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Modernism

Modernism. (1910-1965). Presented by Brittany Carson, Ryan Jenkins, and Maci Sepp. Background. Historical Events: - WWI & II - Roaring Twenties - Great Depression - Harlem Renaissance The American Dream: unattainable perfection Attack on middle class structure. Shifts.

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Modernism

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  1. Modernism (1910-1965) Presented by Brittany Carson, Ryan Jenkins, and Maci Sepp

  2. Background • Historical Events: - WWI & II - Roaring Twenties - Great Depression - Harlem Renaissance • The American Dream: unattainable perfection • Attack on middle class structure

  3. Shifts • Realism and Impressionism evolved into fiction and fantasy • Rather than write for an audience’s entertainment, Modernists wrote for themselves • Critical of socioeconomic and political issues

  4. Bloomsbury Group • Exclusive group who began writing for themselves rather than the good of the public • Shared ideas, techniques, and styles pertaining to literature • Intrinsic worth; ideas were innately good • Similar to “The Lost Generation” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf

  5. Fiction vs. Nonfiction • Transition from traditional nonfiction to experimental fiction • Emergence of fantasy, science fiction, and utopian societies • Escape from reality and expand from limits of religion, politics, and society

  6. Fiction vs. Nonfiction “Every one works for every one else. We can’t do without any one. Even Epsilons are useful. We couldn’t do without Epsilons. Every one works for every one else. We can’t do without any one. . . .” Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

  7. Protagonist’s Inner Struggles • Inability to free oneself from social class or alienation in materialized culture • Desire to return to a simpler past • Tragic hero whose flaws are often mental and unapparent to other characters; issues are internalized

  8. Protagonist’s Inner Struggles “'Can’t repeat the past?' he cried incredulously. 'Why of course you can!'” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

  9. Stream of Consciousness • Surveying inner space of human mind • Less focus on physical external world, more on emotions and deep thoughts • Text is written like thoughts; narrative is being processed

  10. Stream of Consciousness “. . . I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all” J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

  11. Human Nature vs. Human Reality • Conflict between outer and inner problems • Representation of real issues through nature • Literature captured inner emptiness and lack of direction

  12. Human Nature vs. Human Reality “Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same” Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

  13. Imagism • Extreme conclusions and visualization • Free Verse: more elevated diction and freedom to explore human experience • Free verse allows true extreme feelings

  14. Imagism “The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough” Ezra Pound, In the Station of the Metro

  15. Paintings The Old Guitarist The Weeping Woman

  16. AGirlby Ezra Pound The tree has entered my hands, The sap has ascended my arms, The tree has grown in my breast- Downward, The branches grow out of me, like arms. Tree you are, Moss you are, You are violets with wind above them. A child- so high- you are, And all this is folly to the world.

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