Age of Anxiety
1920s to 1950sPost WWI
Music
“Unentrinnbar” from Four Pieces for Mixed Choirby Viennese composer Arnold ShoenbergCharacteristics of Music included:1. abandon traditional harmony and tonality2. 12 tone music common in 1920’s3. uses abstract or mathematical tone row4. no patterns detected by average person but can be heard by trained person
Reasons for Anxiety
Brutality of WWIImpersonal attitude of warfareIndustrialization created impersonal atmospherePessimism for the futureLack of belief in reason, progress and rights of individuals
Writers of the Times
Frenchman- Paul Valery; poetGerman- Friedrich Nietzsche; philosopherFrenchman- Henri Bergson; philosopherFrenchman-Georges Sorel; socialistFrenchman- Jean-Paul Sartre; philosopherFrenchman- Albert Camus; philosopher
Paul Valery
Poet“Crisis of the Mind”“Almost all the affairs of men remain in a terrible state”Reflects the uncertainty of the political, economic, and social scenes post WWI
Friedrich Nietzsche
Philosopher turned insaneClaimed Christianity embodied “slave morality” to glorify weakness, envy and mediocrity“God is Dead!”(death of God leaves people disoriented)
Friedrich Nietzsche
Superman” can free himself from hum-drum thinking of the masses (Germans liked this part)
Questioned all values; saw morality – reason, democracy, progress and respectability as worn out and suffocating self-realization and excellence
Henri Bergson
Dissatisfaction with established ideas
Immediate experience and intuition as important as science for understanding reality
Philosophy sought to combine mystical experience with enlightenment rationalism in explanation of the world(reality)
Georges Sorel
Tried to give socialism a mystical (religious) aura rather than a rational scientific truth Rejected democracy(rule by the masses)Believed in the success of the worker’s revolution BUT…Believed that the masses of a new socialist society would need the leadership of a small revolutionary elite(Lenin felt the same way)
EXISTENTIALISM
This is the true voice of anxiety!!
Most were atheist(how can one believe in a God that allowed the carnage of WWI to occur?)
Search for values in a world of terror
Recognize that people, in order to define their existence, must make choices to ACT(unless they kill themselves then they have no choices)
Choices define existence
Jean-Paul Sartre
Human beings simply exist; “they appear on the scene” /attempt to define their purpose
With no God to help, honest people experience despair
“Man is condemned to be free”(compare to Rousseau)
Believe one gives meaning to life through actions
If one acts courageously and consistent, one can overcome life’s absurdities
Albert Camus
Defined existentialism for the massesDefined existence by choosing to fight Hitler in WWIIBecame a freedom fighter in the French resistance/chose not to accept tyrannyNobel prize for Literature 1957 (The Plague-1947)Argued that people hold on to life with no meaning– therefore “absurd”.
Scientists of the Time
Freud- the unconscious
Einstein- relativity; fluidity of time
Rutherford- split the atom/precursor to the atomic bomb
Planck- quantum physics
Curies- radiation
Attitude of Literature early 20th Century
General climate of pessimism, relativeness and alienationWriters adopt a limited often confusing viewpoint of the individualFocus on the complexity and irrationality of human mind where memories and desires are forever scrambled
Authors/Literature
Virginia Woolfe: literary group the Bloomsbury; dealt with women’s issues; Jacob’s RoomWilliam Faulkner-The Sound and the FuryJames Joyce- UlyssesT.S. Elliot- The Wasteland George Orwell- 1984Kafka-The Trial and The Castle
Architecture= functionalism
Functionalism- buildings must be useful; serve the purpose for which they were built
Bauhaus- German school combined art as well as architecture; attracted talent worldwide
Chicago House- Louis H Sullivan; created skyscrapers to sustain urban growth
Frank Lloyd Wright- most famous functionalist ; Falling Waters (in western PA)
Bauhaus-Dessau, Germany
Frank Lloyd Wright-functionalism/Falling Waters
Art
Most was a reaction to the French Impressionists of the mid-1800’s such as Monet and Renoir.
New style emerged as post-impressionism or expressionism
Portray unseen worlds of inner emotion (influence of Freud)
Create an image that needs interpretation—not the normal image/look beyond the obvious
Art- Fin de Siecle
The Fauves-the wild beasts- group of painters led by Matisse –painting so extreme given nickname
Cubism- Picasso; complex geometric shapes
Dadaism- means hobbyhorse in French; attacks conventional techniques-delights in outrageous
Surrealism-painted fantastic world of wild dreams
Vincent Van Gogh-Potato Eaters
Matisse-Red Room
Gaugin-The vision after the Sermon
Picasso- Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
Picasso- Girl with Mandolin/cubism
Picasso-cubism/Guernica
Duchamps-Nude descending staircase
Duchamps- Fountain/Dadaism
Dali- Surrealism/Persistance of Memory
Dali- Soft Construction of Boiled Beans
Munch- The Scream