Literary Movements

1950s–1970s

Concrete poetry

Brazil / Switzerland / Germany

International poetic movement that explores the visual and sound materiality of language; in Brazil with the Noigandres Group (Augusto and Haroldo de Campos, Pignatari).

1880–1910

Symbolism

France / Europe

Poetic movement that rejects realism and naturalism in favor of suggestion, symbol, musicality, and mystery; Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud, and Mallarmé.

11th–14th cent.

Troubadour poetry

Occitania / Iberia

Medieval lyric poetry in vernacular language cultivated by Occitan troubadours and Galician-Portuguese troubadours; genres such as cantiga de amor, de amigo and de escárnio.

1924–1966

Surrealism

France / Europe

Movement founded by André Breton that explores the unconscious, dreams, and the irrational; profoundly influenced world poetry, including Brazil and Portugal.

1930s–1960s

Neorealism

Portugal / Italy

Literary movement of social and political commitment; in Portugal with Alves Redol and Soeiro Pereira Gomes, in Italy with Pavese and Vittorini.

16th–17th centuries

Classicism

Europe / Portugal

Literary movement based on the imitation and renewal of Greco-Latin models; in Portugal associated with Sá de Miranda, António Ferreira and the Italian Renaissance influence; values order, measure, and reason.

17th–18th cent.

Baroque

Europe

Literary style marked by ornamentation, drama, contrast, and formal complexity; expression of the religious and political tensions of the time.

18th century

Arcadianism

Europe / Portugal / Brazil

Neoclassical current of worship of simplicity and pastoral nature; in Portugal and Brazil linked to the anti-Baroque literary reform of the Arcadian academies.

1800–1850

Romanticism

Europe

Great cultural and literary movement in reaction to the Enlightenment and Neoclassicism; exaltation of feeling, nature, individualism, the past, and the supernatural.

1866–1900

Parnassianism

France / Brazil / Portugal

Poetic school that values formal perfection, objectivity, exoticism, and art for art's sake; Leconte de Lisle in France, Olavo Bilac and Alberto de Oliveira in Brazil.

1850–1900

Literary Realism

Europe

Movement that proposes the faithful representation of social and psychological reality; Flaubert, Tolstoy, Eça de Queirós and Dostoevsky are central references.

1915-1927

Orphism (Portuguese)

Portugal

Literary movement of very short duration centered on the magazine Orpheu (1915); brought together Fernando Pessoa, Mário de Sá-Carneiro and Almada Negreiros; founding moment of Portuguese modernism and sensationism, intersectionism and paulism.

1927–1940

Presencism

Portugal

Portuguese literary movement associated with the magazine Presença (1927–1940); second modernist generation with João Gaspar Simões, Régio, and Casais Monteiro; values psychologism, sincerity, and the work as an expression of the self.

8th–5th centuries BC

Greek epic poetry

Ancient Greece

Oral and written tradition of long narrative poems centered on heroes and gods; foundational works by Homer such as the Iliad and the Odyssey.

7th–5th centuries BC

Greek lyric poetry

Ancient Greece

Poetry intended for singing with musical accompaniment, cultivated by poets such as Sappho, Pindar, and Alcaeus; expression of personal emotions and celebration.

5th century BC

Greek tragedy

Ancient Greece

Dramatic genre that explores conflicts between the human and the divine, destiny and will; represented by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.

5th century BC

Greek Old Comedy

Ancient Greece

Satirical comedy theater of political and social criticism; main representative Aristophanes.

1st century BC - 1st century AD

Classical Latin poetry

Ancient Rome

Flourishing of poetry in Rome with Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Catullus; decisive influence on all subsequent Western literature.

4th century BCE – 8th century CE

Classical Sanskrit poetry

India

Great Indian poetic tradition codified in Sanskrit, including epics such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, and the lyric poetry of Kalidasa.

15th–5th century BCE

Vedic poetry

India

Oldest poetic and hymnic corpus of India, gathered in the Vedas; basis of Indian literature and religious thought.

