Literary Modernism between 1900 and 1945
Thesis Statement
Need to expand and experiment the boundaries of literature through modernism.
Abstract of Argument
As time goes, change becomes inevitable. The era marked the dawn of industrialization, dynamic social change, and improvements in the social sciences and sciences. Modernists felt they were left in the Victorian era of convention, morality, and optimism. The Edwardian era sparked the need to experiment on issues such as philosophy, psychology, and political theory.
Outline
Modernism literature or literary modernism is loosely defined as the literature works after the Victorian era and the dawn of the First World War (Childs n.p). Some of the modernist writers include Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera from Latin America (Mexico). Individualism and experimentation were heavily discouraged but became virtues and strongholds at the dawn of industrialization. Writers had to become more deliberate and self-conscious due to the ever-increasing horrors and shocks of the nineteenth century (Iglesias n.p). Modernist literature is based on analyzing the inner self as well as consciousness.
Ulysses by James Joyce set the pace for literary modernism through the publication of the novel in 1922. Joyce discourages the use of nature, being, and structures of history but rather confides in growing alienation of persons (Childs n.p). Just like Irish writer, Virginia Woolf is recognized for her experimental use of language and search for new literary devices. She is known to pioneer women’s writing, politic of power, and literary history. Nájera, a Latin American, was a Mexican prose writer and poet who participated in the transition of Romanticism to Modernism. Through his support, the modernist movement attempted to modernize and revitalize Spanish poetic language (Reynolds 612).
Conclusion
The horrors and shocks of the Edwardian period act as the driving force of literary modernism. Writers needed to understand the cause of wars and the sudden change of nature through industrialization and advancement in science.