MODERNISM: American Literature

1914(?) - 1945(?)

Modernism

• Was a rejection of traditional norms in society and art.

• The old ways weren’t working. Instead “make it new!”

• Brought a pessimistic view of the meaning of life and

how people are to each other.

• The search for meaning becomes more important than

the actual meaning.

Causes of the Modernism

• WWI• Urbanization• Industrialization and Technology• Growth of Modern Science• Influence of Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx• Influence of Charles Darwin

WWI

URBANIZATION

INDUSTRIALIZATION

GROWTH OF MODERN SCIENCE

Scientists became aware that

• the atom was not the smallest unit of matter• matter was not indestructible• both time and space were relative to an observer’s position• some phenomena were so small that attempts at measurement would

alter them• Some outcomes could be predicted only in terms of statistical probability• the universe might be infinite in size and yet infinitely expanding

Charles Darwin• While Origin of the Species was

published back in 1859, his ideas of Natural Selection and the origin of humanity are becoming the foundation of modern science and philosophy.

• Effect: If humanity is simply the product of random changes, then does life have any real purpose?

SIGMUND FREUDInvented the use of psychoanalysis as a means to study one’s “unconscious”

Modernist writers concerned themselves with the inner being more than the social being and looked for ways to incorporate these new views into their writing.

SHIFTS IN THE MODERN NATION

• from country to city• from farm to factory• “mass” culture (pop culture)• split between science and the literary tradition

1920’s: THE JAZZ AGETo F. Scott Fitzgerald it was an “age of miracles, an age of art, an age of excess,

an age of satire.”

1930’s: THE DEPRESSION“True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and

independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

CONCERNS OF MODERNIST LITERATURE

• Question Everything• Reject traditional norms/values• Experiment• Establish “NEW”• Psychology of the Individual• Possibilities of Communication• Presence of the Past

Characteristics

• Collapsed plots• Shifts in perspective, voice, and tone• Stream-of-consciousness point of view• Comparisons and Juxtaposition• Irony and/or Satire• Allusions

COLLAPSED PLOTS

• Begins without explanation and consists of vivid segments juxtaposed without transitions

• Suggests instead of asserts - symbols and images instead of statements.

• The reader must dig out the plot structure

FRAGMENTARY TECHNIQUES

• Omits:– the explanations– interpretations– connections– summaries– and security in traditional literature.

SHIFTS IN PERSPECTIVE, VOICE, AND TONE

• Often 1st person POV because “truth” does not exist objectively but is the product of a personal interaction with reality.

• To better convey the reality of confusion rather than the myth of certainty.

STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS

• Depicts the mental and emotional reactions of characters to external events, rather than the events themselves

• Unedited thoughts

Allusions

• Details of the past reminded readers of the old, lost coherence.

• T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land is arguably the greatest example of this allusive manner of writing; it includes a variety of Buddhist, Christian, Greek, Judaic, German and occult references, among others.