Modernism’s Literary Characteristics
Major Characteristics
a. Modernist literature is anti-traditional: It embraces a strong break from traditions and canons of writing since it rejects any historical continuity (even traditional values of writing a text). It rejects the rhetoric that governs their creations. Instead of focus on the outward social; it emphasizes the individual and the inward. It prefers an exploration of the unconscious rather than the self conscious mind.
b. It has complex and fragmented plot (s): Instead of following linear traditional stories with beginning- middle-end structure; modernist stories do not respect linearity. A story may not have beginning or end, chunks of events from here and there are used for the development of the story using techniques like stream of consciousness, internal monologue, flashbacks, foreshadowing, and shift in narration.
c. The focus is on characterization rather than the plot or the setting: Instead of focusing on the development of events of a story, modernist stories rely on the depiction of the character (s) development. It can be psychological or mental.
d. It is characterized by open-ended plots: several modernist works, mainly prose writing, makes use of open-ended plot. This provides readers with complex and well crafted stories and opens doors to wider interpretations.
e. It is psychological: with the increase interest in psychology in general, and Freudian theories in particular, modernists turned toward the internal self. Characters in stories are results of various experiences. The experience of war, love, failure/success maybe common shared experiences between human beings but each one is the result of his/her own experience.
f. It is pessimistic: As works produced between two World Wars, modernist works adopt a pessimist tone. It reflects sense of alienation, lost, and desperation.
g. It is autobiographical: instead of referring to the outside world, modernist writers rely on their personal experiences as background to their stories. This supports sense of authenticity and reliance on the control of the unconscious self rather than external authority.
h. It portrays a subjective form of realism: As it was already clarified, modernism came as rejection not to mere realism but to the objective stand realists’ have claimed. The human being is not and cannot be scientifically studied as any other substance. He/she is a compound of feeling brain and thinking brain; two brains which govern his/her internal and external worlds. Since no absolute truth can be recognized, each character in a story sees him/ herself and others differently. Even scenes and events are viewed and interpreted differently. For that particular reason, perception is key word to understanding and interacting.
i. It is Symbolic: As a traditional literary technique used in writing for centuries but emphasised by modernists,
Symbolism seeks to achieve certain effect by using clustered images and metaphors, suggesting or symbolizing the basic idea or emotion. In literature, symbolism often refers to a word or a phrase denoting an object or a thing, which has a larger range in explanation than the object or thing itself with political, social, or cultural implications. (Yuan 85)
As literature that intends at showing rather than telling; modernist literature depends on symbolism to communicate with readers. Instead of detailed description, a symbol usage serves writers to openly interact with readers via texts which are available to various interpretations.
Conclusion
The already explained characteristics are common grounds for the literary modernist texts. Their existence or absence within a literary text; however, does not ensure exclusion or inclusion of a given text into Modernism (do not forget, Modernism calls for new but adheres authenticity as well).