Fundamentals of

Literature

 Classicism
 Neoclassicism Modernism
Post Modernism
 Romanticism
 Realism
 Naturalism
Fundamentals of Literature (BY: Belachew W- Assitant Professor ) 1
What is Classicism?
 Classicism refers to the styles, rules, conventions and
modes of the classical authors, and their influence on
the works of later authors.
 What then is a Classic? A Classic is a work of high
authority. It could mean a literary work belonging to
ancient Greece or Rome or a writer or his/her work that
is of such high quality/merit — that, it is acknowledged
as excellent.
 Classicism refers to anything’ pertaining to ancient
Greece or Rome. The influence of classicism was strong
in France in the 17th and the 18th centuries, but its
influence was also felt very strongly in England at that
time.

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Movement Origin
 Classicism both as an art style and as the first theory
of art was defined by the ancient Greeks, emulated by
the Romans, and then continued to appear in various
forms across the centuries.
 Historically, the periods most associated with
Classicism are the fifth and fourth centuries BC in
Greece with writers such as Aristotle and Sophocles;
the first century BC and first century AD in Rome with
writers such as Cicero and Vergil; in late seventeenth-
century French drama; and in the eighteenth century,
especially in France, during a period called the
Enlightenment, with such writers as Voltaire and
Condorcet.

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Movement Origin
 Classicism has its roots in ancient Greek and Roman
literature, philosophy and art.
 Classicist believed that the lows of nature could be
rationally understood and explained purely by reason.

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 Characteristics
 Both ancient Greek and ancient Roman writers stressed
restraint and restricted scope, reason reflected in theme
and structure, and a unity of purpose and design.
 In his Poetics, for example, Aristotle stressed the unities of
time, place, and action. Perhaps basing his theory of drama
on Sophocles's plays, Aristotle asserted that the action of a
play must occur within 24 hours, with all the events taking
place in one location, and each event causing the next
event.
 Following these restrictions would produce a pleasingly
cohesive drama. In all, the ancients believed that art was a
vehicle for communicating the reason and intelligence that
permeate the world and human affairs when people act
rationally and according to moral precept.

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Main Characteristics
 Rely on reason rather than imagination
 Style is known by its simplicity and clarity
 Unity of design and purpose
 Logically organized
 Respect for tradition

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Neo-classicism
 Apart from classicism another literary tradition
— the neoclassical period extended between
166O-l78O got prominence in England.
 Dryden, Swift, Addison, Steel and Pope were
some of the exponents of this tradition. The
writers of this tradition thought very highly of
the ancient classical authors and thought of
literature as an art to be perfected through
prolonged study.
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Neoclassicism
 They were hence, extremely skilled craftsmen who
respected the rules of their art. They believed that
the function of art was also to “instruct and to
please” and considered reason and judgment to be
admirable qualities.
 They believed in technical correctness and had a
definite vision of man and mankind. They upheld
the preserving of order, balance and correctness
and also imitated the works of the classical writers
particularly those belonging to the Latin tradition.

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Neoclassical. . .
 The literary period from 1660-1798 is generally called
Neoclassical.
 The period is called neoclassical because its writers
looked back to the ideals and art forms of classical
times, emphasizing even more than their Renaissance
predecessors the classical ideals of order and rational
control.

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Neoclassicism. . .
 dominated English literature from the Restoration in 1660
until the end of the eighteenth century, when the
publication of Lyrical Ballads (1798) by Wordsworth and
Coleridge marked the full emergence of Romanticism.
 The period is divided into three relatively coherent parts:
 the Restoration Age (1660-1700), in which Milton,
Bunyan, and Dryden were the dominant influences;
 the Augustan Age (1700-1750), in which Pope was the
central poetic figure, and
 the Age of Johnson(1750-1798), which, while it was
dominated and characterized by the mind and personality
of the inimitable Dr. Samuel Johnson
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Neoclassicism
 To a certain extent Neoclassicism represented a reaction against
the optimistic, exuberant, and enthusiastic Renaissance view
of man as a being fundamentally good and possessed of an
infinite potential for spiritual and intellectual growth.
 Neoclassical theorists, by contrast, saw man as an imperfect
being, inherently sinful, whose potential was limited.
 They replaced the Renaissance emphasis on the imagination,
on invention and experimentation, and on mysticism with an
emphasis on order and reason, on restraint, on common
sense, and on religious, political, economic and philosophical
conservatism.
 They maintained that man himself was the most appropriate
subject of art, and saw art itself as essentially pragmatic — as
valuable because it was somehow useful — and as something
which was properly intellectual rather than emotional.

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The Beginning of Romanticism
 In 1800, in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth
issued his famous proclamation about the nature of
poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings.”
 With this statement, Wordsworth shifted the center
of attention from the work as a reflection or imitation
of reality to the artist, and the artist's relationship to
the work.

