Literary Movements
Literature constantly evolves as new movements emerge to speak to the concerns of different
groups of people and historical periods.
Literary Movements and their Periods
Absurd theatre (1930–1970):
It is a movement that responded to the seeming illogicality and purposelessness of human life in
works marked by a lack of clear narrative, understandable psychological motives, or emotional
catharsis. Critic Martin Esslin coined the term in his 1960 essay “Theatre of the Absurd.” Albert
Camus uses the term in his 1942 essay, “The Myth of Sisyphus”. His philosophy that life is
inherently without meaning is illustrated in his work The Myth of Sisyphus. The Absurd in these
plays takes the form of man’s reaction to a world apparently without meaning, and or man as a
puppet controlled or menaced by invisible outside forces. This style of writing was first
popularized by Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot published in 1952.
Playwrights commonly associated with the Theatre of the Absurd are Samuel Beckett, Eugène
Ionesco, Jean Genet, Harold Pinter, Luigi Pirandello, Tom Stoppard, Friedrich
Dürrenmatt, Miguel Mihura, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Fernando Arrabal, Václav Havel, Edward
Albee and Badal Sarkar .
Aestheticism (1835–1910):
Aestheticism – It is an intellectual and art movement supporting the emphasis of aesthetic values
more than social-political themes for literature, fine art, music and other arts. This meant that Art
from this particular movement focused more on being beautiful rather than having a deeper
meaning- ‘ Art for Art’s sake.
Oscar Wilde and Walter Pater believed in “art for art’s sake.” Contemporary critic Harold
Bloom is also associated with the movement.
Angry Young Men (1950s–1980s):
It is a group of male British novelists and playwrights who emerged in the 1950s and expressed
scorn and disaffection with the established sociopolitical order of their country. Their impatience
and resentment were especially aroused by what they perceived as the hypocrisy and mediocrity
of the upper and middle classes. This “movement” was identified after the Second World War as
some British intellectuals began to question orthodox mores. The phrase was originally coined
by the Royal Court Theatre’s press officer to promote John Osborne’s play Look Back in
Anger in 1956..
The group’s members are John Osborne and Kingsley Amis. The trend that was evident in John
Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger, John Wain’s novel Hurry on Down, Kingsley Amis’s Lucky
Jim , Look Back in Anger. John Braine’s Room at the Top, and Alan Sillitoe’s Saturday Night
and Sunday Morning and the playwrights Bernard Kops’s The Hamlet of Stepney Green, and
Arnold Wesker’s Chicken Soup with Barley also became the representative work of the
movement.
Beat Generation (1950s–1960s):
It is a movement of a movement of young people in the 1950s and early 1960s who rejected
conventional society, valuing free self-expression and favouring modern jazz. They sought
release and illumination though a bohemian counter culture of sex, drugs, and Zen Buddhism.
The members of the Beat Generation developed a reputation as new bohemian hedonists, who
celebrated non-conformity and spontaneous creativity.
The writers associated with the movement were Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Among
writers associated with the movement were Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.
The best known examples of Beat literature are Allen Ginsberg’s Howl , William S.
Burroughs’s Naked Lunch and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road are among The core group of Beat
Generation authors are Herbert Huncke, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Lucien Carr,
and Jack Kerouac.
Bloomsbury Group (1906–1930s):
It was an influential group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and
artists lived in the Bloomsbury section of London in the early 20th century.
The best known members of this group were Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M.
Forster, Clive Bell, Roger Fry and Lytton Strachey. They had a considerable liberalizing
influence on British culture.
Commedia dell’arte (1500s–1700s):
It is a form of theatre characterized by masked “types” which began in Renaissance Italy in the
16th century and was responsible for the advent of the actresses and improvised performances
based on sketches or scenarios.
Dadaism
Dada or Dadaism was a form of artistic anarchy born out of disgust for the social, political and
cultural values of the time. It was originated in Paris and led by the poet Tristan Tzara. It
embraced elements of art, music, poetry, theatre, dance and politics. It was an avant-garde
movement that began in response to the devastation of World War I. According to Hans
Richter Dada was not art: it was “anti-art.” Dada represented the opposite of everything which
art stood for. Where art was concerned with traditional aesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. If art
was to appeal to sensibilities, Dada was intended to offend. The Dadaists produced nihilistic and
anti logical prose, poetry, and art, and rejected the traditions, rules, and ideals of prewar Europe.
The writers are Ball, Hennings, Hans Arp, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco, and Richard
Huelsenbeck.
Enlightenment
It is an intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries in France and other parts of
Europe that emphasized the importance of reason, progress, and liberty. The Period
between1830-1910 has been described The Enlightenment, sometimes called the Age of Reason.
It is primarily associated with nonfiction writing, such as essays and philosophical treatises.
Major Enlightenment writers are philosophers are Descartes, Locke, and Newton, and its
prominent figures are Kant, Goethe, Voltaire, and Adam Smith, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, René Descartes
Literature constantly evolves as new movements emerge to speak to the concerns of different
groups of people and historical periods.
