Modernism & “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”ENG4U

ContentsIntroduction: The Waste Land by T.S. EliotInfluencesCharacteristicsFamous Modernist WritersPostmodernism: A CaveatT.S. Eliot“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

IntroductionThe Waste Land, by T.S. Eliot, is a seminal Modernist text.It was published in 1922 after undergoing many revisions by Eliot’s good friend, the poet Ezra Pound.It is a long poem characterized by its density and many allusions.Take a look at some quotations from the poem to help you understand the spirit of Modernism.

The Waste Land

Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know onlyA heap of broken images, where the sun beats,And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,And the dry stone no sound of water.

I will show you fear in a handful of dust.The Waste Land

A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,I had not thought death had undone so many.Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.

The Waste Land

“My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak.What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?I never know what you are thinking. Think.”

The Waste Land

She turns and looks a moment in the glass,Hardly aware of her departed lover;Her brain allows one half-formed thought to pass:“Well now that’s done: and I’m glad it’s over.”

The Waste Land

I sat upon the shoreFishing, with the arid plain behind meShall I at least set my lands in order?

These fragments I have shored against my ruins.

The Waste Land

Historical InfluencesCharles Darwin (1809-1882) & On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection

The beginning of the 20th century: “avant-garde” coinedIndustrialization, railways, advancement in physics, engineering, and architectureSigmund Freud (1856-1939) & subjective realityFriedrich Nietzsche & the will to powerWWI, Rise of Fascism, & the Great Depression

Literary InfluencesRomanticism (1798-1870) was a reaction to the Industrial Revolution.

subjective

Realism (1820-1920) was a reaction to Romanticism.

objective

Modernism (1910-1965) was a reaction to Realism.

subjective

CharacteristicsIsolation & Despair

PessimismNihilism – life is meaningless

Break with Tradition/ExperimentalStream-of-consciousness & subjectivityAbstract & SymbolicJuxtapositionsCollage/Pastiche (“Make it New”)

Shattering Binaries & PreconceptionsPop culture > High cultureFeminism

Famous Modernist Writers

Virginia WoolfWilliam FaulknerJames JoyceSamuel Beckett

e.e. cummingsWallace StevensEzra PoundWilliam Carlos Williams

Postmodernism: A Caveat

After-ModernismOne critic's postmodernism is another critic's modernism. - Andreas Huyssen Is there a division between Modernism & Postmodernism?Is Postmodernism a continuation of Modernism?Modernism = Pessimism, Postmodernism = Optimism

This is the way the world endsNot with a bang but a whimper

The Hollow Men

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)Born in the USA, but moved to the UK at age 25Said his first marriage, “brought the state of mind out of which came The Waste Land.”Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939, light verse) inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, Cats.Believed his poetry was a combination of American and British influencesDied of emphysema caused by heavy smoking