modernism around 1918-1945 roots in 1890s. main points differences between realism and modernism ...
TRANSCRIPT
Modernism
Around 1918-1945
Roots in 1890s
Main points
Differences between Realism and Modernism
Modernism Timeline and Social Snaphots
Forces behind Modernism Characteristics of Modernism in
Literature Canonical Literary Authors Modernism in Visual Arts
Difference between Realism and Modernism
Whereas REALISM Emphasized
absolutism, and Believed that a
single reality could be determined through the observation of nature
MODERNISM Argued for cultural
relativism, And believed that
people make their own meaning in the world.
Value Differences in the Modern World
Pre-Modern World Modern World (Early 20th Century)
Ordered Chaotic
Meaningful Futile
Optimistic Pessimistic
Stable Fluctuating
Faith Loss of faith
Morality/Values Collapse of Morality/Values
Clear Sense of Identity Confused Sense of Identity and Place in the World
Modernism Timeline
1914: Outbreak of WWI 1916: Irish War of
Independence 21 Nov 1920: Bloody Sunday
1917: Russian Revolution
World War I:1914 (1915-1918)
WWI: Air Fights
WWI: Trench War Fare and Poison Gas
Modernism Timeline
1918: WWI ends
1920: Einstein’s Relativity
theory confirmed
Social Snapshot of the Times
Result of Political Turmoil Revolutionary Ideologies Rise
Fascism The separation and persecution or denial of
equality to a certain group based on race, creed, or origin
Nazism Socialism featuring racism, expansionism and
obedience to a strong leader Communism
Control of the means of production should rest in the hands of the laborers.
Fascism and
Nazism
Communism
Modernism Timeline
1920 League of Nations
begins 19th Amendment
granting women the vote
1921—Irish Free State proclaimed
1922—Fascists march on Rome under Mussolini
1923—Charleston craze
Modernism Timeline
1925— Image of human face
televised Hitler published Mein
Kampf
1927 Lindbergh flies solo
across Atlantic Al Jolson, first talkie
Modernism Timeline
1929—US stock market crashes
1933 Hitler appointed
Chancellor of Germany
First German concentration camps
Prohibition ends in US
Modernism Timeline
1934—Hitler becomes dictator
1936—Civil War in Spain begins
1938—Germany occupies Austria
1939 Hitler and Stalin make
pact Germany invades
Poland Great Britain and
France declare war on Germany
Modernism Timeline
1941 Germany invades
USSR Japan bombs Pearl
Harbor, US enters war
1942 Battle of Stalingrad,
Battle of Midway 1944—D-Day
invasion of France
Modernism Timeline
1945 End of war in Europe Atomic bomb
dropped on Japan United Nations
founded First computer built Microwave oven
invented
Social Snapshot of the Times
Scientific Revolution Quantum theory
Explains the nature of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic level
Principle of Uncertainty In quantum mechanics: increasing the
accuracy of measurement of one observable quantity increases the uncertainty with which another may be known
Snapshot of the Times: Implications for Nature of Reality
Many-worlds (multi-verse) theory As soon as the potential exists for any object to be
in any state, the universe of the object transmutes into a series of parallel universes equaling the number of possible states in which an object can exist. Stephen Hawking posits the possibility for interaction between universes.
Copenhagen interpretation: nothing exists until it is measured: Schrödinger's cat (dead and alive)
Schrödinger's cat
Forces behind Modernism
Discovery of the unconscious psychoanalysis
The sense that our culture has no center, no values
Paradigm shift from the closed, finite, measurable, cause-
and-effect universe of the 19th century to an open, relativistic, changing, strange universe
Characteristics of Modernism in Literature
Literature Exhibits Perspectivism
Meaning comes from the individual’s perspective and is thus personalized
A single story might be told from the perspective of several different people, with the assumption that the “truth” is somewhere in the middle
Characteristics of Modernism in Literature
Inner psychological reality or “interiority” is represented
o Stream of consciousness—portraying the character’s inner monologue
Characteristic of Modernism in Literature
Perception of language changes: No longer seen as transparent, allowing us
to “see through” to reality But now considered the way an individual
constructs reality Language is “thick” with multiple meanings
and varied connotative forces.
Characteristic of Modernism in Literature
Emphasis on the Experimental Art is artifact rather than reality Organized non-sequentially
Experience portrayed as layered, allusive, discontinuous, using fragmentation and juxtaposition
Ambiguous endings—open endings which are seen as more representative of reality
Canonical Modernist Authors
T.S. Eliot W.B. Yeats James Joyce Virginia Woolf Ernest Hemingway Franz Kafka Gertrude Stein F. Scott Fitzgerald Ezra Pound
Modernism in Visual Arts
The Armory Show: International Exhibition of Modern Art, 1913
Watershed date in American art
Introduced astonished New Yorkers, accustomed to realistic art, to modern art;
Teddy Roosevelt said, “That’s not art!”
Matisse
Cubism
Cubism—1909-1911 Art in which multiple views are presented
simultaneously in flattened, geometric way.
Cubism
Dadaism
Dadaism –deliberately irrational a protest against the barbarism of the War and
oppressive intellectual rigidity Anti-art
Strives to have no meaning Interpretation dependent entirely on the
viewer Intentionally offends.
Dadaism
Duchamp
Surrealism
Surrealism Grew out of Dada and Automatism Reveals the unconscious mind in dream images,
the irrational, and the fantastic Impossible combinations of objects depicted in
realistic detail.
Surrealism
Dali Magritte
Jackson Pollock
Futurism
Futurism—grew out of Cubism. Added implied motion to the shifting planes
and multiple observation points of the Cubists
Celebrated natural as well as mechanical motion and speed
Glorified danger, war, and the machine
Futurism
Giacomo BallaKandinsky
Main points
Differences between Realism and Modernism
Modernism Timeline and Social Snaphots
Forces behind Modernism Characteristics of Modernism in
Literature Canonical Literary Authors Modernism in Visual Arts
The End