ABSTRACT
In literary histories written during the early and middle decades of the twentieth century the period from the end of Romanticism to the beginning of literary Modernism – that is, effectively, what is loosely referred to as the ‘Victorian’ period – rarely attracted attention because of its stylistic or formal innovation. This chapter begins by asking why this occurred, and suggests that part of the answer lies in the influence of the concept of avant-gardism on literary history and the legacy of Modernist readings of Victorian literature. It then outlines alternative ways of conceptualising the relationships between Romanticism and Victorianism, on the one hand, and between Victorianism and Modernism, on the other, before proceeding to a discussion of the main stylistic and generic developments over the course of the century as a whole in, respectively, poetry, fiction, drama and non-fictional prose.