Literary Movements and their Periods
Absurd theatre (1930–1970):
It is a movement that responded to the seeming illogicality and purposelessness of human life in
works marked by a lack of clear narrative, understandable psychological motives, or emotional
catharsis. Critic Martin Esslin coined the term in his 1960 essay “Theatre of the Absurd.” Albert
Camus uses the term in his 1942 essay, “The Myth of Sisyphus”. His philosophy that life is
inherently without meaning is illustrated in his work The Myth of Sisyphus. The Absurd in these
plays takes the form of man’s reaction to a world apparently without meaning, and or man as a
puppet controlled or menaced by invisible outside forces. This style of writing was first
popularized by Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot published in 1952.
Playwrights commonly associated with the Theatre of the Absurd are Samuel Beckett, Eugène
Ionesco, Jean Genet, Harold Pinter, Luigi Pirandello, Tom Stoppard, Friedrich
Dürrenmatt, Miguel Mihura, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Fernando Arrabal, Václav Havel, Edward
Albee and Badal Sarkar .
Aestheticism (1835–1910):
Aestheticism – It is an intellectual and art movement supporting the emphasis of aesthetic values
more than social-political themes for literature, fine art, music and other arts. This meant that Art
from this particular movement focused more on being beautiful rather than having a deeper
meaning- ‘ Art for Art’s sake.
Oscar Wilde and Walter Pater believed in “art for art’s sake.” Contemporary critic Harold
Bloom is also associated with the movement.
Angry Young Men (1950s–1980s):
It is a group of male British novelists and playwrights who emerged in the 1950s and expressed
scorn and disaffection with the established sociopolitical order of their country. Their impatience
and resentment were especially aroused by what they perceived as the hypocrisy and mediocrity
of the upper and middle classes. This “movement” was identified after the Second World War as
some British intellectuals began to question orthodox mores. The phrase was originally coined
by the Royal Court Theatre’s press officer to promote John Osborne’s play Look Back in
Anger in 1956..
The group’s members are John Osborne and Kingsley Amis. The trend that was evident in John
Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger, John Wain’s novel Hurry on Down, Kingsley Amis’s Lucky
Jim , Look Back in Anger. John Braine’s Room at the Top, and Alan Sillitoe’s Saturday Night
and Sunday Morning and the playwrights Bernard Kops’s The Hamlet of Stepney Green, and
Arnold Wesker’s Chicken Soup with Barley also became the representative work of the
movement.
Beat Generation (1950s–1960s):
It is a movement of a movement of young people in the 1950s and early 1960s who rejected
conventional society, valuing free self-expression and favouring modern jazz. They sought
release and illumination though a bohemian counter culture of sex, drugs, and Zen Buddhism.
The members of the Beat Generation developed a reputation as new bohemian hedonists, who
celebrated non-conformity and spontaneous creativity.
The writers associated with the movement were Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Among
writers associated with the movement were Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.
The best known examples of Beat literature are Allen Ginsberg’s Howl , William S.
Burroughs’s Naked Lunch and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road are among The core group of Beat
Generation authors are Herbert Huncke, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Lucien Carr,
and Jack Kerouac.
Bloomsbury Group (1906–1930s):
It was an influential group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and
artists lived in the Bloomsbury section of London in the early 20th century.
The best known members of this group were Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M.
Forster, Clive Bell, Roger Fry and Lytton Strachey. They had a considerable liberalizing
influence on British culture.
Commedia dell’arte (1500s–1700s):
It is a form of theatre characterized by masked “types” which began in Renaissance Italy in the
16th century and was responsible for the advent of the actresses and improvised performances
based on sketches or scenarios.
Dadaism
Dada or Dadaism was a form of artistic anarchy born out of disgust for the social, political and
cultural values of the time. It was originated in Paris and led by the poet Tristan Tzara. It
embraced elements of art, music, poetry, theatre, dance and politics. It was an avant-garde
movement that began in response to the devastation of World War I. According to Hans
Richter Dada was not art: it was “anti-art.” Dada represented the opposite of everything which
art stood for. Where art was concerned with traditional aesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. If art
was to appeal to sensibilities, Dada was intended to offend. The Dadaists produced nihilistic and
anti logical prose, poetry, and art, and rejected the traditions, rules, and ideals of prewar Europe.
The writers are Ball, Hennings, Hans Arp, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco, and Richard
Huelsenbeck.
Enlightenment
It is an intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries in France and other parts of
Europe that emphasized the importance of reason, progress, and liberty. The Period
between1830-1910 has been described The Enlightenment, sometimes called the Age of Reason.
It is primarily associated with nonfiction writing, such as essays and philosophical treatises.
Major Enlightenment writers are philosophers are Descartes, Locke, and Newton, and its
prominent figures are Kant, Goethe, Voltaire, and Adam Smith, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, René Descartes
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