The 8 most important literary movements

A summary of the main literary movements, classified and explaining their characteristics.

Throughout the history of literature, there have been different currents shared by their authors. These are the literary movements, sets of currents, genres and styles that have marked a period and group of writers at different times in the history of the arts.

There have been many literary movements that have existed because each era has its preferences with respect to literature, just as there have also been different currents at the same time and variations from country to country.

In the following we are going to see which have been the main literary movements, as well as to talk aboutand we will also talk about their main characteristics.

What are literary movements?

Literary movements are known as the different historical and historical and aesthetic trends that are part of the history of literature.. Each of these movements is made up of a group of writers or works, grouped together because the specialized public considers that they share a style or common features can be extracted. Thus, it is normal that when we refer to a famous writer or a famous work, it is grouped into literary movements such as Modernism, Classicism, Baroque, etc., for example.

There have been many literary movements throughout history and they have even varied according to the region where they were created, have varied according to the region in which they became popular.. Some were extremely popular, long-lasting and influential and, practically always, they were accompanied by similar currents in other arts and fields of knowledge apart from literature, such as painting, sculpture, music or philosophy.

Although there have been literary movements that arose from the union of writers who came together to share a common style or objective, in most cases these movements have been created a posteriori. That is to say, it usually happens that the writers that today we associate to a certain artistic current were not consciously aware that they belonged to it, but rather they have been specialists and critics.Instead, later specialists and literary critics who have interpreted their works have found common characteristics and have included them in the same literary movement.

Characteristics of literary movements

Before talking about the main literary movements, it is important to take into account what are the most distinctive features of this type of artistic currents:

1. They serve to organize the history of literature.

Literary experts group writers and works that share certain traits under the name of a particular literary movement. It should be said, however, that it has sometimes been the case that movements were formed by groupings of writers who came together expressly to create a new artistic current.. An example of this is surrealism, whose artists were very conscious of sharing ideas and applying the same techniques in the world of the arts.

2. Non-strict temporal and geographical limits

In literary history it is normal to attribute to artistic movements a specific time period and geographic location; however, these factors are not necessarily strict.

Some movements are made up of writers who shared a style or characteristics, but who did not live in the same time or place.. It also happens that the same author may have followed several currents throughout his life, starting his life as a writer following a particular literary trend and then evolving into another very different one.

3. They are appreciated in retrospect.

Many literary movements can only be appreciated in retrospect, once that current has come to an end. The reason for this is that, unlike other art forms, literature is an extremely slow-moving one: books must be written, edited, published and, once they have been released, made known to be read and, hopefully, appreciated. If they acquire sufficient importance, these works will become the focus of interest of literary critics who will organize them into movements..

The problem is that this recognition can occur long after the work has been published, sometimes after several centuries. For this reason, many movements have been named and recognized much later, when literary experts found common traits in a set of authors.

4. Purpose and certain characteristics

Literary movements differ from each other in their conception of literature, their purpose and the specific way in which they use language. Each movement is characterized by a particular style or way of writing works..

5. They cover different genres

There is no literary movement that has not experimented with several genres. In addition to narrative, the majority of them also include poetry, dramaturgy and didactic genre, among others..

What are the main literary movements?

As we were saying, there are many literary movements that have existed. These have varied over time and, also, have presented their particularities according to the country where they were successful. It is not possible to speak of absolutely all the literary movements that have existed and their particularities, but it is possible to speak of the most important ones, of those whose authors and works have contributed to the success of the literary movements. whose authors and works have contributed significantly to the history of literature..

However, it is worth mentioning that the classification we are going to see is very focused on Western literature, the artistic movements that one would expect to study in high school language and literature class. As might be expected, other parts of the world such as China, Japan, India, the Arab countries or the Slavic world have had their own literary movements, which, if we were to take into account, would greatly enrich the list.

The following are the main Western literary movements.

1. Renaissance (15th-16th century)

The main themes of Renaissance literature were love, mythology and nature.. One of the outstanding aspects of Renaissance authors was their marked anthropocentrism and constant vindication of the values of Greco-Latin authors.

Some examples of works of this movement are:

• "Macbeth", by William Shakespeare (1564-1616).
• "Don Quixote of La Mancha", by Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616).
• "The Divine Comedy", by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321).

