Art & Thought… Challenges to Confidence of Victorian Intellect

Art & Thought… Challenges to Confidence of Victorian Intellect I. Realism & Naturalism II. Examples in Literature III. Modernism IV. Modernism in Literature and Art V. Attack on Reason (Nietzsche & Freud)

I. Realism & Naturalism • A. Both rely on observation (like science… remember, this is “primacy of science” era) • Realism = life like it REALLY IS (often dull, dark, violent & lacking hope or direction… no answers provided) • Naturalism = proving human conditions directly relate to social environment (Zola & the ‘experimental novel’… struggles due to nature of society) • Both attacked middle class morality & idea of world w/only beauty (the anti-Romantics… possibly valid to call early “punks?”)

II. Literature & Drama • A. Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary (1857) (real) • A woman goes looking for love, spiritual and physical, that her Victorian husband doesn’t provide. Challenges the “Nick-at-Nite” perfection many claimed existed in Victorian family life. First realist novel in many ways. • B. Fyodor Dostoyevski: Crime and Punishment (1866) (Realist) • Man commits murder to obtain elderly woman’s savings. Isn’t caught by police at first, but Dostoyevski analyzes his psychologyof guilt… drives man crazy/insane that he is not punished… serves as much worse punishment

Lit and Drama Continued • C. Emile Zola: Germinal (1885) (Nat.) • Story of child labor in coal mines… little hope of escape or future/better life for these children who will likely die in their early teens, if lucky… pointed out “unseen” prolems often ignored by Victorian bourgeosie • D. Henrik Ibsen: A Doll’s House (1879) (Nat.) • Hopeless life of middle class wife… it ain’t that pretty (nothing nice in “Cult of Domesticity”… wife “slams door” on hopeless life)

III. Modernism • A. Rebellion against traditional in art & literature… break all accepted rules (goal is to “make art musical”… more melodic than methodic) • Like realism/natrualism in that it’s anti-Victorian values… but focused on the “pretty” (aesthetic) instead of social change as subject matter • Strong focus on inner self (feelings, imagination, etc.) • Glorified irrational& unpredictable in world that used to prize rational & orderly (again, think what Victorian home was supposed to look like… NOT unpredictable) • Music without harmonic chords (Stravinsky’s Rite of Springballet… combined many styles and went against tradition… honestly caused riots in initial cities it played since it was so ‘revolutionary’)

Literature in different forms, not just beginning, middle and end • James Joyce, Ulysses • Story that tells everyday story of people’s lives in Joyce’s hometown of Dublin, Ireland… seems to be pointless and is difficult to read due to his erratic style • little beginning and end or flow to paragraphs… • largely written in stream of conscious); hit on strong themes that challenged morality… • but was soon seen as a masterpiece (is supposed to be modern epic, • Joyce’s version of Homer’s ancient tales Iliad and Odyssey set amidst 20th century streets, pubs and houses)

Virginia Woolf, Room of One’s Own • Early feminist critique of Victorian Cult of Domesticity… • says that only way for woman to be free and individual is if she possesses an escape from society… • literally a room to one’s self • Influential member of Bloomsbury Group, progressive British writers at turn of century

B. Art • 1. Best Example of Modernism… no more reliance on Renaissance rules (perspective, proportion… largely first group to break with traditions from the 15th/16th centuries) • 2. Evolving art: • Impressionism (1860-86): capture picture as eye sees it in fleeting instant… “1st impression” (natural landscapes popular subjects) • Post-Impressionism (1880s-90s): strong use of bold lines (wide brush strokes) & bright colors (art as ‘emotional experience, not a ‘photograph’) • Cubism (1900s-10s): put 3-D image on flat canvas, using objects from multiple viewpoints… lots of geometry, very Modernist

Cubism • Pablo Picasso, Les demoiselles d’Avignon • Interesting use of geometry and shape in painting… notice influence of African tribal art, as in masks. Shows Europe’s fascination with imperialism in Africa and Asia and newfound cultures introduced to the Continent through museums and anthropology.

IV. Nietzsche’s Revolt against Reason • A. Many late 19th century philosophers thought animal instinct, NOT reason (as had been thought by Enlightenment philosophes), drove all human actions • B. Said inner drives & animalistic hunger drove men, not rational thoughts • C. “God is dead.” Man liberated b/c Christianity bred weakness & followers • (a way for the early slaves/plebians to govern the masters, like democracy was in his day… protected the masses, but held back greatness of the truly powerful and individualistic)

D. Good & Evil don’t exist as absolute, global truths… man needs to shed bonds of traditional values to succeed in life (be true Individual… set your own rules) • Supermen (overmen) who lived free from restrictions, rules & codes of behavior… a ruthless warrior alone could save the timid European society • E. Who listened/appreciated ideas? • World War I enlistees (war would provide path to new, heroic age… shedding passive nature to find glory… didn’t pan out just as hoped for them) • Hitler & Nazis (Nietzsche would have hated, but they twisted his ideas for own ends… eliminate the weak, forge master race, etc.)

