Chapter 10 Modernism and Literature

Definition The term modernism is widely used to identify new and radical ideas in the subjects, forms, concepts and styles of literature. The French poet, Charles Baudelaire, first used the term modernist. To quote Malcolm Bradbury, !f Modernism means the rufflin" of the hard naturalistic surface by a state of multiplicity of consciousness, then #alter $ater in the %&'(s in )n"land and other thin*ers in )urope were tal*in" of quic*ened, multiplied consciousness.+ ,Bradbury %-'. / 0(1. 2owe3er, Modernism as a mo3ement came into prominence after the #orld #ar !. Modernism mar*s a brea* with 4ictorian bour"eois morality, rejectin" %-th century optimism, the modernists presented a deeply pessimistic picture of a culture in shambles. 5s )liot ,%&&&6%-.71 rues in The Waste Land ,%-881/

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water. Only There is shadow under this red rock, (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

5t some le3el, modernism was a response to the ordered, stable and inherently meanin"ful world3iew of the %-rh century , the world 3iew which could not comprehend the anarchy of the 8(th century. 5 criticism le3eled a"ainst Modernism is that it abandoned the social world in fa3our of its e9cessi3e interest in lan"ua"e and its manifestations. The fra"mented, non6chronolo"ical poetic forma by T: )liot and );ra $ound came as a major shoc* to the readin" public. The followin" is an e9ample from <oyces Finnegans Wake ,%-0-1 described as one of the most difficult te9ts of this period/

As the lion in our teargarten remembers the nenuphars of his Nile (shall Ariuz forget Arioun or Boghas the baregams of the Marmarazalles from Marmeniere?) it may be, tots wearsense full a naggin in twentyg have sigilposted what in our brievingbust, the besieged bedreamt him stil and solely of those lililiths undeveiled which had undone him, gone for age, and knew not the watchful treachers at his wake, and theirs to stay. Fooi, fooi, chamermissies! Zeepyzoepy, larcenlads! Zijnzijn Zijnzijn! It may be, we moest ons hasten selves te declareer it, that he reglimmed? presaw? the fields of heat and yields of wheat where corngold Ysit? shamed and shone. It may be, we habben to upseek a bitty door our good township's courants want we knew't, that with his deepseeing insight (had not wishing oftebeen but good time wasted), petrified within his patriarchal shamanah, broadsteyne 'bove citie (Twillby! Twillby!) he conscious of enemies, a kingbilly whitehorsed in a Finglas mill, prayed, as he sat on anxious seat, (kunt ye neat gift mey toe bout a peer saft eyballds!) during that three and a hellof hours' agony of silence, ex profundis malorum, with unfeigned charity that his ouxtrador wordwounder (an engles to the teeth who, nomened Nash of Girahash, would go anyold where in the weeping world on his mottled belly (the rab, the kreeponskneed!) for milk, music or married missusses) might, mercy toprovidential benevolence's who hates prudencies' astuteness, unfold into the first of a distinguished dynasty of his posteriors, blackfaced connemaras not of the fold but elder children of his household, his most besetting of ideas (pace his twolve predamanant passions) being the formation, as in more favoured climes, where the Meadow of Honey is guestfriendly and the Mountain of Joy receives, of a truly criminal stratum, Ham's cribcracking yeggs, thereby at last eliminating from the oppidump much desultory delinquency from all classes and masses with directly derivative decasualisation sigarius (sic!) vindicat urbes terrorum (sicker!): and so, to mark a bank taal she arter, the obedience of the citizens elp the ealth of the ole.

! am sure you ha3e obser3ed the complete lac* of a full6stop in the abo3e e9tremely dauntin" passa"e. Finnegans Wake is full of similar e9amples , has a number of *ernel stories, and they ran"e from a word to se3eral pa"es. The central story howe3er is of a fall which includes the Fall of Man= an ad3enture in >ublins $hoeni9 $ar*, and a tumble from a ladder by an !rish builder. <oyces in3ention of words and playin" with the lan"ua"e is of especial interest here/ *issmiss+ is both a celebration and fatefulness= the 2oly Father becomes a hoary father+, and an old photo"raph is fodo"raph+ = 5nna ?i3ia has 3lossyhair+ and a bad of wind+ blows. 5s in Ulysses, <oyce draws on a ran"e of literary wor*s in his last no3el, employin" his unique poly"lot idiom and portmanteau words. The central idea is deri3ed from the wor*s of the %&th century philosopher, @iambattista 4ico, that history is cyclic.

