Scandinavian Studies 374/Literature in Translation 274
Masterpieces of Scandinavian Literature:
The Twentieth Century. 

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Central Concepts

Modern Breakthrough

Place: Scandinavia
Time: 1870-1890 (peak) 

• A belief in God is replaced by a belief in science and reason.
• The world is explainable and logical.
• Realism - Literature tries to give a true picture of life.
• An interest in social issues. (Class struggle, feminism)
• A belief in objectivity - It is possible to depict reality as it is.
• Social problems can be solved in public debate.

Fin de Siècle

Place: Europe
Time: 1890-1910 (peak)  

• There is a growing pessimism about science.
• The irrational is of interest.
• Realism is used as well as dream-like symbolism.
• An interest in existential issues.
• A belief in subjectivity. (The only mind you can know is your own.  The only reality you can know is your own subjective reality.)
• A suspicion of language - Is it possible to communicate fully with others?

Modernism

Place: Europe and America
Time: 1910-1930 (peak)  

• A belief in God is replaced by a feeling of isolation and anguish.
• The world is fragmented.  The artist must provide coherence.
• Irreality - Literature creates poetic, subjective realities which do no conform to the rules of this world.
• An interest in artistic issues. (The limits of literary genres are tested.  Aspects of form in literature are of  major interest.)
• A belief in subjectivity. (The only mind you can know is your own.  The only reality you can know is your own subjective reality.)
• A suspicion of language - Is it possible to communicate fully with others?
  

Postmodernism

Place: The Western World
Time: 1960-Now (peak)
 

• Contemporary existence is in a state of confusion.
• The world is absurd. -- The modernist quest for coherence is abandoned.
• Contradictory orders of reality - A taste for science fiction and the  eruption of the fabulous into the secular world.
• An interest in the products of culture. (A distinction between "high" and "low" culture is dissolved. Styles are mixed. Commercialism  and the media are key players.) 
• Disbelief in traditional literary values, originality is challenged through parody, narrative authority is undermined, the canon is questioned, as is the "normal self"
• Radical questioning of the integrity of language

Copyright © 2001 Susan Brantly. All Rights reserved.