***Literary Movements(12)

Christian Existentialism

It is generally agreed that existentialism derives from the thinking of Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). Kierkegaard was for the most part re-stating and elaborating upon the belief that through God and in God man may find freedom from tension and discontent and therefore find piece of mind and spiritual serenity. (Dostoyevsky' s Crime and Punishment).

Anglo-Norman Period (1100-1350)

Magna Charta, Dante's Divine Comedy

Existentialism

"pertaining to existence"; or, in logic, " predicting existence." Philosophically, it now applies to a vision of the condition and existence of man, his place and function in the world, and his relationship, or lack of one, with God.

Renaissance Classicism

(1500-1600) A movement or tendency in art, music, and literature during the Renaissance to retain the characteristics found in works originating in classical Greece and Rome. Classicism concerns itself with form, discipline, self-control, decorum, and tradition. Pastoral poems, sonnets. It suggests the unlimited human potential. (Donne, Bacon, Marlow, Shakespeare)

Atheistic Existentialism

After Kierkegaard, existential thought was greatly expanded at the beginning of the 20th century by Heidegger and Jaspers (German philosophers), whose ideas in turn influenced a large number of European philosophers. An important feature of atheistic existentialism is the argument that existence precedes essence (the reverse of most traditional forms of philosophy) for it is held that man fashions his own existence and only exists by so doing, and, in that process, and by the choice of what he does or does not do, gives essence to that existence. Jean-Paul Sartre is the epitome of modern existentialism and his version, expressed through his novels, plays and philosophical writings, is the one that has caught on and been the most widely influential. For example, in No Exit, man is born into a kind of void, a mud. He has the liberty to remain in this mud in a semi-conscious state in which he is scarcely aware of himself. However, he may come out of his subjective, passive situation, become increasingly aware of himself and conceivably, experience angst (metaphysical and moral anxiety). If so, he would then have a sense of the absurdity of his predicament and suffer despair. The energy deriving from this awareness would enable him to "drag himself out of the mud," and begin to exist. By exercising his power of choice, he can give meaning to existence and the universe. Thus, in brief, the human being is obliged to make himself what he is and has to be what he is (Samuel Beckett and Albert Camus)

Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period (428-1100)

Beowulf

Middle English Period (1350-1500)

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

Modernism

Modernism attempted to capture the essence of modern life in the 20th century in both form and the content of their wok. The uncertainty, bewilderment, and apparent meaninglessness of modern life are common themes in literature. These themes are generally implied, rather than directly stated, to reflect a sense of uncertainty and to enable readers to draw their own conclusions. Stories and novels are structured to reflect the fragmentation and uncertainty of human experience. The typical modern story or novel seems to begin arbitrarily and to end without resolution, leaving the reader with possibilities and ambiguities, not solutions. Subgroups include: Symbolism, impressionism, post-impressionism, futurism, constructivism, imagism, vorticism, expressionism, dada and surrealism) (Ellison's Invisible Man; Joyce's Ulysses; Conrad's Heart of Darkness; Faulkner's As I Lay Dying)

Transcendentalism--

Transcendentalism was an American literary and philosophical movement of the 19th century. The Transcendentalists, who were based in New England, believe d that intuition and the individual conscience "transcend " experience and thus are better guides to truth than are the senses and logical reason. Transcendentalists respected the individual spirit and the natural world and believed that divinity was present everywhere, in nature and in each person. This last notion of an omnipresent divinity, or Over-Soul, shows the influence on Transcendentalism of the Hindu religion and of the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swendenborg. (Emerson, Thoreau)

Realism

is the presentation in art of the details of actual life. Realism was also a literary movement that began during the 19th century and stressed the actual as opposed to the imagined or the fanciful. The Realists tried to write truthfully and objectively about ordinary characters in ordinary situations. (Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Miller, O'Neill)

Neoclassicism

or Restoration Age (1660-1700), Augustan Age (1700-1750), Age of Johnson (1750-1798) is that period from about 1660 to the late 18th century.that saw humankind as limited, dualistic, and imperfect. Order, concentration, logic, retrained emotion, moral instruction. Comedy of Manners, satire, odes, parody, essays were popular. Neoclassical poets chose their classical models from the Greek and Roman tradition, (Milton, Pope, Dryden, Austen, Swift, Defoe)

Post-modernism

refers to the collection of literary movements that have developed in the decades following WWII. Many post-modernists have attempted to capture the essence of contemporary life in the form and content of their work. Others, however, have focused on creating works that stand apart form the literature of the past. To accomplish these purposes, writers have experimented with a variety of different approaches and used a wide range of literary forms and techniques. Many writers have continued to develop the fragmentary approach of the Modernists, omitting expositions, resolutions, and transitions, and composing stories in the form of broken or distorted sequence of scenes, rather that in the form of a continuous narrative. Possessing the belief that reality is to some extent shaped by our imaginations, some writers have turned away from writing realistic fiction and begun writing fantasy or "magical realism"--fiction that blends realism and fantasy. Other writers have radically departed from traditional fictional forms and techniques, composing works from dialogue alone, creating works that blend fiction and nonfiction, and experimenting with the physical appearance of a work. Some Postmodernists have confronted the problems they perceive in modern society through the use of satire and black humor. (Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5; Nabokov's Pale Fire; magical realism=Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude)

Romanticism--

was a literary and artistic movement of the nineteenth century, one that arose in reaction against eighteenth-century Neoclassicism and that placed a premium on fancy, imagination, emotion, nature, individuality, and exotica. Gothic novels are a sub-genre. (Bronte, Poe, Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats,

Naturalism

was a literary movement among novelists at the end of the nineteenth century and during the early decades of the twentieth century. The Naturalists tended to view people as hapless victims of immutable natural laws. (Thomas Hardy, Stephen Crane, Jack London)