Post on 03-Jan-2016
description
Modernism 1914-1960
Modernism uses a radical change in form and style
Form changes occurred in music, art and especially literature with stream of consciousness narration
Modernism replaces the logical sequence of ideas with a collage sense of story-telling
So modern novels lack linear flow and instead writers use a jumble of images to tell a story
Modern writers use new psychological theories
The idea of going to a therapist to solve your problems was just beginning, so writers used psychological theories to
drive their characters
Writers rejected traditional middle-class ideals and values
Writers blamed the world wars on the materialistic ideals of the middle-class, so traditional heroes
and topics were abandoned
Historical Influences
• The War Years– Soldiers = new perspective after
seeing the world + war
• Postwar “Big Boom”• Roaring 20s – Modern youths rebel
– Breakdown of traditional values – “the lost generation” (Gertrude Stein)
Historical Influences cntd.
• Harlem Renaissance– Increased passion and creativity in
the black community of NYC– Jazz and blues flourished: Duke
Ellington + Bessie Smith– As did literature: Countee Cullen,
Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright
Historical Influences cntd.• 1930s: Great
Depression• New Deal
Programs• Pearl Harbor:
December 7, 1941
Elements of Modernism • The way stories are told is very different
• Form changes
• The stories are often told through stream of consciousness• No outside narrator, authors try to replicate the way the mind thinks
• Collage story-telling, not cause and effect • no more first this happened, then that happened
• Stories are now a mish-mash of events without progression
• Psychological theories drive the characters• Authors create characters based on Freud’s theories of the
subconscious
• Middle class values and middle-class heroes are rejected• The pursuit of material wealth is considered the cause of WWI and
WWII, so they were rejected
Common ThemesCommon themes in Modernist literatureoften include:• Violence and alienation• Decadence and decay• Loss and despair• Race relations• Unavoidable change• Search for meaning