Age of Anxiety and Uncertainty

1. Age of Anxiety and Uncertainty Reading: Smith, et al., 913-921

2. Overview • World War I was really awful for most people • Technology had so transformed the face of the war that many things were called into question. • Even before the war, there was tension as people were asking questions and doubting that everything was so wonderful. • There was a crisis of modernity. • The idea that each generation was better off than the one before was questioned.

3. Modern Philosophy • Nietzsche (1844-1900) • Western civilization has emphasized rationality at the expense of passion and instinct. • Christianity glorified weakness, envy, and mediocrity • “God is dead” • Democracy isn’t working • Respectability stifles self-realization • People have no authenticity • Will to power

4. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) • Existentialism • God has nothing to do with giving life meaning. • Human beings simply exist. • There is no God to help them • There is no reason to help them. • “Man is forced to be free” • To be free, men and women must become engaged and choose actions correctly. • Human beings are responsible for their own behavior. • Became really popular after World War II, a war in which actions and consciousness induced men and women to either act courageously or abominably

5. New Physics • Marie Curie (1867-1934) and her husband found that radium emits subatomic particles so it has no constant atomic weight. • Max Plank (1858-1947) found that subatomic energy is emitted from vibrating electron in uneven spurts or “quanta”. Calls into question old distinction of matter and energy. • He also called into question atoms as stable building blocks of nature • Science foundation of Enlightenment, reason and progress. • At the end of the 19th century, scientists found atoms not hard, permanent little balls. • Atoms consists of many smaller fast-moving particles, including electrons and protons

6. Albert Einstein (1879-1955) • Light propagated through space in the form of particles (photons) • E=mc2 • Special theory of relativity. • Time and space relative to the viewpoint of the observer • General theory of relativity • Newton’s universe three dimensional while Einstein’s universe four dimensional space-time continuity

7. Rutherford (1871-1937) and Werner Heisenberg (1901-1927) • Werner Heisenberg (1901-1927) • “Principle of Uncertainty” • Instead of Newton’s certainties, we now have a physics based on tendencies and probabilities • Rutherford (1871-1937) • Showed atom could be split into smaller particles. • Crucial for subsequent development of atomic weapons

8. Freudian Psychology • Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) • Interested in unconscious behavior • Theory of psychoanalysis • His conclusion was that human behavior is basically irrational, not rational behavior of Enlightenment thought.

9. Modern Literature and Modern Cinema • German expressionist films came out during this time period. • The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) which was trying to answer the question, “Is the director of the insane asylum himself an insane murderer? • Metropolis was about the madness of industrial capitalization. • Franz Kafka captured the sense of nightmarish 20th century world in The Metamorphosis,as well as others. • Oswald Spengler wrote Decline of the West which was the obituary of civilization. • Also two war novels were written: • Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms. • Erich Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front

10. Modern Art--Overview • Camera invented in 19th Century. • Great images of U.S. Civil War—Matthew Brady’s photographs • Kodak personal camera introduced at the end of the century. Why paint realistic paintings if camera can better capture reality. No color photos yet.

11. Impressionism—French painters

12. French Painters • Claude Monet (1840-1926) • Camille Pissaro (1830-1903) • Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) • Their goal was to capture the overall picture of things by capturing light falling on the scene before their eyes.

13. Modern Artists • Painted what is in his mind • Increasingly form became more important than light • Paul Cezanne (1893-1906) • Henri Mattisse (1869-1954) • Pablo Picasso (1891-1973) • Cubism—all of these artists trying to capture in form inner essence of things not superficial “surface”

14. Cubism

15. Dali and Surrealism • Salvador Dali (1904-1989) was involved in Surrealism which exalted the irrational, the violent, and the absurd in human experiences

16. Dali and Surrealism

17. Modern Music • Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) abandoned traditional harmony and tonality altogether and arranged the 12 notes of the scale in an abstract mathematical pattern, the “tone-row” which stresses disharmony • Western music tradition since the Renaissance “major-minor” system of tonality • New musicians began to explore polytonality. • Igor Stravinsky • Achieved effects through polytonality, dissonant harmonies, and percussive rhythms • Rites of Spring was a pre-World War I ballet which undermines common conventions of ballets with his jarring music. Dancers engaged in representation of reproduction • Extremely shocking when first performed in Paris in 1913. It became more popular after World War I

18. Modern Architecture • Walter Gropius (1883-1969) was the first director of Bauhaus. He believed in functional designs, simplicity of shape, and lots of glass. • Implemented philosophy “form must follow function” • Influenced Swiss-French Architect, Le Corbusier • Bauhaus was an institution in Germany that brought together architects, designers, and painters.

19. Global Impact • Europeans searched for non-Western inspiration. • Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) searched the South Pacific for unspoiled beauty and a primitive way of life. • Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was an African American who was a dancer, singer, entertainer who was popular in 1930s Paris • Jazz was the music from the American Blacks which combined gospels, African rhythms, and erotic blues. It was very popular in Europe.

20. More on Global Impact • Trinidad was where Calypso was a popular music. Songs about urban hunger, unemployment, and social upheaval. • Negritude Movement in France was closely connected to surrealists.

21. The Democratization of Desire and Modernism • Modernism • A word to collectively describe these common features of Western art and culture. • Form is emphasized at the expense of content. • A systematic and determined rejection of the classical models • Culture is increasingly global • The Democratization of Desire • Radio • Hollywood • Shopping