Prominent names related to modernism Modernism, strictly spea*in", be"an in @ermany and Thomas Manns bildun"sroman, Buddenbrooks, The Decline of a Family ,%-(%1 is often considered a wor* that chan"ed the course of @erman literature. !n the A:5, 2.>. or 2ilda >oolittles three short, elliptical poems in Poetry ma"a;ine in %-%8 came to represent a si"nificant moment in the "rowth of modernist poetry. 2ilda and her poet husband Bichard 5ldin"ton often showed their wor*s to their friend and mentor, );ra $ound, who decided that the youn" couples poems were a part of an important mo3ement. $ound added the word ima"iste+ to 2.>. name, and published a manifesto, Des Imagistes ,%-%C1, where the prominent beliefs were/ i. ii. iii. >irect treatment of the thin"+ whether subjecti3e or objecti3e= To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation= 5s re"ardin" rhythm/ to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome.

Throu"h $ounds efforts, poets of the 8(th century were able to brea* from the con3entions of the %-th century. $ounds !n a :tation of the Metro+ ,%-%.1, is a "ood e9ample of !ma"ism, and combines elements of <apanese hai*u/ !n a :tation of the Metro The apparition of these faces in the crowd= $etals on a wet, blac* bou"h.+ #ith the arri3al of 5my ?owell on the scene, howe3er, $ound distanced himself from !ma"ism and supported a new mo3ement, 4orticism.+ :ome of the major names of the modernist a"e are/ Thomas Mann, Marcel $roust, Fran; Daf*a, Bainer Maria Bil*e, );ra $ound, 2art Crane, #illiam Faul*ner, :tephen Mallarme, #B Eeats, Bimbaud, 5u"ust :trindber", ?ui"i $irandello, #allace :te3ens, )u"ene FGeill, Bertolt Brecht, #illiam Carlos #illiams, 5my ?owell, 2ilda >oolittle, #allace :te3ens, Marianne Moore, ee cummin"s, >2 ?awrence, #2 5uden, Christopher !sherwood, @eor"e Frwell, T: )liot, @ertrude :tein, <ames <oyce, and 4ir"inia #oolf.

Prominent movements/Works

)9pressionism Cubism Futurism >adaism :urrealism !ma"ism 4orticism

The Modernist era witnessed a true efflorescence of science and technolo"y, art, architecture, culture and literature from the first decade of the 8( th century onwards. 2istorically, there were major shifts in the old world order. #hile the #ri"ht brothers demonstrated the first fli"ht ,%-(01, 5lbert )instein proposed the theory of relati3ity ,%-(.1, and Boald 5mundsen reached :outh $ole ,%-%81 and the Titanic san* ,%-%81= Bicchard :trauss composed :alome ,%-(71 and $uccini , adame Butterfly in the same year. 5ndre @ide wrote her The Immoralist ,%-(81, 5nton Che*ho3 came up with The !herry "rchard ,%-(C1, Fran* ?loyd #ri"ht created the Bobie 2ouse in Chica"o ,%-(-1, and Marcel >uchamp painted #ude Descending a $taircase ,%-%81. 5rt and literature with radical ,at least for that a"e1 themes introduced the readers to new subject matter and e9perimentation in techniques. $rominent amon" these are/ $ablo $icassos Les Demoiselles d%&ignon ,%-('1, <ames <oyces Dubliners ,%-%C1 and % Portrait of the %rtist as a 'oung an ,%-%.1= >.2. ?awrences The (ainbo) ,%-%71, and Carl <un"s The Unconscious ,%-%'1= also, @ertrude :teins The %utobiogra*hy of %lice B+ Toklas ,%-001, Bobert @ra3es I, !laudius ,%-0C1, Clifford Fdets Waiting for Lefty and :al3ador >alis ,iraffe on Fire ,both %-071. Stream of consciousness novel 5 no3el where the story is presented throu"h a discontinuous succession of ima"es and ideas, connected by associations rather than lo"ical sequential thou"ht. #oolf, <oyce and $roust are the foremost names associated with this technique. !n wor*s such as #ight and Day ,%-%-1, rs Dallo)ay ,%-871 and To the Lighthouse ,%-8'1 #oolf rejects plot6 dri3en narrati3e for e9plorin" her characters inner consciousness. Avant- arde !"rench# $advance- uard%& This is a term 3ery frequently applied to a small, self6conscious "roup of writers and practitioners of art. 53ant6"arde refers to a small, elitist "roup of artists and writers who 3ery consciously underta*e to create somethin" new. By eschewin" the accepted con3entions and proprieties, the a3ant6"arde practitioners set out to create new and e9perimental artistic forms and styles. This was a prominent feature of the modernist phenomenon.

