Who Am I?

1. Who Am I? Understanding Identityand Morality in Modern and Contemporary Literature

2. Our last unit of the year! • We are going to look at literature, art, and music from around the world that dates from the 1940’s to present. • You will notice that many of our authors/ artists are still living; however, we will still study some of the history surrounding these authors. • We will split this unit into two parts: Latin America and Europe

3. First Up Latin America We will study: • Short stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez • Excerpt from How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents • Poetry by Lorca, Paz, and Neruda • Art by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Salvador Dali

4. Magical Realism • Magical Realism became the best known style associated with the ‘literary explosion’ of the 1960’s and 1970’s. • The term is NOT unique to Latin America, but it is a style that unifies the Latin American experience in a way that had not occurred since Modernism. • It describes a literature where the limits of the reality and fantasy are blurred. • Magical Realism is not interested in a rational approach to explain occurrences.

5. Poetry • Vivid details • Filled with strong emotions and connections to culture • Common themes include war, love, and the beauty of everyday objects and occurrences. • Many poems can be found in the original Spanish as well as English and often English translations retain a word or two in Spanish.

6. Art Focuses on the common people Or on surrealism.

7. Next Up- Europe We will study: • Camus’ “Myth of Sisyphus” • Alligator River Morality Activity • Tolstoy’s “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” • Comparison of Tolstoy/ Camus Quotes • Various Contemporary Poets through “Performance Poetry”

8. Modern and Contemporary World Literature Choose a link on the time line to go to a milestone. 1890s-Present Modernism and Postmodernism 1960s-Present Information Age 1930s-Present Existentialism 1890 1920 1950 1980 2010 1945-1980 Cold War 1980s-Present Globalization 1940s-1990s End of Colonialism Detailed Time Line

9. The City (1919) by Fernand Léger Modernism and Postmodernism 1890s-1940s Modernism • Major literary and artistic movement • Influenced by Freud, psychology • Reaction to 19th-century realism • Realism inadequate to capture modern reality and human experience

10. Existentialism From the 1930s • Existentialist philosophies or attitudes stress that • physical existence precedes “essence” or meaning • human existence is concrete, particular, and individual • each must create his or her own essence or meaning • there are no preexisting meanings, values, or guidelines

11. Existentialism From the 1930s • Each person responsible for his or her own choices • Choices not unlimited—time and facts we have are limited • Commitment to choices can make meaning for individual • Existence about more than just the individual • Includes relationship to other beings and to the world

12. Existentialism After World War II (1939-1945) • Artists struggled to understand and accept • senselessness, meaninglessness of existence • events of war, especially Holocaust, atomic bombs • Jean-Paul Sartre (French intellectual, writer) brought existentialist thinking into the arts.

13. The Information Age 1960s-present • Internet greatest force in “information revolution” • Connects many small networks worldwide • World Wide Web (1991) leading information-exchange service of Internet • First browser appeared in 1993 • Grew from 1969 U.S. Defense Department project ARPANET • Linked computers to provide secure communications in case of attack

14. Globalization 1980s-present Globalization • Process of increasing worldwide interdependence and interconnectedness of • businesses • labor • finance • services • Made possible, faster by • more, cheaper travel • telecommunications, other technologies