<P> They also attempted to take into account changing ideas about reality developed by Darwin, Mach, Freud, Einstein, Nietzsche, Bergson and others . From this developed innovative literary techniques such as stream - of - consciousness, interior monologue, as well as the use of multiple points - of - view . This can reflect doubts about the philosophical basis of realism, or alternatively an expansion of our understanding of what is meant by realism . For example, the use of stream - of - consciousness or interior monologue reflects the need for greater psychological realism . </P> <P> It is debatable when the modernist literary movement began, though some have chosen 1910 as roughly marking the beginning and quote novelist Virginia Woolf, who declared that human nature underwent a fundamental change "on or about December 1910". But modernism was already stirring by 1902, with works such as Joseph Conrad's (1857--1924) Heart of Darkness, while Alfred Jarry's (1873--1907) absurdist play, Ubu Roi appeared even earlier, in 1896 . </P> <P> Among early modernist non-literary landmarks is the atonal ending of Arnold Schoenberg's Second String Quartet in 1908, the Expressionist paintings of Wassily Kandinsky starting in 1903 and culminating with his first abstract painting and the founding of the Expressionist Blue Rider group in Munich in 1911, the rise of fauvism, and the introduction of cubism from the studios of Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and others between 1900 and 1910 . </P> <P> Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio (1919) is known as an early work of modernism for its plain - spoken prose style and emphasis on psychological insight into characters . </P>

Modernist writers use a lot of symbolism and imagery