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Modernity. The Term and Time frame. Modern or Modernity or Modernism used to refer to a particular time and attitude Late 1800s to around WWII. The Romantic Mindset—from Whitman’s Song of Myself (1855). I Celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume,
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The Term and Time frame • Modern or Modernity or Modernism used to refer to a particular time and attitude • Late 1800s to around WWII
The Romantic Mindset—from Whitman’s Song of Myself (1855) I Celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belong to me, as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
The Modern Mindset—from Yeats’ “Second Coming” (1920) Things fall apart, the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
Technological developments that might be considered “Modern” • Industrial Revolution • Electricity • Transportation • Modern conveniences • Sense of PROGRESS
What happened to change the optimism? Or, what kinds of changes led Yeats to sound so different from Whitman?
Freud’s new understanding of the mind and unconscious • Challenge to the concept of our rational selves • Raises a question of how much “control” we have over ourselves
Developments in Physics • Einstein’s Theory of Relativity • Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle
Modern Christianity • Nietzsche’s “Death of God” • Challenges from science • Fundamentalist response
Developments in the arts Move from representational art a portion of Picasso’s Guernica
Virginia Woolf: “On or about December, 1910, human character changed.”Key term: SolipsismEdvard Munch,The Scream