Post-impressionism could not be mentioned without at least bringing up impressionism. Impressionism started in Paris in the late 1800s. The name came from the art piece "Impression, Soleil Levant," or "Impression, Sunrise," by Claude Monet. Other notable artists who contributed to the impressionism movement were Gustave Caillebotte, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, among others. Toward the end of the movement, impressionism reached other art forms, such as writing.
Roger Fry, an artist and art critic, is credited with coining the term "post-impressionism" in 1910 and had a major role in the movement. Although he was a fan of impressionists such as Monet, Fry felt other artists didn't get recognized during that time period. He also felt that impressionist painters did not express emotions in their work like the post-impressionist painters did. In 1910, he opened an art gallery show showcasing the post-impressionist works of Paul Gaugin, Paul Cezanne and Vincent Van Gogh.
Post-impressionism also trickled down to writers in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The writings of post-impressionistic literature were often written in a stream of consciousness of the characters in the story or poem. This style of writing centered around the thoughts, inner dialogue, emotions and mental life of the main character. This narrative writing, which is still widely used today in both literature and movies, was started by some notable authors of this time period.
Post-impressionism set the stage for a group of writers who experimented with the stream-of-consciousness format. These notable writers are regarded today as creators of this style of narrative fiction. James Joyce's "Ulysses," "Eveline" and "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"; Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage"; Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"; and Virginia Woolf's "Mrs Dalloway" opened the doors for writers to experiment with narrative forms.