Modernism 406 Midterm Exam

Realism

a 19th-century movement that portrays everyday life and ordinary people with truthfulness and objectivity, reacting against the romantic ideals (romanticism) of the previous era.

 Key characteristics include depicting social issues, economic struggles, and contemporary problems through believable characters and settings, often critiquing societal norms without idealization

Romanticism

a broad literary, artistic, and philosophical movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries that emphasized imagination, emotion, individualism, and the beauty and spiritual significance of nature, reacting against the Enlightenment's focus on reason

modernism

the artistic set of responses to, or artistic involvements in, [[Modernity]]

Modernity

historical changes taking place, dated (from a Western [[European]]/[[American]] perspective) as from the mid-19th century to just after [[World War II]]

Primitivism

is the Western tendency to idealize or romanticize non-Western and pre-modern cultures as more pure, natural, or authentic than modern society. It often reflects Western desires and fantasies rather than the realities of those cultures.

[[Gone Primitive]] by Torgovnik

Frame Tale Narrative

literary technique where one overarching story acts as a "frame" for one or more embedded "inner" stories, creating a "story within a story" structure

Jean Rhys, Voyage in the dark framed by the curtain fall

Anand, Untouchable, framed in the singular day

orientalism

(“Occidental” is part of definition): the western (occidental) creation of an imagined understanding of the east, often the middle east and north africa, protraying it as exotic, primitive, etc to show occidental superiority.

[[Edward Said]]

Bildungsroman

a coming of age story; narrative of development. [[The Dead (Story)]] and [[Voyage in the Dark]]

Stream of consciousness

([[autodiagetic narration]] a synonym / part of how you can define stream of consciousness)

“Its basically a fancy term for 1st person, [[stream of consciousness]] narration” —[[Dr. Rebecca Walsh]]

• parataxis is the poetry version of this

Voyage in the Dark, Wide Sargasso Sea

Negritude

1930s and 1940s movement, Francophone African and Afro-Caribbean writers and intellectuals resisting French colonialism, reacting to cultural / spiritual malaise in their generation.

[[Aimé Césaire]], [[A Notebook of a Return to the Native Land]]

surrealism

surrealism is a 20th-century artistic movement that blends dream-like imagery and irrationality to express the unconscious mind, challenging conventional reality.

[[Jean Rhys]], Anna’s sick, drunk or memory visions

Parataxis

is a literary/poetic technique in writing or speaking that favors short, simple sentences without conjunctions, or sentences coordinated without the use of subordinating conjunctions. It contrasts with [[syntaxis]] and [[hypotaxis]].

[[Jean Rhys]] and her use of dialogue

Free Verse

an open form of poetry characterized by its lack of a regular meter, rhyme scheme, or consistent rhythm, instead following the natural cadences of speech. [[Aimé Césaire]], [[A Notebook of a Return to the Native Land]]

Enjambment

“in [[Poetry]] its the technique of carrying on the gramatical flow of the sentence beyond the end of the like without the use of punctuation to indicate a pause. any time there isn’t [[punctuation]] at the end of a poetic line that makes it connect to the following line.

[[Aimé Césaire]], [[A Notebook of a Return to the Native Land]]

half-meaning

partial understanding, incomplete communication, or a concept that is only partially expressed. This can manifest as characters only giving part of the information, having a fragmented understanding of a situation, or employing deliberate ambiguity to suggest deeper, unstated truths, thereby creating layers of meaning for the reader to uncover.

[[James Joyce]], [[Two Gallants]]

creole identity

A person of mixed european and black descent, usually in regards to the Caribbean.

[[Jean Rhys]], [[Voyage in the Dark]]’s anna and [[Wide Sargasso Sea]]’s bertha

Writing beyond the ending

[[Rachel DuPlessi]], challenging and reimagining traditional story endings—especially those that confine women to roles like marriage, death, or silence—in order to create new, open possibilities for female experience and identity. [[Voyage in the Dark]]

caste

[[caste system]], a fixed, hereditary social group within a hierarchical system, determining an individual's social position, occupation, and marriage prospects, often based on birth rather than merit. [[Mulk Raj Anand]], [[Untouchable]]

Gustave Flaubert

A Simple Heart

Félicité

Gustave Flaubert’s A Simple Heart follows Félicité, a devoted and humble servant whose life is marked by loyalty, loss, and quiet suffering. The story explores themes of devotion, social class, and the profound humanity found in ordinary, often overlooked lives.

Mariana Torgovnik

Gone Primitive

Mariana Torgovnik’s Gone Primitive examines the concept of primitivism, exploring how Western cultures have historically romanticized so-called “primitive” peoples as a way to define their own modern identities. The book critiques these portrayals, showing how they often distort, exoticize, and simplify the lives of non-Western societies for ideological or aesthetic purposes.

Joseph Conrad

An outpost of progress

Kayerts and Carlier, Gomesh

Joseph Conrad’s An Outpost of Progress tells the story of Kayerts and Carlier, two European men tasked with managing a remote trading post in the African Congo, who gradually succumb to moral corruption and incompetence. The story critiques colonialism, exposing the emptiness, hypocrisy, and destructive effects of European imperial ventures on both colonizers and the colonized.

James Joyce

The Dead

Gabriel Conroy

Two Gallants

Lenehan and Corey

James Joyce’s “The Dead” follows Gabriel Conroy as he attends a holiday gathering in Dublin, where he confronts personal insecurities, marital tensions, and the haunting presence of the past. The story explores themes of identity, memory, mortality, and the emotional undercurrents of everyday life.

James Joyce’s “Two Gallants” centers on Lenehan and Corley, two men who scheme and manipulate to exploit women for personal gain. The story critiques moral decay, opportunism, and the social realities of Dublin at the turn of the 20th century.

Benedict Anderson

Imagined Communities

Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities explores how nations are socially constructed through shared language, media, and collective imagination rather than physical or ancestral ties. He argues that nationalism arises when people perceive themselves as part of a larger “imagined” community, even among strangers.

Edward Said

Orientalism

Edward Said’s Orientalism is a critical study that examines how Western scholarship and culture have historically depicted the East (or “Orient”) as exotic, backward, and inferior. Said argues that these portrayals served to justify colonial domination and shaped Western perceptions of non-Western societies.

Jean Rhys

Voyage in the Dark

Anna Morgan

Jean Rhys’s Voyage in the Dark follows Anna Morgan, a young Creole woman from the Caribbean who moves to England and struggles with alienation, poverty, and loss of identity. The novel explores themes of displacement, gender, and colonial tension as Anna navigates a society that marginalizes her both as a woman and as a colonial outsider.

Aimé Césaire

A Notebook of a Return to the Native Land

Aimé Césaire’s A Notebook of a Return to the Native Land is a poetic exploration of Black identity, colonialism, and self-discovery as the speaker reflects on returning to his Caribbean homeland. Blending surrealism and political critique, Césaire celebrates Black culture while condemning the dehumanizing effects of colonial rule.

Mulk Raj Anand

Untouchable

Bakha

Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand is a novel that follows a single day in the life of Bakha, a young Indian sweeper who belongs to the lowest caste and endures discrimination and humiliation for being “untouchable.” Through Bakha’s experiences, Anand exposes the cruelty of the caste system and calls for social reform and human dignity.