What is modern fiction?From what you’ve read so far this year, what is your subjective definition of ‘modern fiction’ at this point? List some characteristics of modern fiction.

Terms– memorize and be able to identify usage and rhetorical purpose.

Stories– you’ll be expected to make connections thematically and in terms of style.

Modernism– Tenets of modernism should be learned and identified in the stories’ themes and style.

Also, connections to art (and/or music, architecture, etc.) of the Modern era will make teacher happy!

As I go over the tenets of Modernism, write down any of the ideas that seem relevant to a “Modernist” interpretation of the stories. You will be writing an essay that applies an understanding of Modernism to the texts.

You may also be comparing a painting in these terms. Remember:

Style is one way to connect, theme is another, and sometimes they are interwoven.

How is this painting modern? JACKSON POLLOCK – How is this painting modern? JACKSON POLLOCK – Lavender Mist Lavender Mist (1950)(1950)

ModernismModernism

is a comprehensive is a comprehensive but vague term for a but vague term for a

movement which movement which began to get under began to get under way in the closing way in the closing

years of the 19th c. years of the 19th c. One question is, One question is, Why?Why?

What events might What events might inspire an artist to inspire an artist to

create such a painting create such a painting as this one?as this one?

PIET MONDRIAN – Composition 10 (1939-1942)

Persistence of MemoryPersistence of Memory – Salvador Dali – Salvador Dali

Modernism was largely Modernism was largely brought about by the brought about by the

convergence of several convergence of several factors:factors:

• The devastation caused in The devastation caused in Europe after World War I, when Europe after World War I, when the most enlightened and the most enlightened and advanced nations on the earth advanced nations on the earth came together to kill each other came together to kill each other in staggering numbers.in staggering numbers.

• The wholesale urbanization and The wholesale urbanization and industrialization that took place industrialization that took place during the nineteenth century.during the nineteenth century.

• The fragmentation of belief in The fragmentation of belief in the unified individual that the unified individual that occurred as the result of the occurred as the result of the work of several scientists and work of several scientists and philosophers.philosophers.

Asserted that Asserted that most elements of most elements of the human the human personality were personality were the result of the result of various psycho-various psycho-sexual sexual traumastraumas experienced in experienced in infancy and early infancy and early childhood and childhood and stored in the stored in the subconscious subconscious mind.mind.

Asserted that Asserted that human moral, human moral, cultural, and cultural, and religious values religious values were caused not were caused not by any inherent by any inherent sense of good or sense of good or evil but by the evil but by the requirements of requirements of a particular a particular systemsystem..

Discovered that Discovered that the evolution of the evolution of species was the species was the result of “natural result of “natural selection” and selection” and competitioncompetition rather than rather than through any through any special act of special act of purposeful purposeful creation.creation.

Discovered that Discovered that even most of the even most of the physical physical properties in the properties in the universe (time, universe (time, space, size, space, size, weight, density, weight, density, gravity, etc.) gravity, etc.) were were relativerelative..

Western notions of progress and superiority were breaking down.

Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, and Sigmund Freud all offered so-called master narratives that helped to explain history and to produce a new historical self-consciousness.

Well-held precepts and norms for religion, sexuality, gender, and the family of the past Victorian world were also collapsing--From your Modernism packet

These very real historical and cultural exigencies resulted in aesthetic crises and compensatory strategies.

This radically new modern world could be reflected adequately only in a new order of art, and writers reacted with various formal innovations.

This search for order was also a response to what many artists perceived as a lack of coherence in romanticism, the "movement" that preceded modernism.

-- your packet

Challenged tradition and the status quo

Fascination with the new, the modern, the mechanical

Focus on form and stylistic experimentation

Exploration of perception and representation

Critique of realism in how we represent the world

In a kind of aesthetic attempt to purify culture by purifying language, modernist writers emphasize the role of language and form as, for instance, in much of Hemingway's spare prose and Gertrude Stein's poetry or her famous assertion that "a rose is a rose is a rose." --Packet

––RENÉ MAGRITTERENÉ MAGRITTE

Which tenets might this artist be addressing?Which tenets might this artist be addressing?

