Modernism

1. Modernism 1918-1945

2. Difference between Realism and Modernism Whereas REALISM Emphasized absolutism, and Believed that a single reality could be determined through the observation of nature MODERNISM Argued for cultural relativism, And believed that people make their own meaning in the world.

3. Value Differences in the Modern World

4. Modernist Themes and Characteristics Isolation and alienation Impermanence and change Rather than heroes, insecure and self-doubting protagonists Use of Irony, understatement, ambiguity Symbols and images used to suggest meaning

5. Noteworthy Poets Carl Sandburg: poet for the common people Robert Frost: New England imagery and alienation E.E. Cummings: experimentation in form William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound: Imagism

6. Imagism Influenced by Japanese Haiku Use of common speech, yet precise word choice Written in free verse Sometimes unusual choice in subject matter Presents a clear and highly concentrated image

7. World War I:1914 (1917-1918)

8. WWI: Doughboys and Air Fights

9. WWI: Trench War Fare and Poison Gas

10. Russian Revolution: 1917

11. Social Snapshot of the Times Result of Political Turmoil Revolutionary Ideologies Rise Fascism The separation and persecution or denial of equality to a certain group based on race, creed, or origin Nazism Socialism featuring racism, expansionism and obedience to a strong leader Communism Control of the means of production should rest in the hands of the laborers.

13. Communism

14. Social Snapshot of the Times Scientific Revolution Quantum theory Explains the nature of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic level Principle of Uncertainty In quantum mechanics: increasing the accuracy of measurement of one observable quantity increases the uncertainty with which another may be known

15. Snapshot of the Times: Implications for Nature of Reality Many-worlds (multi-verse) theory As soon as the potential exists for any object to be in any state, the universe of the object transmutes into a series of parallel universes equaling the number of possible states in which an object can exist. Stephen Hawking posits the possibility for interaction between universes.

16. Forces Behind Modernism The sense that our culture has no center, no values. Paradigm shift from the closed, finite, measurable, cause-and-effect universe of the 19th century to an open, relativistic, changing, strange universe;

17. Characteristics of Modernism in Literature Literature Exhibits Perspectivism Meaning comes from the individual�s perspective and is thus personalized; A single story might be told from the perspective of several different people, with the assumption that the �truth� is somewhere in the middle

18. Characteristic of Modernism in Literature Perception of language changes: No longer seen as transparent, allowing us to �see through� to reality; But now considered the way an individual constructs reality; Language is �thick� with multiple meanings and varied connotative forces.

19. Characteristic of Modernism in Literature Emphasis on the Experimental Art is artifact rather than reality; Organized non-sequentially Experience portrayed as layered, allusive, discontinuous, using fragmentation and juxtaposition. Ambiguous endings�open endings which are seen as more representative of reality.