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e. FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE (1844 - 1900):.
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e. FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE (1844 - 1900): Interpreted Darwin philosophically, socially, and religiously. Philosophy is, of course, arbitrary, and reflects little more than the subjective side of the thinker while Christianity provides absolutes based on eternal truths reflecting God’s character. Christianity is the priest-class that convinces the “herd” that the afterlife is the only important thing.
FRIEDRICH NIETSZCHE “Wherever there are walls I shall inscribe this eternal accusation against Christianity upon them—I can write in letters which make even the blind see . . . I call Christianity the one great curse, the one great intrinsic depravity, the one great instinct for revenge for which no expedient is sufficiently poisonous, secret, subterranean, petty—I call it the one immortal blemish of mankind . . .”,
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE “The word “Christianity” is already a misunderstanding—in reality there has been only one Christian, and he died on the Cross.” Nietzsche, The Anti-Christ.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra “Of actual religious difficulties I have no experience. I have never known what it is to feel sinful. A ‘prick of conscience,’ of which I have no experience, must be a sort of ‘evil eye… I am too inquisitive, too incredulous, too high spirited to be satisfied with such a palpably clumsy solution of things. God is really no more than a coarse and rude prohibition of us thinkers. Ye shall not think!”
VI. MODERNISM IN LITERATURE - ANTI - TRADITION • REALISM: All literary periods have employed realism. What is different about this modern realism? It assumes the world to be controlled by blind fate, or chance.
What secular writers call realistic, we, as Christians, will think very unrealistic. A Christian realism emphasizes as a major theme the wisdom and goodness of God, the purpose and order of the universe. A minor theme is the failure and misery of rebellious man. In realism, you write of what you see. We see a plan, a purpose, and a hope. These men saw mankind as more beast than man, and the futility of life’s struggle. It all depends on your worldview.
b. NATURALISM: although similar to realism, naturalism actually employs Darwinism into its worldview. The author is no longer just trying to write what he sees, he is writing of the characters as though they are locked into fate. Life is controlled by forces that no one can change or even understand. The point of view is detached.
b. NATURALISM: This author will rarely let his character control his life. His thesis is that all of life is an illustration of the laws of evolution. The wars shook up the basic concept of man’s continual progress; he was now seen to be regressing. We see pessimism creeping in.
c. ANTI-TRADITION: At the same time as Nietzsche and Freud broke away from the Enlightenment tradition which specified that man was inherently good, artists, composers, and writers rebelled against traditional forms of artistic, musical, and literary expression. Their work created a great cultural revolution which we call modernism, a major step in the revolution of the hierarchy.
Modernism can be characterized by the heightened awareness of the Self. It is intense introspection. For the modernist artist or writer, intellect, or conscience, had become a barrier to creativity and the expression of human emotion. Human reason, especially that associated with Christian morality, rather than man’s liberator, had now become man’s captor.
‘modernism’ definition: Modernism: a movement to reconcile developments of 19th- and 20th-cent. science and philosophy with historical Christianity. It arose from the application of modern critical methods to the study of the Bible and the history and stressed the humanistic aspects of religion. Its ideas permeated many Protestant churches and called forth a reaction in fundamentalism.
The modernist artists abandoned all artistic traditions and literary conventions and began to experiment with new modes of expression. They destroyed history in order to create their own history. They no longer felt compelled to reflect the image of God or His Creation with harmony, logic, beauty, and order. The modern man would soon reflect little of His Creator’s attributes!
d. FORM, NOT MEANING, IMPORTANT Meaning is not important, only the form of the poetry or writing. The concept of form being equal or more important than content, is the cornerstone of port-WW II art and literature.
Vision and viewpoint became an essential aspect of the modernist novel as well. No longer was it sufficient to write a straightforward third-person narrative or (worse yet) use a pointlessly intrusive narrator. The way the story was told became as important as the story itself.
Henry James 1843-1916 1. Henry James, William Faulkner and many other American writers experimented with fictional points of view (some are still doing so). James often restricted the information in the novel to what a single character would have known. Faulkner's novel -
a. The Sound and the Fury (1929) The Sound and the Fury breaks up the narrative into four sections, each giving the viewpoint of a different character (including a mentally challenged boy).
b. "new criticism" arose in the United States, with a new critical vocabulary. New critics hunted the "epiphany" (moment in which a character suddenly sees the transcendent truth of a situation, a term derived from a holy saint's appearance to mortals);
continued they "examined" and "clarified" a work, hoping to "shed light" upon it through their "insights." which offered an alternative to previous extra- literary methods of criticism based on history and biography (what we do in Lit Circle classes)
New Criticism (literary) became the dominant American critical approach in the 1940s and 1950s because it proved to be well-suited to modernist writers such as Eliot and could utilize Freudian theory, especially its categories of id, ego, and superego.
