Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27727
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27727
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Centuries don't have styles; writers have styles. True, there are certain broad features of the way things are written which change over time, but they are very much secondary to the styles of individual authors. And diction and vocabulary are only a small part of what constitutes an author's style. Austen's cool ironic detachment is a much a hallmark of her style as her diction and vocabulary, and you certainly would not mistake her for any of the Brontes.

Nor would you mistake writers of the 17th century from those of the 18th or those of the 18th from those of the 19th, etc. There is a marked development of fashion in literature from one centry to another, which continues into the 21st. These fashions have as much to do with weltanschauung as they do with the use of language. The relationship between character, narrator, and reader, for instance, is a far more distinctive part of the evolution of storytelling fashion over the course of the 20th century, reflective of a larger social trend of descent from confidence into doubt about the reliability and objectivity of human judgements.

A writer today who wanted to emulate Austen would come closer to their intended effect if they focused on emulating her confidence, irony, and wit, than if they focused on her diction and vocabulary. Indeed, the effect would be far more convincing with the former focus than the latter. Imitation of the diction and vocabulary without the fundamental authorial stance will sound like a painful pastiche, almost mockery.

The key stylistic fashion of the later 20th and early 21st century literature has nothing to do with vocabulary and diction. It is the withdrawal of the authorial voice; the refusal of the author to speak directly to the reader in any manner. Partly this is the influence of the movies at work, and partly it is our artistic lack of confidence showing through. It is the author's voice shining through, more than anything else, that strikes us as foreign about the classics of the modern era.

Original score: 0