The contrast between Modernist and Contemporary literature is vast. Both reflect the particular ages that they were created in. Modernism was authored in the late 19th to early 20th centuries when psychodynamics was on its rise; existentialist philosophy was the philosophy of the moment, and man, emerging from one World War was attempting to understand his way in the world and was disillusioned with existence. Religion, too, was supplanted by influential philosophers such as Nietzsche, and break in fall ways was conducted with the past. Modernism and post-modernism, represented by chaos, new experimental forms of style and creation, was the trend of the moment. Much of it was disjointed (as in the style of Joyce) and subversive. Contemporary themes, however, were written by writers who lived after the Second World War and were dealing with life in the modern century – in the examples given, in America. Themes included bigotry, technology, the Cold War; being a misfit, a minority, and despair at not belonging, meaninglessness of life; economic fragility; Civil Rights; and feminism. Both Modernism and Contemporary literature reflects its particular age in different ways.
¶ … Modernism, and how the literature that is considered to be Modernist literature is representative of the period. Then explain how contemporary world literature comes from Modernism
Discuss three Modernists and their work.
Then discuss two contemporary authors. Explain how they represent NOW (or the contemporary world which is from 1968 on.)
Then discuss the differences between Modernism and contemporary literature.
James Joyce, Franz Kafka, and DH Lawrence are three examples of three different modernist writers. Each of them represents a different facet of Modernism. Kafka is most renowned for The Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle. Each of these books probe reality and existence as man understands it and questions our existence on this world. Respect for traditional hierarchy is questioned and the value of man, itself, is at stake. In "Metamorphosis," for instance, a boy turns into a cockroach and is rejected by his parents. We have the philosophical question of the self and the value of human life. The Castle questions workings of government, and the futility of reaching one's goals. K. (the protagonist in the story) attempts to reach the Castle, a highly venerated and obscure haven of bureaucracy only to find the governors in that Castle flawed and corrupt. "The Trial" is even more disturbing in that it portrays a man's playing around with different women and his being killed by an impulsive and flawed trial where one of the men kills him like a dog!
James Joyce is famous for many works including Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Finnegan's Wake. What all (and others) have in common is break from the traditional style of writing with focus on the inner stream of consciousness; bitterness to religion (implied in almost all of the plots; an intense secularism (where man is of and on the street and thrust into reality); and new styles of dialogue and form. Joyce may be read as retreat from the world into man's psychic reality obverting literature where internal monologue becomes stronger than external reality.
DH Lawrence was, arguably, the most controversial of the three with his direction being sex. Lawrence broke new grounds in sexual description and was accused of pornography. Books such as Lady Chatterley's Lover, Women in Love, and Sons and Lovers, graphically portrayed sexual reality in a manner that was shocking at his time. Described as a realist, Joyce was affected by Nietzsche and elevated sensuality above intellectual experience. All the books deal with people in industrial settings (with the partial exception of Lady Chatterley's Lover) and possess graphical portrayal of human sexuality and touch.
Each of these authors, in turn, focuses on different themes. Kafka deliberates on existence and man's purpose in the world. He was affected by the philosophy of his time that was largely existentialism: a concern with identity and meaning in this world and reversal of traditional religion and teleological / purposive existence. Joyce battered traditional religion and hierarchy and innovated with new styles of literature as well as truncated style and form. Lawrence lived Nietzsche's Superman and claimed sensuality to be more important and life-fiving than the 'inner' world of soul or mind.
Let's contrast this to two contemporary writers: Largely written after World War 2, contemporary authors occupied themselves with the simmering issues of the moment as can be seen from two key figures, Toni Morrison and Phillip Roth. Both writers are products of minority race and their race and experiences influenced their writing. Morrison was African-American. Her books, famously The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon and Beloved, deal with the struggles of growing up debased and disadvantaged in a humiliated sector of America. The novels detail the characters' travails as victims of child molestation; outcasts of society due to differences in race and gender; ravages of slavery (e.g. "Beloved"); and the difficulty of being different ("Sula"). Roth, on the other hand, filled his books (that include Goodbye, Columbus, Portnoy's Complaint, and Everyman) with his Jewish experience; Portnoy's Complaint deals with Jewish identity in America whilst Everyman describes the hardships of growing old in America.
Morrison deals with feminism and the experiences of living in America as an African-American. Roth describes old age and living in America as a Jew.
Aspects of Contemporary literature are similar to that of Modernism. For instance, Roth's Portnoy's Complaint reminds me of Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover (amongst other works) for a sexual reality that borders on pornography as well as description of fruition in reachignone's goals (and inherent meaninglessness of life). It is also created in the obsessively introspective style that is representative of Kafka and Joyce. Roth's connections to psychology are evident. He also blurs distinction between reality and fiction and leaves one with the same disturbing reflections on existence as one gain after reading the books of Joyce, Kafka and Laurence. The novels of Morrison, too, touch on the pain and agony of being different.
On the other hand, "Portnoy's complaint" touches on topics that are completely new to the Modernist era such as, predominantly, the identity of the assimilated Jew within American society and their relationship with Israel. Even the sexual component is less in sync with Lawrence's lust for life as it is one that is filled with political overtones of the Sexual Revolution, whilst Morrison's books detail subjects such as feminism, slavery, strive to succeed in an increasingly capitalistic and detached world, and African-American persecution.
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