Modernism

Monday, September 17, 12

Xavier School IBDP English SL

Modernism
Denition History Indicators

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a general term applied retrospectively to the wide range of experimental and avant-garde trends in the literature (and other arts) of the early 20th century
Christ Baldick, The Concise Oxford Denition of Literary Terms

a movement which began in the closing years of the 19th century and which had a wide inuence internationally during much of the 20th century. [It] reveals a breaking away from established rules, traditions and conventions, fresh ways of looking at mans position and function in the universe and manyexperiments in form and style. It is particularly concerned with language and how to use it and with writing itself.
J.A. Cuddar , The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, 4th Ed.

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the term Modernism is not a precise label but instead a way of referring to the efforts of many individuals across the arts who tried to move away from established modes [realistic] of representation
Peter Childs, Modernism

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History
WW1 had undermined humankind's faith in Western society and culture. (A generation of young men lost, Survivors reexamine bases of certainly, structure of knowledge, systems of belief and authorities, Creating a feeling of hopelessness. ) Postwar modernist literature reected a sense of disillusionment and fragmentation.

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Modernists Mission
Literature = art object produced by consummate craft rather than as a statement of emotion. Not a set of stylistic features; an impulse to perfect A refusal of clichs; a system of taboos A reaction against degraded Realism, especially in the marketplace A repudiation of monopoly capitalisms effects on human being (conformity, standardization, repetition, seriality, stupidity)

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Indicators
Characterized chiey by a rejection of 19th-century traditions reader: conventions of realism ... or traditional meter. Predominantly cosmopolitan Expresses a sense of urban cultural dislocation Represents psychological time, the stream of consciousness Make it new!

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Indicators
Art is unique and original, is anticommercial It explores the human subconscious (think Freud) Relies on and employs myth as a reaction against scientic rationalism, uses sensuality, intuition and a search for Truth

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Indicators
Time is circular rather than linear Feels human character can only be known through memories and thoughts versus external description Reacts against Realism and Victorian morality, nd sexuality and sexual desire as a subject Modernism is disenchanted

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Indicators
Experiments with point of view and narrative structure. Rejection of chronological and narrative continuity. Literature and language as a game Stream of consciousness Unreliable narrator

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Indicators
Uses fragments, a non-linear plot Juxtaposition and multiple point of view Psychological realismseeks to represent the characters thoughts, feelings, and memories, his or her consciousness Objective correlative--Eliot "No ideas but in things," Williams

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Sources
Josef Albers Umberto Boccioni Pierre Bonnard Georges Braque Constantin Brncui Alexander Calder Anthony Caro Mary Cassatt Paul Czanne Modernism Principles E225 College Lecture

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