When was the modernist period in literature

No Modernist poet has garnered more praise and attention than Thomas Stearns Eliot. Born in Missouri, T. Eliot would eventually settle in England, where he would produce some of the greatest poetry and criticism of the last century. Eliot picked up where the Imagists left off, while adding some of his own peculiar aesthetics to the mix. His principal contribution to twentieth century verse was a return to highly intellectual, allusive poetry. He looked backwards for inspiration, but he was not nostalgic or romantic about the past.

Yet even when his poetic voice sounds very colloquial, there is a current underneath, which hides secondary meanings. It is this layering of meanings and contrasting of styles that mark Modernist poetry in general and T. Eliot in particular. It is no overstatement to say that Eliot was the pioneer of the ironic mode in poetry; that is, deceptive appearances hiding difficult truths. In American Literature, the group of writers and thinkers known as the Lost Generation has become synonymous with Modernism.

In the wake of the First World War, several American artists chose to live abroad as they pursued their creative impulses. Scott Fitzgerald, and the painter Waldo Pierce, among others. The term itself refers to the spiritual and existential hangover left by four years of unimaginably destructive warfare.

The artists of the Lost Generation struggled to find some meaning in the world in the wake of chaos. For Hemingway, this meant the abandonment of all ornamental language. His novels are famous for their extremely spare, blunt, simple sentences and emotions that play out right on the surface of things.

There is an irony to this bluntness, however, as his characters often have hidden agendas, hidden sometimes even from themselves, which serve to guide their actions. All truth became relative, conditional, and in flux. The War demonstrated that no guiding spirit rules the events of the world, and that absolute destruction was kept in check by only the tiniest of margins.

The novel was by no means immune from the self-conscious, reflective impulses of the new century. Modernism introduced a new kind of narration to the novel, one that would fundamentally change the entire essence of novel writing.

At the same time, the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud had come into mainstream acceptance. Experimentation with genre and form was yet another defining characteristic of Modernist literature. They included work by people in that London group Pound, F. Flint, H. Lawrence, and Marianne Moore. World War I broke out soon after the height of Imagism.

Some poets, like Aldington, were called to serve the country, and this made the spread of Imagism difficult—as did paper shortages as a result of the war. Eventually, war poets like Wilfred Owen grew in popularity as people shifted their attention to the state of the world. After the war ended, a sense of disillusionment grew, and poems like T. This infamous poem contains various narratives and voices that change quickly from one topic to another.

This style of poetry differed greatly from the slow and focused poetry of the Imagists. Visit this link to read the poem in its entirety.

Literature scholars differ over the years that encompass the Modernist period, however most generally agree that modernist authors published as early as the s and into the mids.

During this period, society at every level underwent profound changes. War and industrialization seemed to devalue the individual. Global communication made the world a smaller place. The pace of change was dizzying. Writers responded to this new world in a variety of ways. 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. That, combined with his emotional distance, leads Lady Chatterley to have an affair with the gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors.

This affair helps Lady Chatterley realize that love requires both the mind and body to be successful. James Joyce found success with his novel Ulysses Ulysses is divided into 18 chapters, each with themes and characters relating to the Odyssey. Although women had broken into the literary arena, men still dominated the writing during this time.

One exception to this was the novelist Virginia Woolf. Woolf wrote primarily about upper-middle-class women and their responsibilities.

Her famous works include, Mrs. Her novel Mrs. Dalloway is told in a stream of consciousness, and has two separate storylines. The other narrative is about Septimus Smith, a World War I veteran suffering from hallucinations about the war.

This novel signaled a move toward radical thinking because of the undertones of homosexuality between Clarissa and a childhood friend, Sally. Katherine Mansfield is considered one of the most prominent short story writers during the Modernist period. Mansfield wrote on a number of topics including social class, familial relationships, and the social consequences that come from war. When the Burnell children are given a dollhouse, the eldest refuses to let a much poorer family see it.

When the youngest of the Burnells does not follow this classist behavior, she is rebuked. Following the lead of Victorian period writers like H.

The novel is set in a futuristic London where people are discouraged from thinking freely and are instead taught according to their role in a caste system. Huxley also anticipates developments in reproductive technology and subconscious education. Several authors writing in the modernist period would continue to write well into the post-modernist period.