Modern period

-

The Modern Period in literature refers to the late 19th century to mid-20th century, roughly from 1890 to 1945. It was a time of great change due to industrialization, World War I, World War II, and shifting social norms. Modernist writers broke traditional storytelling rules, experimented with new forms, complex themes, and deeper psychology, and questioned the meaning of life and reality.

Features of Modern Literature:

  1. Break from Tradition – Writers rejected old storytelling methods and created new styles.
  2. Stream of Consciousness – Writing that follows a character’s thoughts in a flowing, natural way (e.g., James Joyce’s Ulysses).
  3. Fragmentation – Stories often feel incomplete, jumping between events and ideas.
  4. Disillusionment – Many works reflect the loss of faith in traditional values after World War I.
  5. Focus on Individualism – Characters struggle with identity, isolation, and modern life.
  6. Use of Symbolism and Myth – Writers included deep symbolism and references to ancient myths.

Important Modernist Writers & Works:

  • James Joyce – Ulysses (1922) – A groundbreaking stream-of-consciousness novel.
  • T.S. Eliot – The Waste Land (1922) – A fragmented poem about modern despair.
  • Virginia Woolf – Mrs. Dalloway (1925) – A novel exploring consciousness and time.
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby (1925) – A critique of the American Dream.
  • William Faulkner – The Sound and the Fury (1929) – A novel using multiple perspectives and time shifts.


Popular Posts

"Cry, the Peacock": A Detailed Summary and Analysis

-
Introduction Cry, the Peacock is Anita Desai ’s first novel. It was published in 1963. The novel explores a woman’s emotional struggles and her experience of loneliness and despair. The story focuses on Maya, the main character, and her troubled marriage. She suffers from isolation and mental instability. Anita Desai presents the fragility of the human mind and the difficulties of marriage. Brief Summary The novel takes place in post-independence India. However, the story focuses more on personal struggles than political events. Maya is a young woman who lives with her husband, Gautama. Gautama is a practical and intellectual man. He does not show emotions, and he does not understand Maya’s feelings. Maya is sensitive and emotional. She wants love and affection, but Gautama does not give her the attention she needs. Maya feels lonely and neglected. She spends most of her time thinking about her life. She creates fantasies in her mind to escape her loneliness. One important symbol in t...
Read more

Phonetics and Phonology : Definition and difference

-
Phonetics and phonology are two closely related subfields of linguistics that both deal with the sounds of speech, but they focus on different aspects of these sounds. Phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds, specifically how they are produced, transmitted, and perceived. It is concerned with the actual sounds themselves—how they are articulated, how they travel through the air as sound waves, and how they are received by the ear and processed by the brain. Phonetics is typically divided into three subfields: 1. Articulatory Phonetics : This branch focuses on the physical production of speech sounds. It looks at the movements of the vocal organs (such as the tongue, lips, and vocal cords) and how these movements create different speech sounds. It studies how different places and manners of articulation (e.g., voicing, nasality, consonant types like stops or fricatives) contribute to the production of speech. 2. Acoustic Phonetics : This branch is concerned w...
Read more

Dhwani Theory by Anandvardhana: an introduction

-
Anandvardhana was a Kashmiri court poet and literary critic, honored with the title of Rajanak during King Avantivarman's reign.  Anandavardhana authored the Dhvanyāloka , or A Light on Suggestion (dhwani), a work articulating the philosophy of "aesthetic suggestion" (dhwani, vyaΓ±janā). Anandavardhana is credited with creating the dhwani theory. He wrote that dhwani (meaning sound, or evocation) is the "soul" or "essence" (ātman) of poetry (kavya).  Anandavardhana said, "When the poet writes, he creates a eloquent field of emotions." To understand the poetry, the reader or hearer must be on the same wavelength. Important points~ •Dhvani theory is a theory of suggestion that is considered to be the soul of poetry.  •The theory of Dhvani is a major contribution to Sanskrit literary theory.  •The theory of Dhvani suggests that the main goal of good poetry is to evoke a mood or "flavor" (rasa).  •The theory of Dhvani suggests that this...
Read more