8 Literary Movements
Literary Movements
As mentioned in the previous module, attention to the context . in which a work of literature was created and distributed is a critical layer to include in one’s analysis. Beyond specific historical or cultural events relevant to a given literary work, appreciating the rise and fall of the prominence of particular literary movements can inform the interpretations of what we read. There are four major literary movements applicable to the study of modern short fiction: Romanticism , Realism , Naturalism , and Modernism .
Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the eighteenth century characterized by a heightened interest in nature and an emphasis on individual expression of emotion and imagination. Romanticism flourished from the early to the mid-nineteenth century, partly as a reaction to the rationalism and empiricism of the previous age (the Enlightenment). In fiction, Romanticism is often expressed through an emphasis on the individual (a main character) and the expression of his or her emotional experience, such as by having the plot coincide with the character’s emotional conflicts. In opposition to the logic of the previous age, Romantic fiction sometimes even returns to Gothic elements, which often includes stories about the supernatural of the uncanny. (An example of this literary movement in this module is Edgar Allen Poe’s “A Descent into the Maelström.”)
Realism was an artistic and intellectual movement of the late nineteenth century that stressed the faithful representation of reality or verisimilitude . Realism was a reaction to what were viewed as the exaggerations or flights of fancy of Romanticism. Realists sought to develop an artistic style that valued the faithful portrayal of everyday experience, what Henry James described as “the drama of a broken tea cup.” The development of realism coincided with the rise of social reform movements and many realistic writers and artists chose to focus on social issues, such as poverty and the plight of the working class, in cities as well as in the country. The height of realist writing in American literature is considered to have occurred from the time of the U.S. Civil War (c. 1865) to the turn of the century (c. 1900). Realism as a literary movement swept across the country. This wave also fostered an interest in Regionalism , the realistic portrayal of specific areas and locales almost as a fictional form of travel literature. It should be noted that literary realism was equally popular in Europe, such as in the work of Charles Dickens or George Eliot in England, Honoré de Balzac and Gustave Flaubert in France, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy in Russia.
Overlapping with the development of Realism was the literary movement known as Naturalism (approximately 1880–1930). Naturalist literature sought to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to the characters and subje