English Modernism Vocabulary

Imagism

Imagism

Clear and concise language

Uses strong, simple, precise imagery

Poems are generally free verse and short

Cubism

Internal landscape

Stream of Consciousness

Multiple perspectives

Absence of plot

Fragmentation of the individual

Vorticism

Stressed individuality, attentiveness, and aggression to champion the new (maximum energy)

Simile

Comparison using like or as

Conceit

Two completely different objects are compared using similes or metaphors

Narrative

Tells a story, narrator or characters, often is dramatic or has a twist

Types: Epics, ballads, idylls, lays

Allusion

A figure of speech that references something (a person, literature, event, place)

Pastoral

Usually has dialogue and characters

Setting is generally the countryside or a rural area

Types: Eclogue (conversation, banter) and Elegy (grief)

Open Form

No requirements; only structure is the one you place on yourself

Verbal Irony

Says one thing but means the opposite

Situational Irony

An event that is surprising and contrary to what the audience should expect

Dramatic Irony

The audience knows what will happen but the character does not

Metaphor

Comparing two things without using like or as

Fragmentation

Jumbling up the sequence of the story

Sometimes starts in the middle of action

Used for troubling effect or to indicate that the character is under stress

Harlem Renaissance

Occurred in the 1920s

Explosion of art, literature, dance, music, poetry

Focused on racial inequality and injustice (African American)

Low Modernism

Watered down and determined by the mass market

More simplistic and little depth, understanding, or the reasoning behind its design/creation

The difference was knowledge/intelligence/understanding processes of literary creation---rather than just copy another’s style

High Modernism

Works published between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second

Complete embrace of beliefs (distinction between capital-A Art and mass culture)

On the side of art, opposes popular or mass culture

Modernism

Break from tradition

Expressing new thoughts and ideals

No true structure

Champion of individual self

Embrace imperfect life

“Stream of Consciousness” (write whatever comes to your head)

Personification

Giving an inanimate object or animal human like characteristics

Dramatic Monologue

Imagined speaker addresses a silent listener, usually not the reader, no dialogue