ENGLISH LITERATURE
Characteristics of Modernism
Stylistic characteristics - Juxtaposition, irony, comparisons and satire are important elements found
in modernist writing. Modernist authors use impressionism and other devices to emphasize the
subjectivity of reality, and they see omniscient narration and fixed narrative points of view as ways
of providing a false sense of objectivity.
They also make use of discontinuous narratives and fragmented plot structures. Modernist works
are also often reflexive and draw attention to their own role as creators.
Romanticism was a movement against the Age of Enlightenment.
Post-modernism is the name given to the literary movement following Modernism. It was set in the
post-1950s, a time marked by the Cold War and the excesses of consumption.
It differs from Modernism by blurring the conventional boundary between "high" and "low" culture,
by a completely loosened structure in both time and space, and by multiple openings rather than a
closure in itself. It rejects to conform to popular taste and proposes a combination of heterogeneous
elements, making it cater to a more sophisticated reader.