The Development of Modernism

1900 -1930

Definition of Modernism

Rather than an artistic style, modernism was a rebellious state of mind that questioned all artistic,

scientific, social, and moral conventions.

Characteristics: Challenging Conventions

1. by embracing nihilism

2. by rejecting every system of belief

3. by believing in the self-sufficiency of each individual work of art

4. by adopting primitivism

5. by exploring perversity

6. by focusing on the city rather than nature

Nihilism: The Belief in Nothing

• Modernists viewed the world, and especially human existence, as being meaningless.

• Modernists rejected the belief that morality and organized religion provided the means for social evolution and/or the betterment of humankind.

Rejection of all Systems of Belief

• Modernists questioned all accepted systems:

– the sciences

– political/social/economic paradigms

– the arts, especially the Academy

Self-sufficiency of a Work of Art

• Art was not to be judged on the old standard of mimesis, the literal representation of reality.

• Art needed to be judged on an individual basis.

• Art should be judged on the basis of how well an artist is able to communicate the purpose of the work as well as the relationship between meaning and form.

Modernism

• In literature, not the same thing as in philosophy or history.

• THEY mean when science replaced religion as the source of knowledge for most people—back when Galileo’s revolution took hold.

• In Literature, WE mean the first half of the 20th century, when artists called themselves Modernists.

Modernism

• Loss of faith.

• Human sensibility destroyed by industrialized mass culture.

• Multiple points of view.

• Discontinous narrative

• Fragmentary structure

• Absence of authorial center.

• Experiments with textual techniques

• Example: “Stream-of-consciousness”

How Modernism Arrived

• Artists got sick of familiar routines– wanted to reflect new

knowledge:• Freudian theory • scientific rediscovery

• Shocked by decline of spiritual confidence

• Wanted to “make it new,” to embrace radical change.

A Problem With Terminology

• Unlike Romanticism and other movements, the title Modernism creates some logistical problems.

• The term Modernism refers to the concept of present time.

• However, the MOVEMENT of Modernism concerns an era of thought, separate from a concept of time.

Other Problems

• Modernism does not translate well in other cultures.

• The term also lacks a clear connotation of meaning.

Definition

• Robert Wohl – “Modernism is a response by clusters of intellectuals and artists to the converging processes of industrialization”

• In Other Words…– Modernism is the reaction of artists and

writers to the new society formed because of industrialization.

Other important definitions

• Avant-Garde, sector of the arts that draws its inspiration from the invention and application of new or unconventional techniques and is therefore on the vanguard or cutting edge of new styles. Participants in the creative process can be considered members of the avant-garde.

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Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Other important definitions

• Aesthetic Movement, English artistic movement of the late 19th century, dedicated to the idea of art for art's sake—that is, art concerned solely with beauty and not with any moral or social purpose. Associated with the movement were the artists Aubrey Beardsley and James McNeill Whistler and writers Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde. Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2003. © Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2003. © 1993-2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights 1993-2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.reserved.

Other important definitions

• Expatriate, somebody who has left his or her homeland to live or work in another country, usually for a long period of time.

•Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2003. © 1993-Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2003. © 1993-2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

When Modernism Arrived

• Virginia Woolf suggested 1910 as the beginning, largely because poets were theorizing about the changes already.

Historical catalyst

• The invention of the camera may have been the catalyst in the Modernism Movement.

• Artists suddenly found their trade replaceable and therefore quickly adopted the philosophy of…– Art for Arts Sake-

Other important historical influences and figures

• Charles Darwin• Einstein's Theory of

Relativity• Sigmund Freud and

Psychoanalysis• Communism• Cars• Airplanes• Telephones• Radios• WWI

Why the Modernism Movement?

• Modernism is complex. – There is a direct reaction to the Romantic

ideas that did not always portray truth.– Individuals began to revolt against anything

coming from the Romantic Era. • In fact, the concept of avant-garde implies a very

militant stand against Romanticism.• Many Modernists wanted to go as far as destroying

everything that came as a result of Romanticism and have it replaced with Modernist methods and ideas.

