Literary Movements

Modernism

Context: After WWII, two big world wars made everyone scared

• Lonely, depressed

• Desire for restoration, utopia

• Sparse, fragmented style to represent how society at the time was sparse and broken

Postmodernism

Context: Opposite of modernism

• Instead of being hopeful for utopia, it is pessimistic about society

• Challenges societal norms

• Doesn’t believe life has order

Gothicism

Context: Olden times, society was difficult and deadly

• Supernatural

• Frightening plot events

Romanticism

Context: After the Enlightenment, where people were very logical and rigid

• Beauty of nature

• Individualism

• Imagination/Emotion

Realism

Context: After the Enlightenment, where people were very logical and rigid

• Beauty of nature

• Individualism

• Imagination/Emotion

Magical Realism

Context: Latin America, oppressive regime and social crisis

• Magical/Fantastical elements

• Imagines alternate reality better than current society

Victorian

Context: Early 20th century, time of lots of change

• Write about class issues, the dangers of industrialization and rapid change

• Lots more women writers in this time period