Contemporary Literature

Contemporary Literature

Identify the key elements of modern or contemporary literature. Use those key elements to examine the roles of culture, gender, race, power, and/ or colonialism in any 2 texts from our readings.

Introduction

Modern literature has become undeniable in the community today. Besides, contemporary literature has become the most efficient form of expression. Each author can pen down their thoughts and opinions without fear of having to follow the traditions of writing. Contemporary literature has given the authors the authority to experiment and play along with the writing forms, styles as well as themes. The writers are currently not held back by the traditional ways of literature, and its rigid convections as modern literature has intentionally broken the tradition. Therefore, it is essential to assess and evaluate the critical elements of modern or contemporary literature. Also, it would be crucial to use the above-mentioned vital elements to examine the roles of culture, gender, race, power, and colonialism regarding contemporary literature.

Key Elements of Contemporary Literature

One of the primary elements of modern literature is the individualism aspect. Typically, the traditions of literature in ancient times focused on society. The community’s reception influenced much of how the authors expressed their ideas, opinions, and views in writing. However, in contemporary literature, the writers are more concerned with individuals rather than society in their writing themes, styles as well as forms (Vaught 58). The modern literature is a representation of the individual perspectives of the authors. The writers can express various well-defined and outlined characters that are vivid to their audience. Besides, the characters in contemporary literature are strong with real and believable stories. The stories in modern literature are concerned with personal issues as they are character-driven, indicating well-defined, realistic, and using real environments.

The other key element concerning modern literature is the aspect of experimentation. According to contemporary literature, the authors have more freedom than before to experiment with new styles of writing (McCormack, William & Stead 113). Writers are also at liberty to experiment with unique forms of writing while also bringing out various themes that could be new to the audience. Nowadays, authors and especially poets do not have to worry about following the traditional forms, techniques, and styles of writing. The current writers are free to experiment on writing styles, types, techniques, and themes as the old traditional bondage has been broken loose. Consequently, a new collage of writing styles, forms, ideas, and techniques have evolved birthing to a new stream of consciousness. The inner workings of consciousness have been evident in the modern languages and writers’ mixed images of narration.

Modern literature has the power and authority to capture any forms of absurdity in writing. The broken old writing traditions limited ancient authors on their contexts, writing formats, themes, styles, as well as techniques. Currently, writers have the freedom to report any form of absurdity in writing without fear of intimidation or even being summoned by anyone to be held answerable for their pieces of paper (Nikolajeva 20). The writers can now reflect the current political, social, and even personal views without fear of admonishment from others. Additionally, contemporary literature has contributed to the reflection on a growing skepticism regarding the existence of a deity, which is absurd. People that include both the writers and their audience have developed distrust or even have a lack of faith in traditional institutions.

In contemporary literature, the use of symbolism became more prominent among authors and popularized among the readers. The audience has been left to crack down the imaginations of the author whenever they use symbols by infusing people, objects, events, and places in their writings to bring out significant meanings. However, the symbolism element was still in existence even in ancient times, but modern literature brought about its evolution and innovation in narrations. It prompted the reader to seek to understand the deeper rather than the surface meaning like in old times.

Among the key elements of modern literature is the formalism concept. Modern authors view literature as a creative way to express their original ideas using different formats. The writers’ works in contemporary literature use foreign languages, invent words as well as dense write-in vocabulary to formulate their pieces of writing (Hayles 13). Their writing formats depict disillusionment, frustrations as well as personal cynicism.

Roles of Culture, Gender, Race, Power, and colonialism Regarding Contemporary Literature

Modernists are influenced by various factors such as culture, race, gender, or even colonialism in their pursuit of expression through modern literature. Different cultural fragmentations change the plot, themes, and even narratives resulting in cultural debris.  Typically, the culture of writing poems, stories, and other narrations is wholeness and totality. Modern literature is characterized by broken stanzas and sentences, which has now become a culture in writing.

In olden times, most authors were males that indulged in literary works. Conversely, modern literature opened doors for female writers since it broke down the strong traditions in writing intentionally (Walkowitz 32). Also, the aspect of race has been a contributing factor in propagating or demeaning contemporary literature. People of white accents have been great pioneers and propagators of modern literature and especially those of European, American, and Asian descent.

Power and authority have been considered some of the influencing factors when it comes to modern literature. Issues regarding politics, social woes, and even war have been captured vividly using contemporary literature. Also, events involving power, authority, and colonialism, such as the first and Second World War, promoted modern literature as the authors report its absurdity.

Conclusion

In summary, contemporary literature has positively changed the literary world. At least, authors can experiment with different writing styles, forms, and themes. Writers now have the liberty to report all events, even those that are absurd as a form of writing to express their thoughts, ideas, opinions, and also views.

Works Cited

Hayles, N. Katherine. Chaos bound: Orderly disorder in contemporary literature and science. Cornell University Press, 2018.

McCormack, William J., and Alistair Stead. James Joyce and Modern Literature. Routledge, 2015.

Nikolajeva, Maria. Children’s literature comes of age: toward a new aesthetic. Routledge, 2015.

Vaught, Jennifer C. Masculinity and emotion in early modern English literature. Routledge, 2016.

Walkowitz, Rebecca L. Born translated: The contemporary novel in an age of world literature. Columbia University Press, 2015.