When human beings first starting writing, our imagination shored and from that very moments stories began to come alive. The Ancient Greeks wrote plays, philosophy and even the stories on how they believe they were created. The Ancient Romans did the same thing and all the civilizations that had the ability to write. Not only have human imagination expanded, but with that imagination cause different literary movements. The only problem is, not everyone knows that these movements exist or if they do they don't know that they are movements. If fact i didn't realize that i knew that these movement existed, i just didn't know that they were movements.
For those you that don't know what a literary movement is as described "The Literary Network," A literary movement is the ability to trace the evolution of works of literature through time. Also according to "The Literary Network," Scholars have been able to group the works that were written in a certain time frame, and have been able to put them together in order to address the works of literature as a certain period or movement. Still have know idea what a literature movement is? Well, I don't blame you, understanding the concept of a literature movement hard work. However, it is a very simple thing. For instance did you know that Modernism is just one of these such movements? That is simple to understand right? Still nothing?
Modernism, is defined by "The Literary Network" as the period which began in the earth 20th century and is often seen as being marked by "sudden and unexpected breaks with traditional was of viewing and interacting with the world." Some of aspects of Modernism that is seen in writing is "experimentation and individualism though a series of cultural shocks." One author that models this movement is Mary McCarthy, with works such as "The Group", "Cannibals and Missionaries", "The Company She Keeps" etc. in these works of literature McCarthy writing and storytelling style models after the concept.
McCarthy didn't always write fiction, in fact, it wasn't until she married her fourth husband that she got into writing fiction. According to McCarthy, she credits Edmund Wilson, a renowned american critic with her start.
McCarthy's writing style and how she tells her stories can often be seen as confusing and not understandable. However, I think the big reason why is not that she isn't a great writer, its the fact that she trying to copy a literature movement that she isn't any good at. That point, though, is completely my opinion, in the words of some of her critics and friends they praise her writing style. In fact in the words of Frances Kierman, she remarked that "From start to beginning Mary wrote sentences that were clear and lucid and altogether beguiling." Mary also wrote a lot about her views on many political movements, in which some included Marxism, Socialism, and conservationism.
Which according to Isaiah Berlin "No good asking her, "What do you think about John Stuart Mill's book On Liberty?" She was no good on abstract ideas." Berlin also went on to say "Mary was a good writer, but her ideas were not her own thing at all." Diana Trilling also mention that "She was stupid politically." Speaking of politics, one of magazines that McCarthy wrote for was the Partisan Review which was founded on the concept as an alternative to another magazine called New Masses. The Partisan Review was also a major political magazine which followed communism to the rise of Stalin.
Mary McCarthy is often seen as one of forlorn female writing of the mid 20th century, and while i can see how people saw her, I think both her style of writing and storytelling are not the best. Her political views often twist from one to another and how she writes confuses the reader. However which way you see McCarthy's writing, you can not disagree that she was in fact one of the biggest writers of the 20th century.
