Modernism

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

Modernism

Lesson Goals

After this lesson, you are able to explain the most important concepts of Modernism.

You are capable of answering basic questions on the concept of modernism.

Lesson Content

- Situation Pre-Modernism

- Developments in science

- Decline in society

- Modernist response

-Structure of Modernism

- Conclusion

Victorianism/Romanticism

Victorianism - Romanticism

• Society: Industrialism, focused on the masses
• Literature: Imperialist, Realism, Romanticism, Social Criticism
• Authors: Wordsworth, Brontë, Austen, Blake. 

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Developments in Science

• Many developments in the field of economics, politics, psychology and psycho-analysis.

• Many disciplines combine to create a new view of humanity.
  

Charles Darwin

- Supernatural being created the basics.

- The world evolves.

- The most adaptable survive.

Origin of Species (1859)

Sigmund Freud

- Fouder of psycho analysis

- Dream theory: Your dreams speak about your subconscious desires.

- Oedipus/Elektra complex

Three essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905)

Friedrich Nietzsche

- All men are not equal

- Society in decline because Christianity took away man's ability to decide their own destiny (predestination). Humans will push back

- Will to power: Humans innately desire domination over others. --> More important than reason

Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883)

Karl Marx

Believed in Nietzsche's WIll to Power concept: The proletariat should rise up and take the power they have a right to.

- SOCIALISM -

Das Kapital (1867)

Henri Bergson

• Humanity is not rational. It acts on mystery
• The brain remembers only that which it finds important.
• Rationality is overrated. Individual perception should be considered important.

Time and Free Will (1889)

Bertrand Russell

Empiricism: Reality is an experience. Only through experiences does humanity gain knowledge. 

Nothing is fixed, individual experience is the most important.

The Problems of Philosophy (1912)

Freud

Nietzsche

Marx

Bergson

Russell

Dream Theory

Will to Power

Socialism

Mystery over Reason

Empiricism

Freud

Nietzsche

Marx

Bergson

Russell

Decline in society

• The world is changing. Many conflicts all around the world.
•  Humanity struggles. --> Caused anti-industrialist sentiments.
• World War 1 --> Young generation drawn into war of the older generation. --> Sense of dislocation  / Alienation

Sense of Dislocation

Modernist Response

• Society had to change
• Break with tradition: Form, content.
• New focus on individualism
• What is the role of art?

When do you consider something art?

Structure of Modernism

Complex combination of movements:

• Aestheticism: Art for art’s sake / Beauty in all aspects of life (Oscar Wilde)
• Stream of Consciousness: pure thoughts on paper (Joyce, Richardson)
• Irrationalism: instinct and will over reason (Joyce)

Stream of Consciousness

High vs. Low Modernism

• Low Modernism: Education Act of 1870, literature available to the masses.

                 Everyday moral, language

                 Example Authors: Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells

• High Modernism: Art is for a higher purpose, not for the masses.

                 High morals, complex language

                 Example authors: James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad, T.S. Eliot. 

• High Modernism used elements of Low Modernism when it was suitable.

Celebrity Culture

• Turn of the century, beginning of film industry.
• Individuals became celebrities.
• Authors adopted an identity which helped them be successful.
• 1967: Roland Barthes --> Death of the Author --> Auctor vs. Scriptor

Conclusion

• Irrationalism: Books discussed how people felt about life, rather than the rational discussion       of events.
• Unreliable narrator: The narrator had just one perspective. Modernist used this to put the             individual experience at the centre.
• Subjective perception of reality: idem
• Break with tradition, both in form (free verse) and content (expressing the views discussed           before).
• Discussion of alienation, loss and despair as a result of World War 1, but also on a personal           level. --> spiritual and economic alienation

What would you like more explanation on in following lessons?