7/31/2019 Social and Culture Context of Modern European Drama - Copy

1/11

SOCIAL AND CULTURECONTEXT OF MODERN

EUROPEAN DRAMA

TINCY SIMON

II M.A.ENGLISH

ROLL NO:17

7/31/2019 Social and Culture Context of Modern European Drama - Copy

2/11

MODERNISM modern thought,

character, or practice. began in the 1890s and

lasted till about 1945.

7/31/2019 Social and Culture Context of Modern European Drama - Copy

3/11

SOCIAL CONTEXT the development of modern

industrial societies. the rapid growth of cities.

horror of World War I and II.

7/31/2019 Social and Culture Context of Modern European Drama - Copy

4/11

rejection of the ideology

of realism . rejected the lingering

certaintyof Enlightenment thinking.

A salient characteristic -self-consciousness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism_(arts)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism_(arts)

7/31/2019 Social and Culture Context of Modern European Drama - Copy

5/11

the 20th century writers

thinkers, and artists madethe break with traditional

means of organizingliterature, painting, and

music.

7/31/2019 Social and Culture Context of Modern European Drama - Copy

6/11

Symbolist Drama-movement in France in the 1880s.-Symbolists called for"detheatricalizing" the theatre.

-symbolic imagery .-Strong Symbolist elements can befound, however, in the plays of Chekhov and the late works of Ibsenand Strindberg.

7/31/2019 Social and Culture Context of Modern European Drama - Copy

7/11

Expressionist Drama -movement was popular in the 1910s and

1920s, largely in Germany.-explored the more violent, grotesque

aspects of the human psyche, creating anightmare world onstage.

-Other movements of the first half of thecentury, such as Futurism, Dada, andSurrealism, sought to bring new artisticand scientific ideas into theatre.

7/31/2019 Social and Culture Context of Modern European Drama - Copy

8/11

Absurdist Theatre -The most popular and influential nonrealistic genre

of the 20th century was absurdism.-"man as lost in the world, all his actions becomesenseless, absurd, useless.

-Absurdist drama tends

*to eliminate much of the cause-and-effectrelationship among incidents*reduce language to a game and minimize itscommunicative power

*reduce characters to archetypes*make place nonspecific and view the world asalienating and incomprehensible.

7/31/2019 Social and Culture Context of Modern European Drama - Copy

9/11

Contemporary Drama

- realistic plays.- European drama was not muchinfluenced by psychological realismbut was more concerned with playsof ideas, as evidenced in the works

of the Italian dramatist LuigiPirandello.

7/31/2019 Social and Culture Context of Modern European Drama - Copy

10/11

CULTURE CONTEXT By 1930, Modernism had entered popular

culture the basic bondings of the nuclear, rather than

extended, family. The Freudian tensions of infantile sexuality and

the raising of children became more intense,because people had fewer children, andtherefore a more specific relationship with eachchild: the theoretical, again, became thepractical and even popular.

7/31/2019 Social and Culture Context of Modern European Drama - Copy

11/11

THANK YOU