Modernism and Postmodernism

Modernism and Post-Modernism

Modernism

Modernism is the name given to the movement which dominated the Arts and Culture of the first half of the 20th Century. It was almost like a revolution that brought down the structure of the pre-20th Century practices in Art and literature. Certain fundamental elements of practice were challenged and rejected. Notable writers of this period include T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Kafka and others.

Some important characteristics of Modernism:

1. There was an emphasis on impressionalism and subjectivity, i.e., an importance was given to how we see things rather than what we see.

2. It was an experiment in recording experience. For example - different features were incorporated in the writing of a literary text, like different narratives in one genre. This experimentation was called avant-garde.

3. A blurring of the distinctions between genres, so that novels tend to more lyrical and poetic, and poems to be very documentary and prose-like.

4. There was a new liking for fragmented forms, discontinuous narrative and random seeming collages of disparate materials.

5. A tendency towards reflexivity towards the plays and novels raise issues concerning their own nature, status and role. The language they used was self- reflexive.

The overall result of these shifts is to produce a literature which seems dedicated to experimentation and innovation.

Post-Modernism

After the II World War, there came upon the scene a term like "Post-Modernism." J.A. Cuddon, in his 'Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory' describes Post-Modernism as an "eclectic approach with a liking for aleatory writing, parody and pastiche.' But this definition does not bring out the difference between Modernism and Post-Modernism. The term 'eclectic' means the use of fragmented forms. The term 'aleatory forms' means those which incorporate an element of randomness or chance. Finally, the use of 'parody and pastiche' means an abandonment of the divine pretensions of authorship implicit in the narratorial stance. So according to this view, Modernism and Post-Modernism are sequential in order.

Another view by Jeremy Hawthorne in 'Concise Glossary of Contemporary Literary Theory' says both periods give great importance to fragmentation which was a feature of the 20th century Art and Culture. But they do so in different ways. The Modernist features it in such a way as to register a deep nostalgia for an earlier age when fate was full and authority intact. Literature of this phase mirrors a tone of lament, pessimism

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