century. Proponents of this movement believe
Naturalism Maupassant,
heredity and environment control people
Theodore
Dreiser, Aluísio
Azevedo

Verismo is a derivative of naturalism and realism that Giovanni Verga,

began in post-unification Italy. Verismo literature uses Luigi Capuana,
Verismo
detailed character development based on psychology, in Matilde Serao,
Giovanni Verga's words 'the science of the human heart.[5]' Grazia Deledda

Maxim Gorky,
Socialist realism is a subset of realist art which focuses Nikolai
on communist values and realist depiction.[6] It developed Ostrovsky,
in the Soviet Union and was imposed as state policy by Mikhail
Socialist realism
Joseph Stalin in 1934,[7] though authors in other socialist Sholokhov, Lu
countries and members of the communist party in non- Xun, Takiji
socialist counties also partook in the movement Kobayashi,
Mike Gold

Gabriel García
Márquez,
Octavio Paz,
Literary movement in which magical elements appear in
Günter Grass,
Magical realism otherwise realistic circumstances. Most often associated
Julio Cortázar,
with the Latin American literary boom of the 20th century
Sadegh
Hedayat, Malay
Roy Choudhury

Decadent In the mid 19th century, decadence came to refer to moral Joris-Karl
movement decay, and was attributed as the cause of the fall of great Huysmans,
civilizations, like the Roman empire. The decadent Gustav
 movement was a response to the perceived decadence Flaubert,
within the earlier Romantic, naturalist and realist Charles
movements in France at this time.[8] The decadent Baudelaire,
movement takes decadence in literature to an extreme, Oscar Wilde
with characters who debase themselves for pleasure,[9]
and the use of metaphor, symbolism and language as
tools to obfuscate the truth rather than expose it[10]

Stéphane
Principally French movement of the fin de siècle,
Mallarmé,
symbolism is codified by the Symbolist Manifesto in 1886,
Arthur
Symbolism and focused on the structure of thought rather than poetic
Rimbaud, Paul
form or image;[11] influential for English language poets
Valéry, Cruz e
from Edgar Allan Poe to James Merrill
Sousa

Filippo
Codified in 1909 by the Manifesto of Futurism, futurism
Tommaso
avoids being intellectual and using fixed syntax or style,
Futurism Marinetti, Mina
makes use of irony and analogy, and is to be written
Loy, Jaroslav
intuitively or from inspiration[12]
Seifert

Early-20th-century fiction consisting of literary

Stream of Virginia Woolf,
representations of quotidian thought, without authorial
consciousness James Joyce
presence

Ezra Pound, T.
S. Eliot, H.D.,
James Joyce,
Gertrude Stein,
Variegated movement of the early 20th century, Fernando
Modernism encompassing primitivism, formal innovation, or reaction Pessoa, Knut
to science and technology Hamsun, Mário
de Andrade,
João
Guimarães
Rosa

Expressionism Part of the larger expressionist movement, literary and Franz Kafka,
theatrical expressionism is an avant-garde movement Alfred Döblin,
Gottfried
 originating in Germany, which rejects realism in order to Benn,[13]
depict emotions and subjective thoughts[13] Heinrich Mann,
Oskar
Kokoschka

Ezra Pound,
Poetry based on description rather than theme, and on the
Imagism H.D., Richard
motto, "the natural object is always the adequate symbol."
Aldington

Siegfried
First World War British poets who documented both the idealism and the Sassoon,
Poets horrors of the war and the period in which it took place Rupert Brooke,
Wilfred Owen

The term 'Lost Generation' is traditionally attributed to F. Scott

Gertrude Stein and was then popularized by Ernest Fitzgerald,
Hemingway in the epigraph to his novel The Sun Also Ernest
The Lost Rises, and his memoir A Moveable Feast. It refers to a Hemingway,
Generation group of American literary notables who lived in Paris and Ezra Pound,
other parts of Europe from the time period which saw the Waldo Pierce,
end of World War I to the beginning of the Great John Dos
Depression Passos

