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Expressionism

Art
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An artistic style that distorts outward reality to convey intense inner feeling. In poetry, it favors heightened emotion, vivid imagery, and psychological pressure.

Detailed Definition
Expressionism developed in early twentieth-century European art and theater as a mode that privileges subjective emotion over realistic representation. Expressionist poetry may use jagged images, violent color, fractured syntax, nightmares, and exaggerated landscapes to externalize fear, desire, alienation, or rage. The world in such work often appears transformed by the speaker's consciousness, making inner conflict visible through distortion, intensity, and dramatic sensory detail.
Example
Example in poetry:
Sylvia Plath’s “The Disquieting Muses” uses distorted, psychologically charged figures in a manner that can be compared to Expressionism; An Expressionist poem may describe a city not realistically but as “buildings screaming red into the rain”; Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” uses heightened, anguished imagery to express inner and social crisis rather than calm observation; A poet responding to Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” could use broken syntax, sharp sounds, and exaggerated color to convey terror
Additional Notes
Expressionist poetry reshapes external reality to communicate emotional or psychological intensity. Images may become exaggerated, distorted, dreamlike, or claustrophobic, while syntax and sound may heighten pressure. Rather than asking whether the scene is realistic, ask what inner state its distortions make visible.
Also Known As
Expressionist Art Expressionist Movement Expressionist style
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