Impressionism: A Literary Theory

 

INTRODUCTION:

Impressionism is a literary theory or movement found in English literature towards the end of the 19^th century and the beginning of 20^th century. This movement was mainly inspired by the French painters like Vincent Van Gogh and Auguste Renoir. The English poets and novelists applied and followed the style of the French painters as far as the expression of ideas and emotions are concerned. They followed the philosophy of the French painters while writing their poetry and novels.

ORIGIN OF IMPRESSIONISM:

Impressionism as a literary movement originated from French style and techniques of painting. A group of painters headed by Vincent, Monet, Cassatt and Renoir brought innovation in their paintings from 1867 to 1886.

MEANING OF IMPRESSIONISM:

Impressionistic literature can basically be defined as when an author centers his story/attention on the character’s mental life such as the character’s impressions, feelings, sensations and emotions.  

Impressionistic art is defined by a desire to capture the fleeting, sensory effect of a scene or subject matter; the momentary “impression” that it left on the artist or that it leaves on the viewer.

Why is it called Impressionism?

There are two types of reality – External and Internal. The impressionist artists were not trying to paint a reflection of real life, but an ‘impression’ of what the person, light; atmosphere, object or landscape looked like to them. And that’s why they were called impressionists. They aimed at presenting the impressions which they received after looking at an object in the real, external world.

FEATURES OF IMPRESSIONISTIC LITERATURE:

In literature, impressionist writers exhibit some special traits:

1.   Ambiguous Meaning:

One of the hallmarks of impressionistic writing is a unique narrative style in which the themes and narration are left ambiguous. Their literature has multiple meanings. Here, the writer gives the readers more scope to think, judge and leaves the reader to draw their own conclusions, forcing them to “read between the lines” in order to exact meaning from the text, rather than depending upon him.

 2.   Personal Point of View:

Impressionist literary works often depict narrative action through the subjective or personal point of view about what they observe. They are opposed to the objectivity or disinterestedness of some of the Victorian writers. They try to express their own, personal view of life and society.

 3.   Emotional Landscape:

Another trait of an impressionist writer is a desire to paint an emotional, sensory background for their characters. Impressionists are less interested in looking at a scene in terms of literal location than they are evoking the sounds, smells, and feelings experienced by the character. For instance, rather than saying a character had been walking through a field, they might describe the light hitting the grass and the gentle buzzing of the bugs as well.

 4.   Non-Chronological / Psychological Narrative:

The writers do not follow the unities of time, place and action. Rather they try to express the actions in a hazy or haphazard manner. This is so because they aim at portraying the characters and actions as they actually take place in the mind. Since their focus is mainly on the psychological impressions, they express this psychological reality as it actually is. Here, the writers’ primary aim is to force the reader to focus on why and how events occur, rather than the literal timeline in which they occur.

 5.   Strategic selection of detail:

Impressionist writers privilege description of details rather than broadly defining the actions of their characters. That means it’s sometimes only possible to see the novel’s true meaning by taking a step back and observing the complete picture.

Examples of Impressionistic Writers:

There are a number of authors, who were a part of the impressionist movement, including:

1.   Joseph Conrad (notable works: Heart of Darkness)

2.   James Joyce (notable works: Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man)

3.   Henry James (notable works: The Portrait of a Lady, Daisy Miller)

4.   Charles Baudelaire (notable works: Les Fleurs du Mal or The Flowers of Evil)

Impressionism Literary Example:

Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness is often regarded as one of the prime examples of Impressionistic literature. Throughout the novella, we witness the inner workings of Marlow’s thoughts and emotions as he journeys up the Congo River toward the Inner Station and his encounter with Kurtz. In fact, it is Kurtz who presents the major focus on Marlow’s attention. However, Marlow never comes out and explicitly tells us what he thinks and believes about Kurtz; instead, Conrad leaves us to draw our own conclusions.

Kurtz, too, is much the same. He also shares his thoughts and feelings about his job and his role in the African jungle and the reader is left to “read between the lines” to interpret his exact meaning. No example could better exemplify the element of Impressionism with the novella than Kurtz’s final words: “the horror, the horror.” We do not know exactly what “the horror” is and instead are left to devise our own interpretation.

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