Kurt
Touted by its proponents as anti-art, dada focused on
Dada Schwitters,
going against artistic norms and conventions
Subimal Mishra

Manuel Maples
Mexican artistic avant-garde movement. They exalted Arce, Arqueles
Stridentism
modern urban life and social revolution Vela, Germán
List Arzubide

A Mexican vanguardist group, active in the late 1920s and

Xavier
Los early 1930s; published an eponymous literary magazine
Villaurrutia,
Contemporáneos which served as the group's mouthpiece and artistic
Salvador Novo
vehicle from 1928 to 1931

African American poets, novelists, and thinkers, often Langston

Harlem
employing elements of blues and folklore, based in the Hughes, Zora
Renaissance
Harlem neighborhood of New York City in the 1920s Neale Hurston

Jindyworobak The Jindyworobak movement originated in Adelaide, Rex Ingamells,

 movement South Australia during the great depression. It sought to Xavier Herbert
preserve uniquely Australian culture from external
influence by incorporating Australian aboriginal languages
and mythology and unique Australian settings[14][15]

Jean Cocteau,
José María
Originally a French movement, influenced by Surrealist
Hinojosa
painting, that uses surprising images and transitions to
Surrealism Lasarte, André
play off of formal expectations and depict the
Breton, Sadegh
unconscious rather than conscious mind
Hedayat, Mário
Cesariny

A group of Southern American poets, based originally at

John Crowe
Vanderbilt University, who expressly repudiated many
Ransom,
Southern Agrarians modernist developments in favor of metrical verse and
Robert Penn
narrative. Some Southern Agrarians were also associated
Warren
with the New Criticism

Jorge Luis
Borges,
Thomas
Postwar movement skeptical of absolutes and embracing Pynchon,
Postmodernism
diversity, irony, and word play Alasdair Gray,
Samir
Roychoudhury,
Kurt Vonnegut

The absurdist movement is derived from absurdist Jean-Paul

philosophy, which argues that life is inherently Sartre, Samuel
Absurdism purposeless and questions truth and value. As such, Beckett, Albert
asburdist literature and theatre of the absurd often Camus, Gao
includes dark humor, satire, and incongruity.[16] Xingjian

Charles Olson,
A self-identified group of poets, originally based at Black
Black Mountain Denise
Mountain College, who eschewed patterned form in favor
Poets Levertov,
of the rhythms and inflections of the human voice
Robert Creeley

Postcolonialism A diverse, loosely connected movement of writers from Jamaica

former colonies of European countries, whose work is Kincaid, V. S.
 frequently politically charged Naipaul, Derek
Walcott,
Salman
Rushdie,
Giannina
Braschi, Wole
Soyinka,
Chinua Achebe

Shakti
Chattopadhyay,
Malay Roy
Choudhury,
Binoy
A literary movement in postcolonial India (Kolkata) during
Majumdar,
Hungryalist Poets 1961–65 as a counter-discourse to Colonial Bengali
Samir
poetry
Roychoudhury,
Debi Roy,
Sandipan
Chattopadhyay,
Subimal Basak

This ongoing movement launched in 1969 based in

Calcutta, by the Prakalpana group of Indian writers in Vattacharja
Prakalpana
Bengali literature, who created new forms of Prakalpana Chandan, Dilip
Movement
fiction, Sarbangin poetry and the philosophy of Gupta
Chetanavyasism, later it had spread worldwide

Jack Kerouac,
Allen Ginsberg,
American movement of the 1950s and 1960s concerned William S.
Beat poets
with counterculture and youthful alienation. Burroughs, Ken
Kesey, Gregory
Corso

Spoken Word A postmodern literary movement where writers use their Spalding Gray,
speaking voice to present fiction, poetry, monologues, and Laurie
storytelling arising from Beat poetry, the Harlem Anderson,
Renaissance, and the civil rights movement in the urban Hedwig Gorski,
 centers of the United States.[17] The textual origins differ Pedro Pietri,
and may have been written for print initially then read Piri Thomas,
aloud for audiences Giannina
Braschi,
Taalam Acey

