The transition from Victorianism to Modernism.

A CRISIS IN CONFIDENCE:

Queen Victoria(1837-1901)

A time of robust confidence in the powers of humankind.

1. Political Stability2. Prosperity a. Industrialization b. Inventions – electricity, steam engine

c. Global Connectedness – railways, telegraph

3. Rise of the Middle Class4. Rigid Morality based on Christian ethics

Victorianism:

Charles Darwin On the Origin of the Species, 1859

Karl Marx Das Kapital, 1867

Sigmund Freud Interpretation of Dreams, 1899

“God is Dead.”- Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882

Genetic determinismMankind evolved from more primitive life forms (not Adam and Eve)

“survival of the fittest”

Darwin: Biological Determinism

Marx: Economic Determinism

“dialectical materialism” – world in constant state of flux from one epoch to another

Individual/societal identity determined by which epoch is dominant

“Religion is the opiate of the masses.”

Behaviors determined by unconscious forcesHuman “nature” essentially dark and violent Civilization only possible through repression

Freud: Psychological Determinism

If we are not made in God’s image,

then what are we?

God and religious values are dead.

Determinism: biological, psychological, economic

WWI broke out and Europe was

decimated.

God wasn’t protecting humankind.Determinism “didn’t work”.

EXISTENTIALISM!

Religious world view:Essence Existence

Existentialism:Existence Essence

EXISTENTIALISM

Franz Kafka – born in Prague, Jewish, middle class, classically educated at the state

GymnasiumTroubled relationship with authoritarian

father“Kafkaesque” - characteristic or

reminiscent of the oppressive or nightmarish qualities

Not published in his lifetime; requested that all of his writings be burned upon his death

(from tuberculosis)His friend fled to Palestine and published

them from there 1925-1935

The Metamorphosis, 1915