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Modernism. 1914-1939 . What is Modernism?. Modernism is a cultural movement that includes the progressive art and architecture, music, literature and design which came together in the decades before 1914.
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Modernism 1914-1939
What is Modernism? • Modernism is a cultural movement that includes the progressive art and architecture, music, literature and design which came together in the decades before 1914. • It was a movement of artists and writers who rebelled against the late 19th century academic and historicist traditions, and enforced the new economic, social and political aspects of the beginning of the modern world.
When and Where did Modernism Start and Take Place? • Modernism started in 1914 as a reaction to World War I and continues until the beginning of the next World War in 1939. • Unique movement in the sense that it did not originate in Europe and migrate to the United States. • Begins in America as it questions traditional American values. • Skepticism of Puritan tradition shifted the center of the movement from New England to the South, West and Midwest.
Causes and Influences of Modernism • World War I • World War II • Urbanization • Industrialization • Immigration • Technological Evolution • Growth of Modern Science • Influence of Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx • Expatriatism
Characteristics of Modernist Thought • Bold, Highly Innovative Experimentation • Individualism • Discontinuous writing, did not follow traditional formats • Break of formal tradition and conventional form within writing which led to fragmentation • Number of different narrators led to many narrative points of view; shift in perspective, voice, and tone • Use of interior monologue technique
Characteristics of Modernist Thought • Use of the consciousness technique which led to a large focus on a character’s consciousness and mind • Questioning of what makes up the nature of being • Writers consciously adopted modern thought • Lack of interest in nature • Interest in the decay of the individual • Assurances provided by religion, politics, and society were no longer sufficient. • After WWI, this expanded to include the belief that life was horrific, chaotic, and futile. • Art replaced religion as the provider of guidance, coherence, and insight into the human condition.
Major People Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) • Austrian psychologist and psychotherapist • Discovered a new method to investigate the mind through the analysis of dreams and psychoanalysis as in the means to study ones’ “unconscious” • Known for theories of the unconscious mind and defense mechanism of repression • Famous for therapeutic techniques such as the theory of transferring in the therapeutic relationship and value of dreams as sources of insight into one’s unconscious desires
Major People Karl Marx (1818-1883) • Marx had said that man should only depend upon laws and structures made for him that were outside of their control and even beyond their knowledge of enforcing such laws and rules. • Marx had attacked the bourgeoisie the upper class and the political and economic systems that would eliminate and take out any order and structure that would be brought upon society. • Marx didn’t like the idea of not being able to have equality, or a sense of brotherhood among society this idea had foreshadowed the idea of communism in which everyone should be equal to one another.
Influence of Freud and Marx on Modernism • Modernist writers concerned themselves with the inner being more than the social being and looked for different ways to incorporate these new views into their writing. • Modernist writers looked inside themselves for their answers instead of seeking the “Truth.” • Marxism instructed even non-Marxist artists that the individual was being lost in a mass society. • Some modern writers believed that art should celebrate the working classes, attack capitalism, and forward revolutionary goals, while others believed that literature should be independent and non-political.
Modernist Writers • F. Scott Fitzgerald - American • W.B. Yeats - Britain • T.S. Eliot - Britain • André Breton - France • Virginia Woolf - Britain • Ernest Hemingway - American • Ezra Pound - American • James Joyce - Britain • George Orwell - Britain
Literary Impacts • Modernism was a period of literary experimentation. • Symbolism was a form of expression that used objects and the imagination to reveal a more truthful reality. • Mirrored Romantic ideals, encouraging individuals to discover themselves. • Imagism was similar in the sense that it sought to intensify poetry and literary techniques by relying on images to carry emotion and the message throughout the poem. • Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot both led these movements.
American Literary Themes • The stream of consciousness imitated a character’s thought process through memories and perception. • The use of language in a deeper sense; used sparingly to convey a more intense image. • Encouraging and looking for new ways of seeing and interpreting everyday life. • Use of ordinary objects/scenarios to invoke a revelation. • Rejection of the “infallible” hero in favor of a flawed one that still maintains a sense of poise.
Famous Literary Works • The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald • The Waves - V. Woolf • Four Quartets -T.S. Eliot • The Waste Land -T.S. Eliot • The Wind Among the Reeds - W.B. Yeats • The Tower - W.B. Yeats • Ulysses - J. Joyce • Dubliners - J. Joyce • Sons and Lovers - D.H. Lawrence • The Rainbow - D.H. Lawrence • Animal Farm - G. Orwell
POP QUIZ! On Information from the PowerPoint and the Reading
2. What international event had the largest effect on the Modernist movement?
3. What two people played a significant role within Modernism?
6. Referring to Question 5, who was a prominent exception to this trend?
7. What is a famous modernist literary work that we will be reading this year?
9. What were the three ideas central to the “American Dream”?
America as Eden Continuous Progress The Triumph of the Individual
10. What movement established an appreciation for African- American talent in the United States?
