Compare Modern to Contemporary Literature Term Paper

Modernism, and how the literature that is considered to be Modernist literature is representative of the period. Then explain how contemporary world literature comes from Modernism

Discuss three Modernists and their work.

Then discuss two contemporary authors. Explain how they represent NOW (or the contemporary world which is from 1968 on.)

Then discuss the differences between Modernism and contemporary literature.

James Joyce, Franz Kafka, and DH Lawrence are three examples of three different modernist writers. Each of them represents a different facet of Modernism. Kafka is most renowned for The Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle. Each of these books probe reality and existence as man understands it and questions our existence on this world. Respect for traditional hierarchy is questioned and the value of man, itself, is at stake. In "Metamorphosis," for instance, a boy turns into a cockroach and is rejected by his parents. We have the philosophical question of the self and the value of human life. The Castle questions workings of government, and the futility of reaching one's goals. K. (the protagonist in the story) attempts to reach the Castle, a highly venerated and obscure haven of bureaucracy only to find the governors in that Castle flawed and corrupt. "The Trial" is even more disturbing in that it portrays a man's playing around with different women and his being killed by an impulsive and flawed trial where one of the men kills him like a dog!

James Joyce is famous for many works including Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Finnegan's Wake. What all (and others) have in common is break from the traditional style of writing with focus on the inner stream of consciousness; bitterness to religion (implied in almost all of the plots; an intense secularism (where man is of and on the street and thrust into reality); and new styles of dialogue and form. Joyce may be read as retreat from the world into man's psychic reality obverting literature where internal monologue becomes stronger than external reality.DH Lawrence was, arguably, the most controversial of the three with his direction being sex. Lawrence broke new grounds in sexual description and was accused of pornography. Books such as Lady Chatterley's Lover, Women in Love, and Sons and Lovers, graphically portrayed sexual reality in a manner that was shocking at his time. Described as a realist, Joyce was affected by Nietzsche and elevated sensuality above intellectual experience. All the books deal with people in industrial settings (with the partial exception of Lady Chatterley's Lover) and possess graphical portrayal of human sexuality and touch.

Each of these authors, in turn, focuses on different themes. Kafka deliberates on existence and man's purpose in the world. He was affected by the philosophy of his time that was largely existentialism: a concern with identity and meaning in this world and reversal of traditional religion and teleological / purposive existence. Joyce battered traditional religion and hierarchy and innovated with new styles of literature as well as truncated style and form. Lawrence lived Nietzsche's Superman and claimed sensuality to be more important and life-fiving than the 'inner' world of soul or mind.

Let's contrast this to two contemporary writers: Largely written after World War 2, contemporary….....