‘Modernism’, in a broader sense, is
modern thought, character, or practice breaking away from the rules, traditions and existing ways of
writing practiced by earlier authors before the 20th century. In
art, modernism breaks away with the ideology of realism and makes use of
past through the use of flashback, recapitulation, and incorporation. This
rebellious attitude flourishes between 1900 and 1930 has, as its basis, the
rejection of European culture for having become too corrupt and artificial. This dissatisfaction with the moral
bankruptcy of everything European led modern thinkers and artists to explore
other alternatives, especially primitive cultures. In literature, ‘modernism’
grows out as a reaction to realism and naturalism. Generally literary texts
after World War I as well as belonging the above qualities are considered as
modern text.
Characteristics
of Modernism:
Modernism marks a strong and
intentional break with tradition and it is also related to politics, religion
etc.. Though modernism becomes prominent after traditionalism so knowing the
difference between these two ‘ism’ is important. Traditionalism, which is based
on tradition, is a dominant way of life,, There are always pre-determined
rules, explanations for people and their life in traditionalism. Objectivism is
another important point in traditionalism. There is one truth for everything in
traditionalism. High class people are more important than middle or low class
people in traditionalism because it gives importance for elevated style. On the
other hand, as modernism is a break with tradition, so this break includes a
strong reaction against established religious, political, and social views.
According to modernism, there is no such thing as absolute truth. All things
are relative. Another thing, where in traditionalism objectivism is an
important point, modernism gives importance to subjectivism.
Championship of the individual
through the celebration of inner strength is one of the most prominent
characteristics of modernism and in this regard it differs from realism. This ‘
inner strength’ of the individual is expressed through four literary ‘isms’- subjectivism,
impressionalism, expressionalism and surrealism. Realism attempts to portray
external objects and events as the common or middle class people see them in
every day life, impressionalism tries to portray the psychological impression
that these objects and events make on characters, emphasizing the role of
individual perception and exploring the nature of conscious and subconscious
mind. Whereas realism attempts to portray external objects and events,
expressionalism tries to explain the inner vision, emotion or spiritual
reality. Whereas, realism attempts to portray external objects and events as
they are verisimilituded, surrealism tries to liberal the subconscious to see
connection overlooked by the logical mind.
Modernism
in Literary texts:
In literature, Literary Modernism
has its origins in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mainly in Europe and
North America. The period of high modernism is twenty years from 1910 to 1930.
Some of the high priests of the movement in literature are T.S. Eliot, James
Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Wallace Stevens, Franz Kafka etc.. The characteristics
of the literary modernism that are followed by these writers are given below:
First of all, a new emphasis on
impressionalism and subjectivism, that we mentioned earlier, which focus on how we see rather what we see. In this regard a new literary technique, stream of
consciousness’, is employed by James Joyce and his followers such as Virginia
Woolf in their writings. Then, regarding narrative technique modernist literary
texts are away from the apparent objectivity provided by such features as:
omniscient external narration, fixed narrative point of view. However, language
is also an important device of modernism to differentiate a literary text from
other texts. In modern literary text emphasizes on colloquial language rather
than formal language. Finally, a new
liking for fragmented forms, discontinuous narratives are obvious in modernist
literary texts. For example- Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, The Waste
Land by T.S. Eliot are superb example of fragmented forms.
Thus,
modernism originated from the corruption, decadence and frustrations in the
post-war psyche of the western people marks off from the previous literary
tradition that got reduced to cold formalism and traditionalism.