Modernism and Postmodernism

1. Modernism and Postmodernism By IrynaZhurauliova and Marina Rizk

2. Modernism • Modernism is a comprehensive movement which began in the closing years of the 19th century and has had a wide influence internationally during much of the 20th century.It began in France, spread to England and America and finally came back to Europe • reveals breaking away from established rules, traditions and conventions, fresh ways of looking at man’s position and function in the universe and many experiments in form and style. • It is particularly concerned with language and how to use it and with writing itself. • style or movement in the arts that aims to break with classical and traditional forms”

3. ASSOCIATIVE TECHNIQUES • Modernists sometimes used a collection of seemingly random impressions and literary, historical, philosophical, or religious allusions with which readers are expected to make the connections on their own. • This reference to details of the past was a way of reminding readers of the old, lost coherence.

4. MODERN POETRY • After 1900 the English scene becomes terribly chaotic. In the field of poetry-as also in other fields of literature-we find a tremendous activity. • We find a lot of experimentation and innovation in modern poetry. Most of the poets have broken away from tradition completely, as they feel that poetry should change with the changing times. Modern poetry exercises a great freedom in the choice of themes. • The two wars(WW1 and WW2) and impending danger of a third have cast a gloomy shadow on much of the poetry of the twentieth century. • The modern age been called "the age of anxiety." In spite of material prosperity poets were full of tensions and anxieties which are almost an inseparable feature of modern living. • Add to them the disappearance of religious faith and disillusionment is natural in modern poetry.

5. FEATURES OF MODERN POETRY • Traditional "poetic diction" has been discarded almost completely. • Though rhyme has almost completely gone, rhythm freed from the artificial demands of metrical regularity is still used. • A language with the flow and turns of common speech is mostly employed.  • Free verse is the most usual mode of all serious poetry of today. • In the twentieth century many experiments have been made on the technique and diction of poetry

6. Artistic and Literary Movements (1) • Imagism: Precise imagination • Symbolism: Usage of symbols • Vorticism: Rejection of landscape • Expressionism: Representation of the world from a subjective perspective  • Futurism: Emphasizes on machine and industrial city

7. Artistic and Literary Movements (2) • Surrealism: Unnerving, illogical scenes • Cubism: Analysis of objects in an abstract form • Dadaism: Producing works characterized by nonsense, caricature and incongruity

8. Post modernism Postmodernism is a late-20th-century movement in the arts, architecture, and criticism that was a departure from modernism. Postmodernism includes skeptical interpretations of culture, literature, art, philosophy, history, economics, architecture, fiction, and literary criticism. It is often associated with deconstruction and post-structuralism because its usage as a term gained significant popularity at the same time as twentieth-century post-structural thought.

9. Post Modernist art shares some commonalities, these include: • Irony • Appropriation • Juxtaposition: using incongruent styles together, abstract and figurative • Pluralism: multiple viewpoints (political), openness to difference in sex, race etc. • Deconstruction: looking at the multiple meanings in imagery/text to find bias.

10. Characteristics of Modernist Literature

11. 1. Decay of Character and Hero • Psychological theories of Sigmund Freudcreated an impact on modernist writers • Writers found that the traditional method of portraying characters was erroneous • Death of both hero and villain

12. 2. Decay of Plot • Modern story does not follow a chronological order • Modern stories do not have a beginning or end • Modernist literature requires an active reader

13. 3. Stress on Individual • Individual is more important for modernist writers than society • In a modern story, there are no universally accepted values of social conduct 

14. 4. Realism • Modern stories are realistic  • For writers, there is no such thing as absolute truth; everything is relative.  • Modernist literature is a portrayal of life as it is.

15. FEATURES OF MODERN POETRY • Juxtaposition of ideas • Intertextuality • use of allusions and multiple association of words • borrowings from other cultures • unconventional use of metaphors • massive use of alliteration and assonance • no regular rhyming scheme • visual images in distinct lines

16. FAMOUS MODERNIST WRITERS Samuel Beckett James Joyce Gertrude Stein

17. FAMOUS MODERNIST WRITERS • Joseph Conrad T.S Eliot William Faulkner

18. FAMOUS MODERNIST WRITERS William Butler Yeats Ezra Pound D.H Lawrence

19. Influential thinkers • Psychologist William James • Psychologist Freud • Psychologist Jung • Philosopher Nietzsche • Philosopher Bergson

20. William James (1842-1910) Pioneering American psychologist and philosopher • was first to introduce the term stream of consciousness to denote the continuous flow of thoughts, feelings and impressions that makes up our inner lives Theory of emotions • emotions feel different from other states of mind • they have bodily responses that give rise to internal sensations • different emotions feel different from one another because they are accompanied by different bodily responses and sensations

21. Sigmund Freud (1856-1938) Austrian psychologist and psychotherapist • Discovered a new method to investigate the mind through analysis of dreams and free associations • Known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of repression • Renowned for his redefinition of sexual desire as the primary motivational energy of human life directed toward a wide variety of objects • Famous for his therapeutic techniques, including • theory of transference in the therapeutic relationship • value of dreams as sources of insight into unconscious desires

22. Carl G. Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychiatrist, influential thinker and the founder of analytical psychology • He emphasized understanding the psyche through exploring dreams, art mythology, world religion and philosophy • Developed the concept of collective unconscious, a sort of cultural memory containing myths and beliefs of the human race which work at a symbolical level

23. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philologist and philosopher. His key ideas include • Tragedy as an affirmation of life • Eternal recurrence • Reversal of Platonism • Repudiation of Christianity • Will to power (as the motivation that underlies all human behavior)

24. Henri Bergson (1858-1941) French philosopher, influential in the first half of the 20th century, developed the theory of duration • time is mobile and incomplete • For the individual, time speeds up or slows down • to explore the real time we need to explore the inner life of man • Duration is neither a unity nor a multiplicity • Duration is ineffable • it can only be shown indirectly through images • Images can never reveal a complete picture of Duration • Duration can only be grasped through intuition and imagination

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