2. Baroque (17th century)

During the Baroque, one of the most outstanding literatures was Spanish. Baroque authors were characterized by the abundant use of figures and literary resources, with recurring themes of love, disillusionmentTheir recurring themes were love, disillusionment, lies and death.

Some of the most outstanding works of this period, mostly in Spanish, are:

• "Fuenteovejuna" (AÑO), by Lope de Vega (1562-1635).
• "El burlador de Sevilla", by Tirso de Molina (1583-1648)
• "La vida es sueño", by Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681).

3. Neoclassicism (XVIII century)

Neoclassicism was a movement that looked back to ancient times looked back to ancient times, obsessed by the apparent perfection of classical Rome and Greece.. The authors of this movement were characterized by the predominance of reason and their interest in transmitting values such as harmony, beauty and order. This movement emerged as a counterpoint to the Baroque, seen as irregular and imperfect.

Some notable neoclassical works are:

• "Cartas Eruditas y curiosas", by Fray Benito Jerónimo Feijoo (1676-1764).
• "El sí de las niñas", by Leandro Fernandez de Moratín (1760-1828)
• "The meadow of San Isidro", by Ramón de la Cruz (1731-1794)

4. Romanticism (XVII-XIX century)

Romantic literature valued above all the author's sensibility, especially in poetry.. The Romantics distanced themselves from the rational and cosmopolitan world, just what the authors of Realism valued.

Romanticism stands out for speaking of legends, myths, traditions and other aspects of the imaginary of the people, being the seed for nationalism as we know it today. Also recurrent were the stories in which the interiority of the characters was shown.

Some works of this movement are:

• "Les Miserables", by Victor Hugo (1802-1885).
• "The Misadventures of Young Werther", by Johann W. von Goethe (1749-1832).
• "Frankenstein", by Mery Shelley (1797-1851)

5. Realism (19th century)

The literature of Realism was marked by the philosophical ideals of the French Enlightenment and was directly opposed to the romantic postulates.. Realist writers conceived literature as an art capable of faithfully representing reality, and for this purpose they made use of narrative, especially the novel. If anything defines Realism, it is the use of a precise, meticulous, objective language, totally detached from the emotional.

Some outstanding works of Realism are:

• "Madame Bovary", by Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880).
• "Crime and Punishment", by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881).
• "War and Peace", by Lev Tolstoy (1828-1910).

6. Surrealism (20th century)

Surrealism was a meeting point for poets and playwrights rather than storytellers. Surrealist writers sought to reproduce in their works a state of meaninglessness and spontaneity in creatingThis is something very well represented in other arts bathed by Surrealism, such as painting or cinema. The writers of this movement sought to reproduce in their works mysterious connections product of unbridled creativity.

Surrealists valued what sane people would not value: madness, delirium, the rupture of forms... They practiced the technique of the exquisite corpse and automatic writing. They are credited with being among the first to practice what we know today as "performance art".They also made highly innovative combinations for their time, such as combining poetry with painting.

One of the most outstanding works of Surrealism is the "Manifesto of Surrealism", written by the French author André Breton (1896-1966). The title of this work may seem pretentious at first, but Breton is certainly credited with being the father of this movement in terms of its literary version.

7. Modernism (19th-20th century)

Modernist literature emerged in Latin America, but became especially influential in Spain. So much so that the movement came to be known as "La vuelta de las carabelas" (The return of the caravels), since its form of writing, with classicist and baroque features, was later imitated in Spain. The modernists had the intention of renewing literary language and introduced a certain preciosity in their forms and themes, especially in poetry.especially in poetry.

Some outstanding modernist works are:

• "El poemario Azul", by Rubén Darío (1867-1916).
• "Platero y yo", by Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881-1958).
• "Ismaelillo", by José Martí (1853-1895).

8. Magic Realism (XX-XXI century)

The literature of Magical Realism sought to incorporate the fantastic and the marvelous into the stories, without emphasizing their astonishing character.. The followers of this movement, still in force today, tell stories in a realistic and everyday way. One of the exponents of Magical Realism is undoubtedly the Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2014), with his work "One Hundred Years of Solitude", which won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.