21 literary movements?!
...overlapping, forming a tangled web
How did they know what to write?
Who said, "Let us be enlightened!"
Or "It is time to be absurd."?
Do authors dawn new literary trends
as teenagers following the latest style?
Do important leaders -
Elizabeth, Victoria -
Simply order "A new movement shall there be!"
Or is there something more...
A human condition perhaps?
That directs the tides of written art,
Guides their hands and their thoughts...
It calls them to write of things of value,
Of significance in their life and times.
It calls them to make a difference,
To use their words to change minds.
Be there influences of culture,
Or catastrophic events that sway the age,
Be there exciting discoveries,
Or disillusionment in corrupted actions...
Literature will forever remain
Changing, flowing, forming
To say what needs to be said.
To bring reason to those lost in their dreams.
To sing romance into eager lives.
To enhance beauty when it goes unseen.
To show reality to those who don't care.
To strike creativity in a structured place.
To inspire change and promote acceptance.
To relate experience and promote awareness.
To redirect wasted efforts.
It seems there is a pattern
In the literature throughout the years.
It does not change on every whim,
But shapes and builds
On visionary dreams.
So what is the struggle of our life and times?
What movement in literature
Will flow from our pens?
It's all up to you, and what you want to say.
From your life, transformation begins.
You know I guess I always just assumed that the literary movements or time periods were absolutes: it didn't matter why or how, they just were. Now I'm wondering why I was never curious about how they came to be. Other than raising my self-awareness I like your analysis of the how these time periods came to be.
ReplyDelete--Sapir L.
Your analysis of the literary movements was really interesting. I agree that the movements resemble an ocean tide as they come up, fade away, then make their way back to shore. After every conservative movement there seems to be a more liberal generation that follows it.Examples would be the Victorian era which had a more conservative approach to literature and then Transcendentalism which focused on the individual. There was intellect that came with High Modernism in the 1920's and then Literature of the Absurd that began in 1930. It seems that history, as well as literature, often repeats itself. I wonder what our generation will be recognized for.
ReplyDelete~Lauren B.
Literature is like a way to talk to ourselves which helps us think and develop thought. So literature can be anything we want or need it to be. It's interesting to read literature from these different movements because it shows the persons inner most thoughts, dreams, realities, etc. I love your analysis on the movements because it does recognize that the literature of the time period helped the people around them further cause a reaction (a change to a different movement).
ReplyDelete-Alicia M.