I think its very useful to those of us English majors who haven't been to school in a while (ahem)to learn the threads that literature has taken while we have been busy living our lives. Your article makes me wonder how the Contemporary period will be carved up in future and what themes and practices will be extracted from that review. I also love the fact that some of the greats like Atwood seem to transcend the barriers of definition.
Thanks Andrea, and I think you pose an interesting question here that I hadn't really considered: where will the forms go from here? They will obviously continue to borrow and merge with the older forms, but it will be interesting to see what new forms develop going forward. Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment : )
I enjoyed your breakdown of literary periods. I'm struck with the way writers (and artists) often leap forward into a period not yet established (I'm thinking of Bosch's Garden of Earthy Delights, which seems straight out of the Surrealist movement, or Stein's Tender Buttons, which doesn't seem to belong to any literary period).
Thanks, Arnie. You make an excellent point in that some writers appear to write in a style and movement that has not even been established until much later. I mentioned a comment in a previous post where a critic had suggested that Charlotte Bronte's 'Villette' had anticipated the later novel sequence 'Pilgrimage' by modernist writer Dorothy Richardson. I think it's so interesting how all these literary movements unfold. Thanks for reading and for taking the time to comment : )
Fantastic article! It’s fascinating to see the way modernist and post-modernist literature influenced famous writers. I’ve read some of the authors/works you’ve mentioned, but I always add to my reading list after reading your newsletters :)
This is a wonderful synopsis - I recently realized despite being an English major I have really did not know exactly what postmodernism was, and then here you came to the rescue! I also enjoyed seeing this parade of so many favorites - like Atwood, Woolf, Rhys and Sargasso Sea, and Jenny Offill's Dept of Speculation, which I'd almost forgotten about - put in this critical context. Thanks for the great post!
Thank you! I'm glad you found it helpful : ) To be honest, I am always unsure when the literary periods begin and merge, and their differences, which are often subtle. Researching for this post helped me to pin them down a bit by relating them to novels I'd read. Also, Dept. of Speculation blew me away!
I think its very useful to those of us English majors who haven't been to school in a while (ahem)to learn the threads that literature has taken while we have been busy living our lives. Your article makes me wonder how the Contemporary period will be carved up in future and what themes and practices will be extracted from that review. I also love the fact that some of the greats like Atwood seem to transcend the barriers of definition.
Thanks Andrea, and I think you pose an interesting question here that I hadn't really considered: where will the forms go from here? They will obviously continue to borrow and merge with the older forms, but it will be interesting to see what new forms develop going forward. Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment : )
I enjoyed your breakdown of literary periods. I'm struck with the way writers (and artists) often leap forward into a period not yet established (I'm thinking of Bosch's Garden of Earthy Delights, which seems straight out of the Surrealist movement, or Stein's Tender Buttons, which doesn't seem to belong to any literary period).
Thanks, Arnie. You make an excellent point in that some writers appear to write in a style and movement that has not even been established until much later. I mentioned a comment in a previous post where a critic had suggested that Charlotte Bronte's 'Villette' had anticipated the later novel sequence 'Pilgrimage' by modernist writer Dorothy Richardson. I think it's so interesting how all these literary movements unfold. Thanks for reading and for taking the time to comment : )
Fantastic article! It’s fascinating to see the way modernist and post-modernist literature influenced famous writers. I’ve read some of the authors/works you’ve mentioned, but I always add to my reading list after reading your newsletters :)
Thanks! I'm glad to add to your reading list : )
Really enjoyed listening to this.It shows the overlap of the contemporary era.
Thanks, glad you found it useful : )
This is a wonderful synopsis - I recently realized despite being an English major I have really did not know exactly what postmodernism was, and then here you came to the rescue! I also enjoyed seeing this parade of so many favorites - like Atwood, Woolf, Rhys and Sargasso Sea, and Jenny Offill's Dept of Speculation, which I'd almost forgotten about - put in this critical context. Thanks for the great post!
Thank you! I'm glad you found it helpful : ) To be honest, I am always unsure when the literary periods begin and merge, and their differences, which are often subtle. Researching for this post helped me to pin them down a bit by relating them to novels I'd read. Also, Dept. of Speculation blew me away!