modernism
1. 1. Modernism
2. 2. What is Modernism? Modernism is an artistic and cultural movement that flourished in the first decades of the 20th. century, about the time
of WWI. Modernism is a cultural trend. It is the movement in visual arts, music, literature and drama which rejected the old Victorian standards
of how art should be made. Modernism was developed in the first three decades of the 20th century. It was developed in Europe, expecially in
the Great Britain.
3. 3. Modernism was very important in Europe because it “founded” Postmodernist movement, which developed in the second half of the 20th
century.
4. 4. Brief introduction of the modern period In the second half of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century, both natural and
social sciences in Europe had advanced. Their rapid development led to great gains in material wealth. But when capitalism came into its
monopoly stage, the sharpened contradictions between socialized production and the private ownership caused frequent economic depressions
and mass unemployment. The gap between the rich and the poor was further deepened. Then the First World War brought tremendous
catastrophe with it .
5. 5. Characteristics of Modernism Modernist writers believed that the traditional social, religious, and political order had broken down.
Economically, the World War marked the last stage of the disintegration of the British Empire. Britain suffered heavy losses in the war:
thousands of people were killed; the economy was ruined; and almost all its former colonies were lost. People had economic and cultural
problems.
6. 6. The writers did not believe in bourgeois values. They disturbed their readers by adopting complex and difficult new forms and styles.
Ideologically, The rise of the irrational philosophy and new science greatly incited modern writers to make new explorations on human
natures and human relationships.
7. 7. A number of theories which were influential for modernism were elaborated, such as Einstein’s treatise on relativity(1905), Max Planck’s
on Quantum Theory(1900), Freud’s theory ( The Interpretation of Dream, 1900), and Darwin’s theory of evolution and heredity. Modernism
was built on a sense of lost community and civilization. It included contradictions and paradoxes. After the First World War, all kinds of
literary trends of modernism appeared: symbolism, expressionism, surrealism, futurism, and imagism.
8. 8. The loss of a sense of tradition was a common theme to modernist writers. They saw it as a means of liberation from the limitations of past
artistic traditions. The increasing dominance of technology was another prevalent Modernist preoccupation. Modernism in Literature In
novel, the first three decades of 20th century were golden years of the modernist novel. Modernist novelists reexamined the techniques of
fiction writing.
9. 9. Some of the novelists used the technique of the stream of Consciousness, multiple point of views, and the inner monologue to reveal the
inner lives of the characters and to criticize the social system of the day. The writers also used the Third-Person Narrator Voice. The major
themes of the modernist writers were the distorted, alienated and ill relationships between man and nature, man and society, man and man, and
man and himself.
10. 10. Political corruption, immorality, woman’s psychological and sexual development were also main themes in modern fiction. racism,
slavery, and civil war were main themes in American fictions. Socialist- feminist theories were common themes for feminist writers. In
novel of manners, novelists explored realistic characters and scenes and described the customs of a particular social class.
11. 11. In poetry, poets rejected traditional meters, and made use of free verse. They made, in some sense, a revolution against the conventional
ideas and forms of the Victorian poetry. They mixed colloquial language with elegant phrases and quotations from earlier poems, and brought
about collages of fragmentary images and complex allusions instead of expressing logical thoughts.
12. 12. Modernist poets placed contradictory feelings and events side by side to portray the disconnectedness of modern life and challenge the
reader to re-established coherent meaning from fragmentary forms. Modernist poets viewed the work of art more as an aesthetic object than
as a representation of reality. Modernist poems reflected the complexity and pessimistic reflection of modern life. In drama, writers wrote
about the criminals, homeless, alcoholics , and workers. These characters spoke harsh, slangly, but lively
13. 13. Lack of meaning, incoherence of character and lack of plot were main features of modern works. Subjectivity, individual freedom,
choice, materialism, existentialism, Pessimism and absurdity of life were common themes in modern plays. The continuation of the traditional
Comedy of Manners was another feature of modern drama. Dramatic monologue where the protagonist spoke with his consciousness about
his inner problems was also a feature of modern drama.
14. 14. T.S.Eliot E.Pound W.B.Yeats
15. 15. James Joyce Virginia Woolf
16. 16. George Bernard Shaw
