Modernism and Modern Novel

Modernism: the term The term "Modernism" refers to a powerful international movement coming from the Western cultures. Originated at the beginning of the century, Modernism dominated the sensibility and aesthetic choices of the great artists of the age. It affected literature as well as other arts and implied a break with traditional values. It rejected Naturalism and Decadence in favour of introspection and technical skill.

A number of common features can be identified: The intentional distortion of shapes, the breaking down of limitations in space and time, the awareness that our perception of reality is necessarily uncertain, temporary and subject to change and the impossibility to give a final or absolute interpretation of reality, the need to reflect the complexity of modern urban life in artistic form, the intensity of the "isolated" or "image" to provide a true insight into the nature of things, an interest in the primitive and a reconsideration of the "past" without the restrictions imposed by national or continental culture, the importance of unconscious as well as conscious life.

The modern novel The modern novelists reflected the moral and psychological uncertain of the age and the pressing need for different forms of expression. Their role consisted in mediating between the solid and unquestioned values of the past and the confused present. Under the influence of the new philosophical thoughts about the new concept of time and the new theory of the unconscious, they shifted their attention from society to man, regarded as a limited creature whose moral progress was dramatically inferior to his advance in technology.

These novelist didn't built a well structured plot, didn't need to lead a character through a chronological sequence of events. The passing of time isn't necessary to reveal the character itself though this can be explained in the course of a single day by analysing his consciousness through the external events. The narrator isn't omniscient and the point of view is inside the character. More points of view are adopted and anyone is equally valid.

New methods were created to portray the individual consciousness such as: "epiphany", the stream of consciousness, flashbacks, flash-forwards, interior monologue. They are suitable for reproducing the uninterrupted flow of thoughts, sensations, memories, associations and emotions.

The main issues of this period are the relationship between love and loneliness, the absence of real communication among human beings, since everyone is a prisoner of his own consciousness

The most important novelist of the first decades of the twenties century were: Henry James, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf; George Orwell