Literary movements help organize literature into groups that share similar ideas, themes, or styles, rather than grouping by type or time period. These movements give people words to compare and talk about different books and stories. These terms are useful for school lessons or collections of writings.

Some movements, like Dada and Beat, were named by the people involved, while other terms, such as "metaphysical poets," were created many years after the time period they describe. Some movements have clear rules and are easy to identify, while others, like expressionism, are hard to define and may mix with other groups. Because of these differences, experts sometimes disagree about how to classify these movements.

Table

This table lists modern literary movements, which are movements that began after the Renaissance period. The order is a general guide because some movements overlap. The order of notable authors is mainly based on when they became prominent.

Main sources

• Baldick, Chris (2015). The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (4th edition), available online. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-178323-4.
• Greene, Roland, and others (editors) (2012). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (4th revised edition). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-15491-6.
• Milne, Ira Mark (2009). Literary Movements for Students: An Analysis of Literary Movements (2nd edition). Detroit, Michigan: Gale. ISBN 978-1-4144-3719-4.