10th–2nd cent. BCE

Biblical and Hebrew literature

Middle East

Collection of poetic, narrative, and wisdom texts from the Old Testament, including Psalms, Song of Songs, and the Book of Job.

9th–15th cent.

Classical Persian poetry

Persia / Iran

Poetic tradition in the Farsi language with forms such as ghazal and qasida; founding poets such as Rudaki, Ferdowsi, and Omar Khayyam.

7th century BC – 19th century

Classical Chinese poetry

China

Long Chinese lyrical tradition from the Shijing (Classic of Poetry) to the refined forms of the Tang and Song dynasties.

7th–19th c.

Classical Japanese poetry (Waka)

Japan

Traditional Japanese poetic form in 31 syllables; cultivated at the imperial court and compiled in anthologies such as the Man'yoshu and Kokinshu.

5th–7th cent.

Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry

Arabian Peninsula

Oral poetry of the Bedouins before Islam; the mu'allaqat are their most celebrated texts, centered on honor, love, and the desert's nature.

12th–14th c.

Minnesang

Germany / Austria

Medieval German lyric poetry on courtly love, parallel to Occitan troubadours; represented by Walther von der Vogelweide.

11th–14th cent.

Medieval epic poetry

Europe

Long poetic narratives about heroic deeds and warriors; includes the Song of El Cid, the Song of Roland, and the Nibelungenlied.

13th–14th cent.

Dolce Stil Novo

Italy

Italian poetic school centered on idealized and spiritualized love for women; precursor to Dante and Petrarch.

7th-13th cent.

Classical medieval Arabic poetry

Arab world

Flourishing of Arabic poetry after Islam, with elaborate forms such as qasida and muwashshah; cultivated in Al-Andalus and the East.

10th–15th cent.

Medieval Persian Sufi poetry

Persia / Central Asia

Mystical current in Persian poetry that uses love and wine as spiritual metaphors; Rumi, Hafez, and Sa'di are its greatest representatives.

7th–13th cent.

Tang and Song dynasty poetry

China

Golden age of classical Chinese poetry; Li Bai, Du Fu, and Su Shi are central figures of forms such as shi and ci.

13th–17th centuries

Haiku and Renga

Japan

Japanese poetic forms of collaborative composition (renga) and lyric miniature (haiku); Matsuo Basho made haiku a standalone art form.

9th–13th cent.

Norse poetry (Skaldic and Eddic)

Scandinavia

Oral and written poetry of the Norse tradition; Eddic poetry brings together myths and heroes, Skaldic poetry is courtly praise with complex metrical forms.

10th–13th c.

Medieval Hebrew poetry

Al-Andalus / Europe

Renaissance of Hebrew poetry influenced by Arabic poetry; cultivated in Al-Andalus by Yehuda Halevi and Solomon ibn Gabirol.

6th–17th centuries

Bhakti movement

India

Indian poetic devotional movement of mystical and religious expression in vernacular languages; poets such as Kabir, Mirabai and Tukaram.

9th–17th cent.

Sufi literature

Middle East / Central Asia

Islamic mystical literary tradition that uses poetry as a path to the divine; encompasses diverse geographical and linguistic traditions.

10th–12th cent.

Persian epic poetry

Persia

Great tradition of epic poetry in the Persian language; Ferdowsi's Shahnameh is its central monument, narrating the mythical and heroic history of Persia.

14th–16th centuries

Renaissance humanism

Italy / Europe

Intellectual and literary movement centered on the study of Greco-Latin classics and the valorization of the human being; cultural basis of the Renaissance.

14th–16th cent.

Italian Renaissance

Italy

Italian cultural and literary flourishing with Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Ariosto; Petrarch's Canzoniere shaped European lyric poetry for centuries.

14th–17th centuries

Petrarchism

Europe

European literary current influenced by Petrarch's style and theme of love; it spread the sonnet throughout Europe, including Portugal with Camões.