C. Robert Frost (1874-1963) Robert Lee Frost was born in California but raised on a farm in the northeastern United States until the age of 10. He went to England, attracted by new movements in poetry there. He read an original work at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961 that helped spark a national interest in poetry.
Importance of Robert Frost On January 20, 1961 Americans watching television, listening to the radio, or standing on the Capitol grounds heard these famous words: "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." So said John F. Kennedy when he was sworn in as 35th president of the United States.
Frost continued After the applause, Kennedy welcomed to the podium one of America's great poets, fellow New Englander Robert Frost. Frost had written a poem for the occasion called "Dedication." He approached the microphone, but blinded by the sun's glare on the snow-covered Capitol grounds, he was unable to read it.
Frost continued Thinking quickly, he instead recited from memory "The Gift Outright," a poem he had written in 1942. It started: "The land was ours before we were the land's.She was our land more than a hundred yearsBefore we were her people. She was ours . . ."
Robert Frost His popularity is easy to explain: He wrote of traditional farm life, appealing to a nostalgia for the old ways. His subjects are universal -- apple picking, stone walls, fences, country roads. Frost's approach was clear and accessible: He rarely employed intellectual allusions. Anyone could understand his poems. His frequent use of rhyme also appealed to the general audience.
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening, Robert Frost Whose woods these are I think I know. aHis house is in the village though; aHe will not see me stopping here bTo watch his woods fill up with snow. a My little horse must think it queer bTo stop without a farmhouse near bBetween the woods and frozen lake cThe darkest evening of the year. b He gives his harness bells a shake cTo ask if there is some mistake. cThe only other sound's the sweep dOf easy wind and downy flake. c The woods are lovely, dark and deep, dBut I have promises to keep, dAnd miles to go before I sleep. dAnd miles to go before I sleep. d
D. (Edward Estlin) e.e. cummings (1894-1962) Edward Estlin Cummings, commonly known as e.e. cummings, wrote attractive, innovative verse distinguished for its humor, grace, celebration of love, and experimentation with punctuation and visual format on the page.
e. e. cummings A painter, he was the first American poet to recognize that poetry had become primarily a visual, not an oral, art; his poems used much unusual spacing and indentation, as well as dropping all use of capital letters.
if you like my poems let them by e. e. cummings if you like my poems let themwalk in the evening, a little behind youthen people will say"Along this road i saw a princess passon her way to meet her lover(it wastoward nightfall)with tall and ignorant servants."
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) wrote of war, hunting, and other masculine pursuits in a stripped, crisp, plain style. He used detached descriptions of action, with simple nouns and verbs to be precise.
Hemingway He believed in writing out of one’s experiences. His writings and his personal life had a huge impact on other writers of his time, and ours. Some stories have been made into movies. He was an ambulance driver in WWI and was severely wounded. He spent time in Florida, Italy, Spain, and Africa. As a news correspondent in WWII, he was injured severely again.
Hemingway About 3,000 manuscript pages of various items remain unpublished. Hemingway’s writings depict two kinds of people:
Hemingway 1. Men and women deprived, by WWI, of faith in moral values they had once believed in, now live in cynical disregard for all but their own emotional needs. 2. Simple characters with primitive emotions, like prizefighters and bullfighters. They usually fought futile battles against circumstances.
Anti-proverb of Naturalism Life is a cruel joke: and resistance is futile
Hemingway 3. The Sun Also Rises (1926), morally irresponsible people living in Spain 4. A Farewell to Arms (1929), a love affair between an American officer driving ambulance and a British nurse 5. For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), the Spanish Civil War
Hemingway • The Old Man and the Sea (1952), about an old Cuban fisherman (1953 Pulitzer prize for fiction) 7. The Killers
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) He was born in Salinas, CA, educated at Stanford, worked as fruit picker and ranch hand. He wrote of the dignity he saw in those who work for a living, depending on the soil. He wrote of the poor and oppressed. His characters are often trapped in an unfair world, but remain heroes even when defeated.
Steinbeck 1. Of Mice and Men (1937), tragic story two itinerant migrant workers who want a small farm of their own. 2. Grapes of Wrath (1939), Pulitzer Prize in 1940 This novel is the stark account of the Judd family in the poverty of the Oklahoma dust bowl and their migration to California during the Depression of the 1930s. 3. The Red Pony