The Treachery of ImagesThe Treachery of Images (1929) (1929)

Abandonment of traditional “rules” Abandonment of traditional “rules” for creating art, music, and for creating art, music, and literatureliterature

Fragmented representations of time, Fragmented representations of time, meaning, and human naturemeaning, and human nature

Sense of loss, alienation, Sense of loss, alienation, abandonment, and disillusionmentabandonment, and disillusionment

Attempts to find new kinds of “truth” Attempts to find new kinds of “truth” in the absence of any traditional way in the absence of any traditional way to ground meaning or significanceto ground meaning or significance

• No longer certain that art had a didactic function, No longer certain that art had a didactic function, writers questioned the moral and artistic purposes of writers questioned the moral and artistic purposes of literature. literature.

• Culture no longer provided a set of shared beliefs but Culture no longer provided a set of shared beliefs but instead was fragmented and individualized. instead was fragmented and individualized.

• Language itself was seen as an unreliable medium, with Language itself was seen as an unreliable medium, with an uncertain relationship to realityan uncertain relationship to reality; the very notion of ; the very notion of clear, straightforward communication between people clear, straightforward communication between people was brought into question.was brought into question.

““That’s not it at all, that’s not what I meant at all.”That’s not it at all, that’s not what I meant at all.”

––T.S. EliotT.S. Eliot

The characters and narrators in How We Are Hungry, in which longer stories are interspersed with some of Eggers's Guardian pieces, find themselves on the edge—on the verge of breakdowns, breakups and other crises…

His narrative responds in kind, patrolling what lies on and beyond the far edges of speech and thought. In the work of lesser writers—including some of those for whom Eggers has become a talisman—such narration can shrink into an aesthetic of studied faux-inarticulacy ... it is a mark of what Eggers can achieve at his best that his feeling for speech and its limitations rarely hits false notes.

Influenced by the work of Sigmund Freud, Influenced by the work of Sigmund Freud, authors made the authors made the interior their stageinterior their stage. Unlike the realists, who had created broad . Unlike the realists, who had created broad social portraits, the modernists emphasized the individual and social portraits, the modernists emphasized the individual and the subjectivity of perception. To this end, modernist writers, the subjectivity of perception. To this end, modernist writers, such as T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Ezra Pound, such as T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, and D.H. Lawrence, Gertrude Stein, and D.H. Lawrence, experimented with new experimented with new uses of language and imagery and new narrative structuresuses of language and imagery and new narrative structures. .

Modernist novelists employed stream-of-consciousness Modernist novelists employed stream-of-consciousness narration, multiple points of view, and fragmented, narration, multiple points of view, and fragmented, nonsequential plots.nonsequential plots.

The first and last line of James Joyce’s The first and last line of James Joyce’s Finnegan’s WakeFinnegan’s Wake::

riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

Alienation from society and lonelinessProcrastination/an inability to actAgonized recollection of the past/constant

flashbacks to the pastFear of death and the appearance of deathInability to feel or express loveWorld as a wasteland/poor environmental

portrayalMan creating his own myths within his

mind to fall back upon

Violence and alienationHistorical discontinuityDecadence and decayLoss and decayRejection of historyRace relationsUnavoidable changeSense of place, local color

Modernism saw the rise of the individual genius, one who Modernism saw the rise of the individual genius, one who repudiated the mass culture of the cinema and the rise of repudiated the mass culture of the cinema and the rise of consumerism. consumerism.

These brilliant writers, however, alienated from the world, These brilliant writers, however, alienated from the world, further estranged themselves from understanding, with further estranged themselves from understanding, with little social concern, with little sense or care except for the little social concern, with little sense or care except for the reception of the educated audience. reception of the educated audience.

This stance left the door open for the post-modern artist, This stance left the door open for the post-modern artist, one who is often left with only two responses to the angst one who is often left with only two responses to the angst of modernism: parody and amused, ironic detachment.of modernism: parody and amused, ironic detachment.