This is the lasting viral component of Spoken Word and

one of the most popular forms of poetry in the 21st
century. It is a new oral poetry originating in the 1980s in
Austin, Texas, using the speaking voice and other
theatrical elements. Practitioners write for the speaking Beau Sia,
voice instead of writing poetry for the silent printed page. Hedwig Gorski,
Performance The major figure is American Hedwig Gorski who began Bob Holman,
Poetry broadcasting live radio poetry with East of Eden Band Marc Smith,
during the early 1980s. Gorski, considered a post-Beat, David Antin,
created the term Performance Poetry to define and Taalam Acey
distinguish what she and the band did from performance
art. Instead of books, poets use audio recordings and
digital media along with television spawning Slam Poetry
and Def Poets on television and Broadway

Robert Lowell,
Confessional Poetry that, often brutally, exposes the self as part of an
Sylvia Plath,
poetry aesthetic of the beauty and power of human frailty
Alicia Ostriker

Urban, gay or gay-friendly, leftist poets, writers, and Frank O'Hara,

New York School
painters of the 1960s John Ashbery

Raymond
Queneau,
Mid-20th-century poetry and prose based on seemingly
Oulipo Walter Abish,
arbitrary rules for the sake of added challenge
Georges Perec,
Italo Calvino

René
A literary movement founded in the late 1960s by René
Philoctète,
Philoctète, Jean-Claude Fignolé, and Frankétienne.
Spiralism Jean-Claude
Spiralism defines life at the level of relations (colors,
Fignolé,
odors, sounds, signs, words) and historical connections
Frankétienne

Misty Poets The Misty Poets were Chinese poets who resisted state Bei Dao, Gu
 artistic restrictions imposed during the Cultural Cheng, Shu
Revolution. They made use of metaphors and hermetic Ting, Yang Lian
imagery and avoided objective facts.[18]

The New Wave is a movement in science fiction produced John Brunner,

in the 1960s and 1970s and characterized by a high M. John
degree of experimentation, both in form and in content, a Harrison,
"literary" or artistic sensibility, and a focus on "soft" as Norman
New Wave science
opposed to hard science. New Wave writers often saw Spinrad,
fiction
themselves as part of the modernist tradition and Barrington J.
sometimes mocked the traditions of pulp science fiction, Bayley,
which some of them regarded as stodgy, adolescent and Thomas M.
poorly written.[19] Disch

Molly Peacock,
A late-20th and early 21st century movement in American Brad
New Formalism poetry advocating a return to traditional accentual-syllabic Leithauser,
verse Timothy Steele,
Mary Jo Salter

Augusto de
The Concrete poetry was an avant-garde movement
Campos,
started in Brazil during the 50s, characterized for
Concrete poetry Haroldo de
extinguishing the general conception of poetry, creating a
Campos, Décio
new language called ''verbivocovisual''.
Pignatari

References

1. Milne, Ira Mark (2009). Literary Movements for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on
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3. Leidner, Alan C. Sturm Und Drang: The German Library. 14. New York: The Continuum Publishing
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4. "Sturm und Drang". Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster,
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 5. Giger, Andreas (August 2007). "Verismo: Origin, Corruption, and Redemption of an Operatic Term".
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. Korin, Pavel, “Thoughts on Art”, Socialist Realism in Literature and Art. Progress Publishers, Moscow,
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9. Huneker, James (1909). Egoists, a Book of Supermen: Stendhal, Baudelaire, Flaubert, Anatole France,
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3/03/the-differences-between-symbolism-and-decadence/) . Oscar Wilde and the French Decadents.
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1 . Cornwell, Neil (2006), The Absurd in Literature, New York, NY: Manchester University Press, ISBN 978-0-
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