Literary avant-gardes of the 20th century

In the early 20th century they began to appear new artistic and literary currents who were baptized as the "isms". They were movements that sought, in one way or another, to break with reality to find other forms of expression that were totally groundbreaking with the artistic tradition and, thus, offer a new discourse for a new century. All these "isms" were integrated into a common movement that was the Avant-garde since, although they had interesting differences, they also shared the same union. In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to offer a summary of the literary avant-gardes of the 20th century so that, thus, you can know its main characteristics and all the artistic currents that arose from this new spirit. We started the lesson!

The Avant-garde was an artistic movement that also influenced literature. Appeared in france and its original name was "avant-garde", a term that refers to those creators who go hand in hand with their time and who want to offer a totally current and refreshing artistic experience. For this reason, one of the characteristics of the most outstanding literary avant-gardes is that it is a trend that bets on the

experimental and innovative art, a totally original type of art that departs from previous traditions.

The trend of the avant-garde not only affected the arrests but also had a great influence in other fields such as the politics and philosophy. The avant-garde wanted to investigate and step beyond the norm to discover what else we could find both in art and in society.

Many critics consider the Avant-garde to be one more step from Modernism, a late Modernism, since it is about a creative spirit that is inspired by modernity to offer a renovating and original artistic experience. However, for other experts on the subject, the avant-garde movement is its own movement that breaks with all the above and is committed to the search for a totally new voice and aesthetics.

The origin of the literary avant-gardes must be sought early 20th in EuropeSpecifically, it began in France and its influence spread throughout the continent. From that moment, the current crossed continents and arrived in a very strong way to America, causing the movement of the Latin American Boom.

Although traditionally this current is known by the name of literary avant-gardes, the truth is that the movement is made up of the "isms", that is to say, the undercurrents that bet on a very particular way of breaking with tradition and bet on a different and original art.

Here we discover which are the main literary avant-gardes so that you know all the artistic currents.

Impressionism

It is important to note that Impressionism not considered an "ism" of the literary avant-gardes if not, rather, an antecedent of this movement. This artistic trend, which greatly influenced the field of painting, opened the way to the avant-garde as it was committed to a liberation of artistic expression. Claude Monet is one of the most prominent Impressionist painters of this movement, culminating in a type of art that bet on a freer painting in which it did not matter that the graffiti were seen and where light was the most important.

Expressionism

At the beginning of the 20th century, Expressionism appeared, a current that emerged in Germany in 1905 and appeared as counter-movement of Impressionism. Some of the most prominent Expressionism painters were Gustav Klimt or Edvard Munch with his well-known work "The Scream" (1893); In the field of literature, Expressionism was spearheaded by authors such as Rilke or Trakl. Expressionists seek to reconstruct reality and relate the different arts to each other: plastic arts, music, literature, and so on.

This current focused on explaining the philias and phobias of the human being and, therefore, the desired result was not something aesthetically pleasing if it did not capture the most hidden reality. Expressionism faced the most classical aesthetic theory to give voice to the most silenced and intimate aesthetics of the human being.

Fauvism

In France, one of the first currents of the literary avant-garde originated - It was in 1904 when the first exhibition was exhibited of Fauvism, a mainly pictorial movement that sought to find new images that appeared by mixing different colors. That is to say, sunlight stopped being the protagonist to give way to the fusion of colors. Matisse was one of the representatives best known of Fauvism.

Cubism

In 1907 Cubism was born in France, a trend of the avant-garde of the 20th century where geometry is the main protagonist. In this type of artistic work, the sentimental was replaced by humor and the joy of living; the use of geometric figures represented a different society with a totally new point of view. Picasso or Braque they were the main representatives of Cubism. The collage technique also emerged with Cubism as it created a fragmented reality mixed with different images that had nothing to do with each other.

Futurism

In Italy, in 1909, the Futurist Manifesto by Marinetti. It is about an artist who embodied the principles of the Futurist movement in a writing that was published in the newspaper Le Fígaro in Paris. It was a current that existed for a very short period of time (until approximately 1944) due to the death of Marinetti. But his influence can be seen in artists like Duchamp or Léger.

As its name implies, Futurism is a forward-looking progressive movement, for Therefore, it totally broke with tradition and convention to seek a new way of making and creating art. The worship of the machine was one of the principles of this avant-garde current and, in addition, the Manifesto also refers to the exaltation of the sensual, the warlike and the national.

Dadaism

In 1916 in Switzerland another of the main currents of the literary avant-garde appeared: Dadaism. Hugo Ball and Tristan Tzara they were the fathers of this "ism" that achieved great success between Germany and France. These artists rebelled against literary conventions and bourgeois society, betting on a much more committed and progressive art.

In the literary field, Dadaist poetry it was characterized by being a succession of sounds and words that had no logic. It was a type of absurd and irrational art that sought to renew expression by putting to work other parts of the brain and logic that had always been left in the background.

Ultraism

We are facing one of the literary avant-garde movements that were created in Spain. Ultraism appeared in 1918 by the hand of Rafael Cansinos Assens, an artist who mobilized against Modernism and bet on a freer and less stylized literature. As principles he bet on the use of Free verse, the spotlight on anecdotes and the use of metaphors as literary devices. Huidobro was one of the poets of Ultraism as well as Apollinaire or Borges.

Surrealism

One of the most prominent literary avant-garde currents was Surrealism, a movement that started from Dadaism and had a André Breton as the main representative. It appeared in France in 1920 and was a trend that started from the Freud's psychology to enter the unconscious and discover the depths of the human mind, outside of all reasoning and all logic.

Surrealism created some creative techniques such as the "automatic writing" or "automatism", which consisted of the author writing in a totally free way, without prior reasoning and letting himself be carried away by his creativity. Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel were two Spanish artists strongly linked to the surrealist movement.

Stridentism

In 1922 another avant-garde trend appeared in Mexico that was baptized as Stridentismo. It arose due to a mixture of different movements and was characterized by the use of black humor, the rejection of tradition and the nonconformist attitude of its members. It was the antecedent of Futurism.

Although all the literary avant-gardes have their own individual characteristics, the truth is that they do share some common elements that make them "daughters" of the same movement: the Vanguardism. The experts have determined some common factors that are repeated in the vast majority of the currents explained above and that, now, we will discover you.

The main characteristics of the literary avant-gardes are as follows:

1. Freedom of expression: the artists pursued a freer and more authentic art, therefore, they dared to break with the classical structure, talk about taboo subjects, looking for new forms of expression, and so on.
2. Provocative attitude: the avant-garde was an artist who sought to provoke some reaction to the viewer and, therefore, attacked with all the preceding to create a new aesthetic much more groundbreaking and original
3. Appearance of the isms: One of the characteristics of the literary avant-gardes is that all the "isms" that we have mentioned above appeared. All of them are avant-garde trends that defend different aesthetic principles but share these common characteristics.
4. Break with the norm: the artists of the literary avant-garde wanted to break with all the preceding and bet on a more modern, free and original art. Experimental art was the basis of these artists
5. Personification is deleted: Especially in the pictorial field, avant-garde art opted for a more abstract and less personified art
6. Break with literary norms: in poetry and text, the use and accumulation of images and the rupture with the stanza, the metric, the punctuation, the syntax, and so on were committed. The calligram appeared, the poem written as an image
7. Innovative art: what the artist seeks is to find a new, original and unique art. The break with the past and tradition allows you to start from scratch and enter a totally free reality
8. Importance of symbolism: We have already commented that abstract art was the favorite among the avant-garde, therefore, symbols began to take on a great importance in the artistic object