final american modernism

7/28/2019 Final American Modernism

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The Birth of American

Modernism(1915-1945)


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Important Informationhas been bolded for you


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World War I . . . destroyed faith inprogress, but it did more than thatit

made clear to perceptive thinkers . . . that

violence prowled underneath mansapparent harmony and rationality.

--William E. Leuchtenburg, The Perils ofProsperity


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Definition

Robert Wohl Modernism is a responseby clusters of intellectuals and artists tothe converging processes of

industrialization In Other Words

Modernism is the reaction of artists andwriters to the new society formed

because of industrialization.


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Literary Modernism: 1915-1945

Aspects

- high degree of experimentation.- characters most often alienated people searchingunsuccessfully for meaning and love in their lives- themes pulled from real life.


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AFTER THE GREAT WAR

The devastation of World War Ibrought about an end to the sense ofoptimism that characterized the years

leading up to the war. This more negative, or realistic, view

of the world, and the technologicaladvances, gave birth to Modernism


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Value Differences in the Modern

World

Pre-Modern World Modern World (Early 20thCentury)

Ordered ChaoticMeaningful Futile

Optimistic Pessimistic

Stable Fluctuating

Faith Loss of faith

Morality/Values Collapse ofMorality/Values

Clear Sense of Identity Confused Sense ofIdentity and Place in the

World


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A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE

INTELLECTUAL CURRENTSWHICH INFLUENCED

MODERNISM

Philosophy and Theory:


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Major Influences

WWI

32 countries and claimed the lives of over 20 million people

new weapons b/c of technology

Signals an end to idealism and ushered in an era marked byhedonism*, political corruption, and ruthless business practices

The Jazz Age / Roaring Twenties

the greatest, gaudiest spree in history (FSF)

Young people rebelling against past + tradition

Experimentation with fashion


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Major Influences

Prohibition (1920-1933)

Alcohol was made illegal Bootleggers= sold alcohol anyway

Speakeasies= where alcohol was served despite prohibition

New Era for Women The right to vote (19th am.)

Flapper= an emancipated young woman who embraced newfashions and urban attitudes of the day

More women working
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Themes of Modern Literature

Collectivism versus individualism

Disillusionment

Violence and alienation

Decadence and decay

Loss and despair

Breakdown of social norms and culturalsureties

Race and gender relations

The American Dream


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Theme of Alienation Sense of alienation in

literature:

The character belongs to alost generation (GertrudeStein)

The character suffers from adissociation of

sensibilityseparation ofthought from feeling (T. S.Eliot)

The character has aDream deferred (LangstonHughes).


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Valorization of the Individual Characters are heroic in the

face of a future they cant

control.

Demonstrates theuncertainty felt byindividuals living in this era.

Examples include JayGatsby in The Great Gatsby,Lt. Henry inA Farewell toArms


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Urbanscapes

Life in the city differsfrom life on the farm;writers began toexplore city life.

Conflicts begin tocenter on society.


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Literary Styles of Modernism

Stream of consciousnessnarration: a narrative modewhich seeks to portray an

individuals point of view bygiving the written equivalent ofthe characters thoughtprocesses, either through loose

interior monologue or inconnection to action.


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Juxtaposition

Two images that are otherwise notcommonly brought together appear side byside or structurally close together, therebyforcing the reader to stop and reconsiderthe meaning of the text through thecontrasting images, ideas, motifs, etc.

For example, He was slouched alertly is ajuxtaposition.


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MAJOR AUTHORS

American Literary

Modernism:


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T.S. Eliot

The most dominantliterary figure

between the twoworld wars.

Influential poet andliterary critic.

Conceives of the

poem as an objectdemanding a fusionand concentration ofintellect, feeling, andexperience.

Major Works:

Prufrock and OtherObservations (1917),The Waste Land(1922)


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William Faulkner

Southern Americanwriter

Many works centeron the mythicalYoknapatawphacounty

Experimental

techniques includestream-of-consciousness anddislocation ofnarrative time

Focus on issues of

sex, class, racerelations

The Sound and theFury(1929),As I LayDying (1930),Absalom, Absalom!

(1936)


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Ernest Hemingway

Iceberg Theory ofliterature (one-eighth

above water)

Spare, tightjournalistic prosestyle

Objective, detached

point of view

Examination ofmasculinity, gender

Major works: TheSun Also Rises

(1926),A Farewell toArms (1929), ForWhom the Bell Tolls(1940)


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Gertrude Stein

Expatriate Author

Coined the term LostGeneration

Patron of authors andartists as well asartistic innovator

Rose is a rose is arose is a rose.

Major works: ThreeLives (1909), TheMaking of Americans(1925)


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F. Scott Fitzgerald

Focus on Jazz Ageand Great Depression

Examination ofAmerican materialism

Exploration of theAmerican dream

Major works: TheGreat Gatsby(1925),Tender is the Night(1934)


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Ideal American Dream

Endless OpportunitiesNew Eden

ProgressLife should keep gettingbetter and better

The independent, self-reliantindividual will triumph


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Characteristics of Modernism in American

Literature

Emphasis on bold experimentation in styleand form, reflecting the fragmentation ofsociety. ExampleThere is no resolution in A Worn Path

Rejection of traditional themes andsubjects. Loss of faith in religion andsociety.

Sense of disillusionment and loss of faith inthe American Dream ExampleNick and Gatsby from The Great Gatsby


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Rejection of the ideal hero as infalliblein favor of a hero who is flawed anddisillusionedbut shows grace under

pressure. Interest in the inner workings of the

human mind, (stream ofconsciousness) sometimes expressedthrough new narrative techniques.

ExamplesHurston, Hemingway


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What is Todays American Dream?

American modernist writers both echoedand challenged the American Dream.

They constituted a broader, moreresonant voice than ever before, resultingin a second American renaissance. With

all the changes, however, writers

continued to ask fundamental questionsabout the meaning and purpose of humanexistence.


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F. Scott Fitzgerald1896 - 1940"Show me a hero, and I will write you a tragedy."


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Summary

Wrote five novels andnumerous short storiesduring the 1920s and 1930s.

Portrayed extravagance and

carelessness of the JazzAge.

Authored The Great Gatsby,often called the greatest

American novel of the 20thcentury.


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Pretty Southern belle whom Fitzgerald met whilestationed in Alabama

Energetic and imaginative

Turned Fitzgeralds first proposal down

Later married and moved to New York


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Symbols of the Jazz Age

Attractive and charming

Legendary partiers Artistic ambition

Drinking and recklessness

Zeldas mental breakdown

Romance and tragedy


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Fitzgerald in the 1930s Debt, depression, poor

health, drinking

Hollywood

Died of heart attack in1940 at 44

Zelda died in a hospitalfire in 1947

Work revived after hisdeath


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What are the consequences of the carelessness thatresults from wealth and social power?

To what extent can a person change his/her socialstatus through the acquisition of money?

What is the importance of striving to accomplish alifelong dream?

What are the consequences of failure to accomplish alifelong dream?


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Long Island, 1920s

Jay Gatsby young millionaire with mysterious past Gatsby throws glamorous parties for high society

Gatsby wants to reunite with Daisy, his long lostlove, who is married to millionaire Tom Buchanan

Narrated by Nick Carraway, a young stock trader wholives in a small place next to Gatsby


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Cubism


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Dadaism

Duchamp


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Surrealism

Dali Magritte


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Jackson Pollock


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Futurism

Giacomo BallaKandinsky

final american modernism

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