Realism and Modernism are two literary genres that are very important
and influential. There were many things that happened historically to
spark the change to each genre. There are many differences, but also
similarities in these two literary genres. A theme relating to the
wars of the time is found in both of these styles of writing, but the
actual style of writing is very different.
The transition from Romanticism to Realism was very large. While
Romanticism focused on nature and wishful situations, Realism, like
its name suggests, reflected more believable, common situations. For
the first time authors were depicting a setting and the story as how
it would be in the real world, rather than what they wanted it to be.
This was caused by the increase in scientific and rationalist thoughts
after the Civil War. The style became less about nature and heroes and
shifted more to a more simple telling of the story. The common middle
class man became the hero of most Realist works.
Historically there were many events that caused the shift to
Modernism. There was the Great Depression, the Roaring Twenties, The
Great War, and many other changes in culture. Black culture was also
on the rise with new African American artists and musicians surfacing
in the popular culture of the nation. This is what is commonly
refereed to as the Harlem Renaissance. It was these cultural changes
that caused the change to modernist literature from the previous
realism.
One major difference in the literary genres is the actual style in
which the stories and poems are written in. Oftentimes there is a
connection to the characters in a modernist work and the author that
wrote it. The writing style is obviously different because Modernist
writers wanted to avoid simple writing, which is used in most Realist
works, and instead used very deep words with significant meanings
One characteristic that the two genres share is the depressing nature
of some of the works. This comes from the time period that each genre
occurred during. Realism began shortly after the Civil War, and the
war was a topic of many works. There was a lot of reflection on what
the soldiers went through, and also about the feelings of a country
that had been divided. Modernism on the other had began during the
Great War. This was a very depressing time, as people had never really
seen such a war before. There was a lot of violence and this caused
there to be the same depressing theme appear in some works of
Modernism. This is not to say that all modernist works were like this
because with the great cultural expansion of the country, there were
more happy topics to write about.
Both of these genres are similar and different in many ways. What was
going on during the time that they started had a drastic impact on the
principals of each respective genre. The common factor of a war going
on makes some characteristics of the genres very similar, but the
writing style still remains very differed from each literary group.
These are obviously two of the most important and influential genres
in American literature.