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Romanticism
 Romanticism (c. 1798–1832): A literary and artistic
movement that reacted against the restraint and
universalism of the Enlightenment.
 The Romantics celebrated spontaneity, imagination,
subjectivity, and the purity of nature.
 Notable English Romantic writers include Jane Austen,
William Blake, Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William
Wordsworth.
 Prominent figures in the American Romantic
movement include Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman
Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, William Cullen Bryant, and
John Greenleaf Whittier.
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 The publication, in 1798, by the poets William
Wordsworth (1770-1850) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(1772-1834) of a volume entitled Lyrical Ballads is a
significant event in English literary history, though the
poems were poorly received and few books sold.
 As a reaction to the restraints and rules imposed by
classicists, Romanticism came into being in the late 18th
century.

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 Romanticists showed a profound admiration and love for
nature.
 Romanticists took interest in the strange and the
mysterious as opposed to common sense.
 The leading Romantic writers include Blake,
Wordsworth, Scott, Shelly and Keats in England.

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Classicism Vs Romanticism
 Classicist and Romanticists also differed on their approches
towards reason and imagination.
 Classicism attached much more importance to reason than
imagination because imagination could not be explained by
their laws. To them, “ the imagination, though essential to
literature, had to be restrained by reason and common
sense.”; (text, 119)
 The Romanticists, however, emphasized that reason was not
the only path to truth. “;Instead, Romantic writers
emphasized intuition, that inner perception of truth which is
independent of reason.”; (text, 122) To the Romantic writers,
imagination was ultimately superior to reason.

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Classicists vs. . . .
 Yet another area of difference between Classicists and
Romanticists is whether they placed greater
importance on tradition or whether they chose to
innovate.
 Classicists thought that it was literature’s function to
show the everyday values of humanity and the laws of
human existence. Their idea was that “classicism
upheld tradition, often to the point of resisting
change, because tradition seemed a reliable testing
ground for those laws.”; (text, 122)

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Classicists vs . . .
 As for the Romantics, they wrote about how man has
no boundaries and endless possibilities.
 “Who,”; Emerson asked, “ can set bounds to the
possibilities of man?”; (text, 122) Opposing classicist’s
importance being put on human limitation, “the
Romantics stressed the human potential for social
progress and spiritual growth.”; (text, 122)

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Classicism and Romanticism Difference

 While the Classicists thought of the world as having a

rigid and stern structure, the romanticists thought of
the world as a place to express their ideas and beliefes.
 The Romanticists and Classicists differed in their
views of the relationship between an individual and
society, their views of nature and the relationship
between reason and imagination.

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 Classicists and Romanticists differed in their views of
nature.
 Classicism was based on the idea that nature and
human nature could be understood by reason and
thought. Classicist believed that “nature was, a self-
contained machine, like a watch, whose laws of
operation could be rationally understood.”

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Modernism
 Modernism is a school of thought or a movement that
took place in the late 19th century and early 20th
centuries.
 It involved a reform movement in art, music,
literature, and the applied arts.
 It was based on rational thinking, logic, and the
scientific process. It aimed at creating a clear and
rational view of the world; believing that through
science and reason mankind can advance and grow.
 It advocated the belief that there is much to learn from
the past that could be beneficial to the present.
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 Modernism supported the belief that there is a
purpose for life and that it should be viewed
objectively.
 Modernists had an optimistic view of the world and
believed that there are values and ethics that need to
be followed.

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Post Modernism
 Postmodernism, on the other hand, is a school of thought
or a movement that took place after the Second World War,
but it gained popularity in the 1960s. It was a chaotic era
hard to comprehend and apprise.
 It advocated the belief that there is no universal truth. It
used an unscientific approach to life and believed that all
things are irrational. Postmodernists believed in chance
and transience.
 They questioned the rationality of modernism, its
principles and thinking. They believed that there is no
connection between the past and the present and that past
events are irrelevant in the present.

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 Very few original works of artists can be found during
this time, and previous works were copied.
 Postmodernist artists get their inspiration and basis
from the original works of modernist artists.

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Post Modernism
 Postmodern literature is a form of literature which
is marked, both stylistically and ideologically, by a
reliance on such literary conventions as
fragmentation, paradox, unreliable narrators, often
unrealistic and downright impossible plots, games,
parody, paranoia, dark humor and authorial self-
reference.

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Summary:
1. Modernism is a school of thought that took place in late 1800s
and early 1900s while postmodernism is a school of thought
that took place after World War II.
2. Modernism advocated rational thinking and the use of science
and reason for the advancement of man while postmodernism
believed in the irrationality of things.

3. The modernist era was characterized by the simple and elegant

original works of gifted artists while the postmodernist era was
characterized by the advancement in technology and its use in
different media.

4. Modernists believed in universal truth while postmodernists

did not.

5. Postmodernists were very political while modernists were not.

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