SymbolismSymbolism – Style of painting or writing that makes use of – Style of painting or writing that makes use of colors and sounds as symbols.colors and sounds as symbols.

Gustav KlimtGustav Klimt The Kiss The Kiss

1907-19081907-1908

is a style of painting, drawing, and is a style of painting, drawing, and sculpture in which objects are sculpture in which objects are represented by cubes and other represented by cubes and other geometric forms rather than by geometric forms rather than by realistic details.realistic details.

Pablo PicassoPablo Picasso

The Guitar Player The Guitar Player 19101910

is a modern movement in art and is a modern movement in art and writing characterized by writing characterized by attempts to express the attempts to express the sensation of movement and sensation of movement and growth in objects, not their growth in objects, not their appearance at some particular appearance at some particular moment.moment.

Kazimir MalevichKazimir Malevich

Morning in the Village After Snowstorm Morning in the Village After Snowstorm 19121912

is a movement in modern art is a movement in modern art rejecting and ridiculing all rejecting and ridiculing all accepted standards and accepted standards and conventions. Dada is a child’s conventions. Dada is a child’s word for a hobbyhorse.word for a hobbyhorse.

Marcel DuchampMarcel Duchamp

Mona Lisa Mona Lisa 19191919

is a modern movement in art and is a modern movement in art and painting that attempts to show painting that attempts to show what takes place in dreams and what takes place in dreams and in the subconscious mind. in the subconscious mind. Surrealism is characterized by Surrealism is characterized by unusual and unexpected unusual and unexpected arrangements and distortions arrangements and distortions of images.of images.

Salvador DaliSalvador Dali

Soft Construction with Boiled Beans Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) (Premonition of Civil War) 19361936

How does the following poem indicate a modern sensibility?

cf1.netmegs.com/memestream/red%20wheelbarrow.jpg

Futurism – exhorted writers and artists to celebrate “the new” and to abandon the attitudes and values of the past.

Dadaism – [dada, babytalk in French for hobbyhorse] “nonsense” –– collages of street debris as art and poems composed of random syllables or words pulled out of a paper bag, or of several unrelated passages read aloud simultaneously. A number of Paris Dadaists became Surrealists.

Cubism – presents an experience as fragmented elements rearranged to form a new synthesis, or whole.

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much dependsupon

a red wheelbarrow

glazed with rainwater

beside the whitechickens.

–William Carlos Williams

Paul Klee

MARC CHAGALLMARC CHAGALL

I and the VillageI and the Village (1911) (1911)

VINCENT VAN GOGH – VINCENT VAN GOGH – The Starry NightThe Starry Night (1889) (1889)

PABLO PICASSOPABLO PICASSO

Self-Portrait with Self-Portrait with PalettePalette(1906)(1906)

MARCEL DUCHAMPMARCEL DUCHAMP

Nude Descending a Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2Staircase, No. 2 (1912) (1912)

EDVARD MUNCH – EDVARD MUNCH – Evening on Karl JohanEvening on Karl Johan (1892) (1892)

The Lovers IIThe Lovers II – René Magritte – René Magritte

Compared to what?

I don’t get it…people always painted weird stuff I hate art what does this have to do with English class this isn’t art class who cares about Freud why did those people have bags on their heads when is he gonna tell us what that dog story was about I want peanut butter I hope Leslie brings my gym shorts before lunch. Apricot. Ap Ap Ap reeeeeee KOT!

The search for order in the modern world can be seen in the private mythologies of T. S. Eliot, which in turn hearken back to a classical world and in Joyce's reworking of the tale of Ulysses; this kind of self-conscious use of myth to organize the details of a work reflected a new literary self-consciousness.

William Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County in Mississippi also might be a kind of private modernist landscape populated with Faulkner-invented mythical families of the Sartorises and the Snopeses

Jeff Koons

Michael Jackson and Bubbles

1988

42 x 70 1/2 X 32 1/2