In the name of God
Literary Schools By Bahram M Rashidy
This article is a very short review of developments of literature in Europe until the end of 19th century. To study developments of literature in Europe we must stady schools and movements which have appeared and disappeared throughout history because of various reasons. But what are schools, schools in literature are groups of writers or artists whose style of work are similar.
We haven’t had such classification in persian literature until “Malekoshoaraye Bahar” catergorised persian literature to four styles, as you know “Khorasani, Araghi, Hendi, Dowreye Bazgasht.” But in Europe at first we must start from “Ancient Greece” where western civilization started. The Greek with thrir brilliant culture have had a strong influence on Europe, but until 15th century church had absolute power in Europe and there were not any significant literature and artwork.
In this century a movement appeared in Italy called “Humanism” which brought back Greek rationalism and changed the christian impression of human to a good and trustable being and helped the advent. Of “Renaissance” which was the rise of modern world and a cultural rebirth. People schowed an interest in the ideas and culture of ancient Greece and Rome, Gutenberg invented printing and writers and anthors like “Dante Alighieri” with his book “Divine Comedy” had started a new era in literature. It was in 16th century that for the first time a specific style for literature appeared, “Classicisme”, it was a return to Greek and Roman art and literature. classicisme had some principles like following specific rules and previons writers, and showing reality. They focused on the nature, wisdom, the educative role of art and morality.
Actually this educative role of art was very controversial, considering a group of artists who said “Art for art's sake” in the following centuries. Classicisme was dominant style until18th century especially in France with writers Like. Moiere, Boileau and Racine. In England there wasn’t an obvious classicisme and it is usually called pre-romanticism period, however, John Milton whith his book “Paradise Lost” which is a long poem about the story of Adam and Eve and how they were driven out of the Garden of Eden is fomous.
As time passed people understood that they don’t have to follow some restrictive rules in literature. French philosopher Jeam Jacques Rousseou’s ideas had a great effect on artists, they said we can trust human senes and feeling as well as wisdom Societies were getting more complicated than before and monarchies were losing their power. Royal art of classicisme changed to a new style called “Romanticisim” which first started in Britain about the last decades of 18th century. Romanticism was partly influenced by the American and French revolutions. It’s main themes were imagination, feeling, the love of nature and interest in past. Classicist authors wanted to write about beauty and goodness but romanticist authors wanted to show both good and evil aspects of life. Classicists used Greek sources in their works but romanticists mostly used their national and christian elements. Two prominent British poets “Samuel Taylor coleridge” and “William Wordsworth” published their book “Lyrical Ballads” which introduced romanticsm to the world.
“Lord Byron”, British poet who was the greatest poet of his time was a leading figure in this movement. His work including “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” and “Don Juan”. He was an immoral person and died at 37.
Famous novels like “Wuthering heights” by “Emily Bronte” and “Frankenstein” by “Mary Shelley” have been written in this period. In Germany “Guthe” and “Schlegel brothers” and in France “Victor Hugo” and “Voltair” were very famons. Hugo who was the leader of this movent in France and called it "freedom of art".
In the middle of 19th century romanticism came to an end. People wanted to see reality and they were fed up with those sentimental writings. French novelist “Honore de Balzak” wrote stories which were the beginning of a new style, “Realism”. He portrayed his society with all its features. In romanticism, writer’s feelings were a part of story and imagination was more important than reality but realism threw away these features. When a realistic writer portays his society, it’s simple and easy to understand, it is usually about ordinarypeople. In France, “Honore de Balzac”, “Standhal” and “Gustave Flaubert” with his novel “Madame Bovary” which was considered as the bible of realism, were famons realistic authors. “Charles Dickens, Robert Luis Stevenson, Jack London and Ernest Hemingway” were Famous British and American realistic authors and in Russia which had a strong realism, “Feodor Dostoyovsky” writer of “Crime and punishment” and “Leo Tolstoy” writer of the greatest realistic russian novel “War and peace”. There was a kind of realism which was called scientific realism at first but later it became a new and dominant style called “Naturaism”. Naturalists were impressed with science at that time, books like “origin of specices” by “Darwin”. They were very pessimistic and most of the time they wrote about unequalities and the oppressed.
They believed human race is doomed to annihilation. There was a common mistake in 19th century, it was trusting in science of that time. They even thought steam engine will be the last invention. “Emile Zola” French writer was leader of this movement. His famons novel is “Germinal”. “Henric Ibsen” norwegian paywrite and American writer “John Steinbeck” are well-known naturalistic authors.
There was a group of poets who wanted to change dominant rules of poetry and by now they had found out that world is not so simple.
They had obtained eastern theosophy. They said that world is full of signs that we must interpret than. They established a movement called "Symbolism"0 “Charles Boudelair” who shocked the world with his poems “the flowers of evil” was one of the pioneers of this movement.
Symbolists confessed that human beings know nothing. They usually thought about death and human’s fears. Their plays and writings are about mysterious palaces in imaginary countries in unknown times. “Edgar Allan Poe” American poet was the best symbolistic author. His famous works are “The fall of house of usher”, “The pit and the pendulum” and “The murders in the rue morgue”. His poems are: “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee”. He invented modern detective story. “Ezra Pound” whose best-known poems are “The Cantos” and “William Butler Yeats” in Britain and in France “Stephen Mallarme” and “Paul Verain” and In Germany “Reiner Maria Rilke” were famous symbolistic authors. Both Poe and Rilke have had a strong effect on “Sadegh Hedayat”.
Twentieth Century:
Twentieth century started with war and disappointed theorists and intellectuals. It’s not so easy to write about schools in 20th century, they’re very complicated and some times are not distinguishable clearly. So I just name the most important ones with a short explaination.
- Impressionism: it was borrowed from painting and was about presenting thoughts as they appear to artist at a particular moment.
- Expressionism: in this school the artis’s subjective expression of inner experiences was emphasised and an inner feeling was expressed through a distorted expression of reality.
- Futurism: expressed values of machine age.
- Dadaism: a nihilistic movement based on irrationality and rejecting accepted laws of beauty.
- Surrealism: represented thoughts and dreams in a strange way. French poet “Andre Breton” developed it out of Dadaism and it was even more nihilistic than Dadaism.
- Existentialism: a philosophical movement assumed that every body is free and is responsible for what they do.
- Post–modernism: it is against established modernism and usually about absurdity of this world.
Bibliography
- مکتب های ادبی: رضا سید حسینی
- Literary Schools: Farah Yeganeh
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