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| Home > History of Literature > Literature in the 20th Century
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| | Literature in the 20th Century
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Modernist poetry
Modernist poetry is a mode of writing characterised by technical innovation in the mode of versification (sometimes referred to as free verse) and by the dislocation of the `I` of the poet as a means of subverting the notion of an unproblematic poetic `self` directly addressing an equally unproblematic ideal reader or audience. In English, it is generally considered to have emerged in the early years of the 20th century.
Modernist prose
The Modernist form of prose began from the styles of writing popular in the mid to late 19th century: The nonsense books of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll were one influence. Another was the dark gothic brooding of Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe and Dostoyevski. These tendencies toward rebellious nonsense and morose introspection were, to some extent, reactions against the science and positivism of the Victorian era mindset. At the same time, however, science continued to influence writers to adopt a spirit of experimentalism.
In 1902 Joseph Conrad published Heart of Darkness, which threw representations of civilised society into sharp contrast with representations of the jungle and played both of them in relation to the human heart and soul.
In the first half of the 20th century writers such as Franz Kafka and James Joyce experimented with dislocations of conventional wisdom in their creations of distorted characters, locations and narrative styles.
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