Why Modernism?

• M. Bradbury suggests that Christian certainties were suddenly undermined by free thought. – “Reality was not an objective given, but was

subjectively perceived through consciousness.” -–William James

• Modernists also revolted against superior aesthetics (Beauty and order) and required the gradual unraveling of tradition.

• People found themselves lost in a quickly changing world.

These thoughts had a great impact on the themes of literature

• Political Disorder

• Humanity’s inner anguish and anxiety.

What Caused the Shock: The Wars

• The world powers were complacent after colonizing the world (and getting rich doing so), then finding themselves in a massive war that undermined their confidence in humanity and in God.

World War I lasted for four years, cost 167 billion dollars (in 1918 dollars), involved 32 countries, and caused 37,000,000 casualties. Another 10,000,000

civilians died. Mustard gas and other causes devastated many of the survivors.

In Comparison

• US lost almost 660,000 in Civil War

• In Viet Nam, U. S. lost 53,000

• In World War I, France lost 6,160,080

• Russians had 9,150,000 killed, wounded or missing

• Great Britain had 3,190,000

• U S had 364,000

Where, then, is hope?

• Modernism demanded a re-visioning of the world and sought potential in a completely new way of looking at the world.

The Modernist Artist

• systematically and deliberately developed an art that testifies to all that is strange, unknown, and unlabeled in the self

• created a new language of images that described the inexpressible

• expected the viewer/reader to interact with the work

Pablo Picasso. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon(1907). Oil on canvas.

Primitivism

• Modernists rejected technology and the rigidity of society and its institutions.

• Modernists embraced the natural primal roots of primitive peoples.

• Modernists embodied the pursuit of personal and artistic freedom.

Pablo Picasso. The Dryad (1908). Oil on canvas.

Perversity

• Modernists explored the uncivilized nature of humanity.

• Modernists suggested that being “civilized” was merely a veneer that quickly vanishes.

Emile Nolde. Saint Mary of Egypt : Among Sinners (1912). Oil on canvas.

Focus on the City

• Modernists shifted away from nature.• Modernists explored the city as a place of lonely

crowds and marginalized individuals.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Street in Dresden (1907). Oil on canvas.

Forces that Shaped Modernism

• technology and the new science• the new philosophical paradigms F.H. Bradley

Alfred WhiteheadAlbert Einstein

• the new psychological paradigmsSigmund FreudCarl JungHenri Bergson

The Modernist Philosophical Paradigms

The New Perception of External Reality

Relativity: Space, Time and Light

• Modern thinkers broke with the belief in classical mechanics.– Newton had asserted that space and time

were absolute.– Modernists, on the other hand, questioned

objective reality.

• Instead, the modernists embraced subjectivity.– Observations about reality are observer-

dependent.

F. H. Bradley: Appearance and Reality

• Reality is not absolute.

• An object’s appearance varies depending on from what angle it is being viewed.

• To really understand an object, one has to view it from several points of view.

Alfred Whitehead: Process and Reality

• Reality is not static but in a state of flux, always in the process of becoming.

• Matter, space, and time are all interrelated.

Alfred Whitehead (1861-1947)

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) revolutionized the way that modernsexperienced reality.

the Modernist Psychological Paradigms

The New Perception of Internal Reality

Sigmund Freud

• expanded the definition of sexuality

• defined the major components of personality

• created a dynamic psychology based on the interaction of the id, the ego, and the superego

• defined the importance of the unconscious

• created psychoanalysis, a science that uncovers the personality’s secrets

Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939)

Carl Jung

• based psychology on the collective unconscious, the inherited memories of the race

• developed archetypes to explain human behavior

• explained how archetypes are expressed in fairy tales, myths, and artistic endeavors

Carl Jung (1875-1961)

Henri Bergson

• defined human experience through duration, psychological time consisting of the constant flow from the past into the future rather than a succession of chronological instants

• believed that reality is a past that constantly becomes something new

• held that intuition is the most trustworthy guide to understanding

Henri Bergson (1859 – 1941)

Henri Bergson:

“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.”