The Modernist era was a movement that started during the late Victorian era where the Victorian settings were being replaced to modern settings. The Modernism is a combination of many “isms” which includes Surrealism, Vorticism , Expressionism , Impressionism , Imagism , Symbolism , Futurism and others. The Modernist novels encapsulates these features and rejected the Romantic and Victorian ideals. Some of the important novelists are Virginia Woolf , D.H Lawrence , James Joyce and Joseph Conrad.
The Modernist novelists treated with a technique of stream of consciousness. It is perfected by Virginia Woolf and James Joyce who had abundantly used this technique in their writings. It is used to explore human relationships. It helps in exploring the interior insights of human consciousness and their flow of feelings and emotions towards certain situations. The technique helps in understanding fragmented realm of one’s consciousness and view the world of others individually. Through this technique, one can understand the position of human beings in the society and various atrocities an individual find in translating their emotions to the world. It also helps in understanding human emotional responses to certain situation implying Id, ego and superego as well as to explore the mystery of conscious mind
Allusions are also common in their novels. Allusion are references to the past or knowledge of the past. The allusion has many functions but it makes any written piece of work objective. The allusions are the combination of poet’s knowledge of the past and his own personal experiences which are amalgamated to shroud a new type of emotion different to the writer’s own emotions. The allusions are taken from the works of Ancient poets and other classical poets or contemporary.
The another major writing was the use of symbols. Symbols are used to bridge the emotions when words fail to express those felt emotions. Modernist novels are filled with many symbols and images that are taken from reality but it becomes impersonal. Modernism is influenced by the Symbolist Movement and they believed that human mind is replaced with images and hence these images serve as a symbol to express certain depth of feelings and emotions when words fail to bridge. Take for an instance, the symbol of “ocean” represents unconscious mind. Ocean is as deep as our own unconscious mind.
Modernist novels is also influenced by Henry Bergson’s philosophy of time. He believed that time exists in two separate ways. There is the existence of inner time and outer time. The inner time is the time that exist in human mind where one can follow along with the progression of time or go back to the past memories and experiences. The outer time is the linear state of progression and the physical time that exists in a concrete object. These writings depicts the fragmented narration in the stories of the flow of consciousness to past memories or experiences and also the flow of outer reality/time.
The another important writing of Modernist novels are the development of self. They were influenced by Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis and depicts the human self. The human self is divided into two and shows the inner self and outer self. The inner self is the self hidden inside the individual and the outer self is the self which an individual shows it to the world. The development of self is very important element in the modernist novels which shows the reality of the Modern society. It depicts the position of an individual in the society who are isolated and alienated in the society. The most important aspect of Freudian psychoanalysis was the human relationships. The relationships includes Oedipus Complex , sexuality , primitivism and others which shows the early sexual stages of the growth and development of the characters or an individual as such.
The Modernist novels also depicts the impact of World War and heavy growth of industrialization and materialistic flow in the society. The writers portrays the instability in the family caused due the rapid growth of progression and the inability of mankind to trace the technology. They look at the situation from the objective point of view in search for the quest and truth to understand the development of certain sexual stages and its underlying roots or primitivism in the novels. The anti-romanticism is the real essence of Modernist characters as they are ordinary beings or ordinary normal characters who are hesitated or alienated in the society and also struggling in the society.
Lastly, the Modernist novels are also influenced by Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. It believed in the flow of motion perceived differently in different positions. In art, it is translated into variety of the flow of perceptions. It gave a unique style of multiple voices in the novel where different opinions flow in the novel echoing the different experiences of the same experience. These technique shows the existence of time from the scientific perspective translated into art to showcase the experiences of individuals and how it differs and vary from individual to individual.
