1. From Realism onwards… Mr. Cleôn M. McLean A.P. English Literature & Composition Ontario High School

2. Disclaimer When speaking of literary time periods or movements, it is important to note the following: Beginnings and endings of periods are not exact Many periods or movements take on many forms and functions, as in politics, art, and music, and literature Many writers transgress or regress from the current literary movement(s) of their own period Bowdlerizing art as a certain period or movement can be a crime against both artist and reader/audience

3. F.Y.I. In a literary context, the nineteenth century is divided into two halves which, roughly speaking, are… 1800—1850: Romanticism (Americans call this period “Transcendentalism”)—i.e., an idealized look at life and nature (Gothic fiction—romanticizing of horror/terror. Industrial Revolution; major technological inventions: gas lighting, glass making, paper machine, steam power, metallurgy, textile manufacturing, et al.) 1851—1901: Victorian era (named after Queen Victoria). Realist fiction—depictions of “real” life; rapid urbanization (ergo “The Great Social Evil”=prostitution); child labor; funeral custom=photograph of the dead person so as to create a lasting memory

4. Realism—a synopsis (Central moral theme: How to be a “good” Victorian) Time: 19 th century (1850-1901) Victorian era Authors: Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Brontë sisters Development of the novel genre The depiction of everyday people, situations, perfunctory, and dilemmas in an “accurate” or realistic manner (this ran contrary to the idealism portrayed in the picturesque and burlesque in Romanticism—i.e., the first half of the 19 th century) Science & Technology Science: Charles Darwin: The Origin of Species (1859) Incandescent gas lamp light (esp. for public streets and buildings)— made reading more accessible at nighttime and desirable=growing literate population (in Britain). 1882=electric lighting Advancement after first camera (1826) in photography: 1884, George Eastman developed film (photographic emulsion=chemical for better sensitivity to light, ergo better representation of image) for cameras

5. Modernism—a synopsis (reaction to the emergence of city life) Time: 1901—1940 Authors, e.g., Novelists: James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Franz Kafka, F. Scott Fitzgerald; Poets: T.S. Elliot, Ezra Pound A move away from Romanticism into the mundane A pessimistic recoil from the optimistic Victorianism Common themes: the alienated individual; absence of a central theme; absence of the heroic figure; solipsism, i.e., the theory that the self is the only thing that can be defined and verified Style: Disjointment or fragmentation, e.g., stream of consciousness, vignette-writing, and anachronism

6. Post-modernism—a synopsis (self-consciousness?) Time frame: after death of James Joyce in 1941; end of WWII Extension of, reaction to, critique of modernism Celebration of fragmentation and historical references This is NOT existentialism (although existentialism is one pillar) The postmodern position is that the style of a novel must be appropriate to that which it depicts, represents, and points back to

7. Existentialism—a synposis (rejection of rational consciousness) Time: Popularized in the 1950s and 60s Authors: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Camus Extreme subjectivity: the idea that humans can only be understood from the inside Internal conflict: self-reflective narrative Angst, despair, anguish (ref. French existentialist philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre) Issues of space—who defines this and why is it transitory? Life as choice: humans were thrown into existence (Big Bang Theory?), and now any human thought or definition has to be created by humans (this is “absurd,” because meaning isn’t created by the natural order)