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