What is the meaning of the phrase "striving for effect"?
Solution 1:
Strive is a particularly apt verb for this expression, since the criticism is about revealing the (significant) effort behind the effect.
strive
Make great efforts to achieve or obtain something. Lexico
To endeavour vigorously, use strenuous effort.
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) 2 Cor. v. 9 And therfore we stryuen [L. contendimus] whether absent, whether present, for to plese him. (OED)
The earliest example of strive for effect I've found in Google books is:
Accustom yourself to consider your own interests as identified with those of your master; and look upon every customer who comes into your master's shop as being friendly to those interests, and intending to confer upon him a personal favour. You will then feel yourself bound to show good will and gratitude, both on your master's account an on your own. Let this good will and gratitude be expressed in the way most natural to yourself at the time, without any effort or striving for effect, and you may then be pretty certain of deserving and enjoying a reputation for well-bred affability. The Religious Tract Society; The Apprentice: Or, Affectionate Hints to a Young Friend Entering Upon the Business of Life (1799)
Examples that provide some motivation for using the expression may give you a better idea of what may constitute striving for effect:
A style based on copying the Chunhua ge tie, for example, would be seen as premeditated and striving for effect, with all the negative associations such as cleverness, mannerism, and disguising the self behind stylistic quotation. Amy McNair; The Upright Brush (1998)
For this nonchalance, Castiglione coins the Italian term sprezzatura (from sprezzo 'disdain, scorn'), which signifies an apparent disdain for 'sweat', for effort. Defined negatively, it is the avoidance of a conscious striving for effect, of 'affectation' (affettazione). The ideal courtier cultivates the favour of the powerful by appearing to be indifferent as to its attainment. B. Kane and V. McGown-Doyle; Elizabeth I and Ireland (2014)
"... the tawdry marks of the Mannerist are not merely stiffness and monotony, disparity and inconsistency, but distortion and overrichness, exaggeration and a frantic striving for effect." Max Jakob Friedländer in A. Radermecker; Anonymous Art at Auction (2021)
As evidence, Freytag submits the following list of Wagnerian traits: "Striving for effect by pretentiously and coldly calculating means (but unregulated by true artistic feeling);... Nicholas Vazsonyi, Wagner's Meistersinger (2003)
The design, which dates from 1893, was some three years in construction; and although both the interior and the exterior display the ostentatious striving for effect typical of that time, ... R. Stephen Sennott; Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture (2004)
In spite of this, it is an undisputed fact that an audience recognizes nothing so quickly as false and deceptive character portraiture. This fact should warn the author against striving for effect at the expense of true characterization. The Editor: The Journal of Information for Literary Workers (1917)
There is always to be found a quiet, forceful intelligence in all of their work; no conscious striving for effect; no attempt at ostentatious or showy forms, but invariable dignity and excellence of composition and effect, subtilty. The New York Architect, vol. 3, n.2 (1909)