V. Freud’s Psychoanalysis • People are NOT naturally good (as philosophes said); they are naturally reckless & aggressive • Dreams show these ‘immoral’ values; id knows no good or evil… when awake, mind holds down ‘bad thoughts’ • Id = immoral inner desires (everything Dirty that goes on in human minds… to Freud, this could mean MANY things)…Nietzsche? • Superego= societal norms/values & expectations (the ‘anti-id, this is designed to act as “conscious” and suppress the Id) • Ego= middle ground… way people usually act… a mediation between both sides • Society w/too much id was nasty place… need to find median to keep people sane & civil

Continuing Freud • Father of “psychoanalysis”… talk to victims about problems to work them out • Problems usually rooted in or came from repressed or hidden sexual thoughts and/or childhood experience • Victorian society strongly frowned upon taboo subjects like sex… Freud brought it to the forefront • Significance…Freud dealt with inner workings of mind and found that man had uncontrollable thoughts that could affect people’s actions (dream of water… wake up thirsty). This really scared Victorian era, whose people largely believed they had full control over the world as a whole. To hear that they lacked control over something as close as their own brains/thoughts was disturbing. They talked of a chaste life of traditional, ultra-conservative social values, but Freud argued that they were largely driven by animalistic impulses based on sexual drive, a very un-Victorian idea.

VI. Herzl & Zionism • Anti-Semitism rising in Europe (started heaviest in Russia, leading to movement to W Europe… then anti-Jewish feeling picks up there as well) • 1896, Theodor Herzl starts Zionist movement (call for independent Jewish country… find land of Zion) • Guarantee safety for Jews & end anti-semitism • Pre-cursor to modern day Israel

Leo XIII (1878-1903) • Liberalizing pope • Encyclical Rerum Novarum : • Addressed the conditions of the working classes” • Of primary concern was the need for some amelioration for "the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class.” • It supported the rights of labor to form unions • Rejected communism and unrestricted capitalism • But affirmed the right to private property

Theory of Evolution • Charles Darwin and Sir Alfred Wallace simultaneously developed the theory of evolution, but Darwin is famous, because he was the first to publish the idea. • In his works, The Origin of the Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871), Darwin held that the existing animals and plants (including man) have evolved during millions of years from simpler forms of life.

Darwin • Darwin also held that forms of life are constantly changing, and that new forms of life are coming into existence all of the time. • He claimed that life was a constant struggle for existence, with only the strongest, most adaptable species surviving. • He called this process Natural Selection or the Survival of the Fittest.

Effects of Darwinism • Darwin’s ideas were met with a storm of protest, especially from religious circles. • Social Darwinism: other people, such as Herbert Spencer, tried to apply Darwin’s evolutionary ideas to man and society. • Spencer stated that only the strongest, most fit, humans should survive, and thus, he attacked social welfare measures, such as shielding the poorer (and inferior) people from starvation, etc. • This justified the attitudes of many industrialists.

Other Effects of Darwinism • Eugenics: (selective breeding of humans) • Imperialism: colonizers were inherently better and had the right to exploit others. • Elitism: some Social Darwinists saw superior people in all races & nationalities and urged the to band together so as to prevent their being submerged by the ignorant and inferior masses. • Nietzsche: superman • Extreme racial elitism later applied by the Nazi party during the holocaust.

The New Physics • Science by late 19th c. was a key pillar supporting Western society’s optimistic and rationalistic view of the world. • The New Physics: Challenged long-held ideas and led to uncertainty

Max Planck • Developed the basis for quantum physics • Postulated matter and energy might be the same thing • Shook foundations of Newtonian physics that saw atoms as stable, building blocks of nature. W/ a different kind of UNBREAKABLE ATOM for each element

Einstein • 1905: Theory of relativity of time and space challenged Newtonian physics • United apparently infinite universe with incredibly small, fast-moving subatomic world • M and E are interchangeable and that even a particle of matter contains enormous levels of potential E.

Werner Heisenberg • Heisenberg Principle of Uncertainty—ias it is impossible to know the position and speed of an individual electron, it is therefore impossible to predict its behavior. • Dynamics of an experiment alters the state of the subject

Impact of the New Physics • New Universe seemed strange and troubling • Universe was now relative dependent on the observers frame of reference • Universe was uncertain and undetermined, w/out stable building blocks • Physics no longer provided easy, optimistic answers, or any answers for that matter.

Art & Thought… Challenges to Confidence of Victorian Intellect