Modernism

Four Literary "isms" Inside Modernism
1. Whereas Realism attempted to portray external objects and events as the common or middle class man sees them in everyday life, impressionism tries to portray the psychological impressions these objects and events make on characters, emphasizing the role of individual perception and exploring the nature of the conscious and unconscious mind.
2. Whereas Realism tried to focus on these external objects and events, expressionism tried to express the inner vision, the inner emotion, or the inner spiritual reality that seem more important than the external realities of objects and events.
3. Whereas Realism focused on external objects and events as they are (verisimilitude), surrealism tried to liberate the subconscious, to see connections overlooked by the logical mind, to deny the supreme authority of rationality and so portray objects and events as they seem rather than as they are.
4. Whereas Realism tried to show the supreme importance of rationalness and reason, absurdism tried to duplicate in literature the absurd conditions of contemporary life: nameless millions dying in wars, commonplace horrors such as the Holocaust, a world in which "God is dead" cast mankind afloat in a chartless and unknowable world void of a spiritual center, the ultimate absurd circumstances in which contemporary humankind found itself.

Source : http://vc.ws.edu/engl2265/unit4/Modernism/all.htm