Continuity and change in the modernist novel

Modernism is a radical break with the past ,is a new way of looking at life through a new

way of expression in art or literature . This is a period when those who created art , refused to go

further on with the traditional values , and try something rather new in what concerns art ,

literature and even culture. Due to industrialization and the World War I , people felt that

everything must be changed because it was outdated , the traditional forms of art , social

activities , collective identities . As a literary current , modernist authors , and people in general ,

felt betrayed by all institutions in which they believed , the institutions that are a primary cause

of the War , so they not only radically changed the content of the novel but also the form of it .

To fully observe and comprehend what has changed , one should , at least , mention the contrast

between the traditional values and the new way of thinking .

The Victorian novel centers the everyday experiences , the inner struggles , the moral

progress of the ordinary people . It is filled with long descriptions of landscapes and crowded

with characters . The novelists were concerned about daily life routines, about the culture , the

message of the novel was clear , there is either right or wrong , good or bad and nothing in

between . The notion of hard work is idealized , perseverance and love always wins , the novel

always has a moral lesson , and the virtues are rewarded and those who do not obey are

punished .
 Some of famous Modernist writers are James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, T.S. Eliot , F. Scott

Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence , Samuel Beckett .

As previously mentioned , the modernist writers changed the structure , the form and the

meaning . They have focused on another aspects of the life, on a new approach of the truth , the

relativity . There is no such thing as absolute truth in the modernist novel , the narrator makes

one to question everything , to have an active role in the interpretation of the text . The text has

multiple perspectives and viewpoints , the narration is fragmented . The objective omniscient

point of view is rejected , the novelists begin to forget using only one main character with a

limited point of view and perspective , and begin to use the perspective and the points of view of

multiple characters to give a completely new type of novel .

A feauture that clearly puts modernist novels in direct opposition with Victorian novels is

the pessimistic approach of the text . The Victorian novel always has an optimistic view , the

ending is happy and cheerful , just like a fairytale , but the modernists allow the reader to fully

interpret the text . The time is non-linear , sometimes based on myths , and one good example is

James Joyces Ulysses .

In Ulysses a new writing technique is used , the stream of consciousness . The stream of

consciousness has also been used by Virgina Woolf in her novels . This technique helps

revealing a point of view of an character based on his own thoughts , and can illustrate the

personality of the character , and internal portrait .

Another modernist writer , D.H. Lawrence is revealing a new area of interest ,

psychology and the sacred sensuality in his novel Women in Love . He is deeply interested

in human psychology , and in Women in love the psychological development is the basic
element of the novel . Love and hate are mixed in the subconscious and help the developing of

the relationships and the novel . Lawrences techniques are new in this field of expertise , he

brought the psychological development on a new level in this novel . You mustnt look in my

novel for the old stable ego of the character . There is another ego , according to whose action the

individual is unrecognizable and passes through , as it were , allotropic states which it needs a

deeper sense than any weve been used to exercise, to discover (D.H. Lawrence ) .

To sum up , modernism is a period of a radical change , not only in literature , but in

every concept of the human nature . The society has changed , the women are not oppressed ,

forgotten like in Victorian Age . Every literary concept is either new or used in a new way to

demonstrate that a novel should be interpreted by the reader , where the narrator is rather

playing with and confusing the reader. The structure of the text itself has changed , the form , the

content and the types of characters .

Bibliography

http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0255.html

http://www.academia.edu/12834705/Analyzing_Elements_of_Modernism_in_James_Joyce_Ulys

ses_

http://www.sprog.asb.dk/tt/giddens/lectures/some_characteristics_of_modernism.htm

The Reinvention of Love in D.H. Lawrences Women in love, Jianjun Zheng , Foreign Language

Department , South China Institute of Software Engineering , Guangzhou University.

http://www.uniassignment.com/essay-samples/english-literature/narrative-techniques-

victorianism-vs-modernism-english-literature-essay.php

https://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/Ulysses

http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanfiction/stream-of-consciousness-in-

ulysses.html#.WE-X0rJ97IU