Modernism and painters Fine arts, particularly paintin", had a far6reachin" impact on modernism. 5rtists such as @au"uin, 4an @o"h, Matisse, and $icasso not only e9perimented with form and techniques but also bro*e away from the established traditions. French painters Francis $icabia ,%-'-6%-701 and Marcel >uchamp ,%&&'6%-.&1 e9hibited e3eryday objects as wor*s of art= the latter scandali;ed artistic circles with his reproduction of the ona Lisa with a mustache. $ablo $icasso ,%&&%6%-'81 was a pioneer of abstract art, and radically altered the traditions of paintin". 2e introduces Cubism, a style of art which interpreted objects in three dimensions, as planes of cubes and other rectilinear shapes. 2is most definin" paintin" is Le ,uernica , depictin" the horrors of the :panish Ci3il #ar ,%-0.1. The 5merican painter <ac*son $olloc* ,%-%867.1 was a leadin" member of the A: school of 5bstract )9pressionism. 2e de3eloped a new technique called action paintin", of which Untitled ,%-C.1 is an e9ample. 2ere, paint was applied in an e9tremely random manner/ dripped from the can, flic*ed or splashed on, or e3en cycled o3er.

Assi nment >iscuss the "rowth of modernism as a mo3ement with particular reference to paintin".

Modernist poetr' The Modernists predicament is best summari;ed in )liots -+ %lfred Prufrock ,%-8(1/ If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say: That is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all. . . . . . . . . No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,

Deferential, glad to be of use, Politic, cautious, and meticulous; Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous Almost, at times, the Fool.

Dnown for its symbolism, the Modernist poetry is remar*able for e9perimentation with lan"ua"e, obscurity of thou"ht and rejection of the traditional concepts of metre. 5mon" its major themes are war, erosion of humanity and the dystopia. !n modernist poetry, urban landscapes are often seen as harsh, fractured, discordant and at odds with nature. Consider the way T: )liot represents ?ondon in The Waste Land ,%-881 or >ylan Thomas bemoans ?ondon in % (efusal to ourn the Death, By Fire. !n 2art Cranes Bridge ,%-0(= read below1 howe3er, the majestic arcs of the brid"e mirror the arc of a sea"ullHs win" in fli"ht, and its cables are seen as the choirin" strin"s+ of a "reat harp. Crane also shows us the brid"e as a man6made wonder whose cur3eship lendIsJ a myth to @od.+ Cranes poem, therefore, offers an alternati3e 3ision of early 8( th century life, si"nifyin" a departure from the broodin" "loom of )uropean modernism. Cranes celebration of the brid"e ac*nowled"es the disasters as well as the achie3ements of modern urban life. #e see bored office wor*ers in plummetin" ele3ators, cinema audiences capti3ated but ultimately unsatisfied by the panoramic slei"hts+ of the sil3er screen, and a suicide who leaps from the parapets of the brid"e with his K shirt balloonin".+ :till the Brid"e is a symbol of the technolo"ical triumphs of the modern world.

(o )rookl'n )rid e by 2art Crane 2ow many dawns, chill from his ripplin" rest The sea"ullHs win"s shall dip and pi3ot him, :heddin" white rin"s of tumult, buildin" hi"h F3er the chained bay waters ?iberty66 Then, with in3iolate cur3e, forsa*e our eyes 5s apparitional as sails that cross :ome pa"e of fi"ures to be filed away= 66Till ele3ators drop us from our day . . .

! thin* of cinemas, panoramic slei"hts #ith multitudes bent toward some flashin" scene Ge3er disclosed, but hastened to a"ain, Foretold to other eyes on the same screen= 5nd Thee, across the harbor, sil3er6paced 5s thou"h the sun too* step of thee, yet left :ome motion e3er unspent in thy stride,66 !mplicitly thy freedom stayin" theeL Fut of some subway scuttle, cell or loft 5 bedlamite speeds to thy parapets, Tiltin" there momently, shrill shirt balloonin", 5 jest falls from the speechless cara3an. >own #all, from "irder into street noon lea*s, 5 rip6tooth of the s*yHs acetylene= 5ll afternoon the cloud6flown derric*s turn . . . Thy cables breathe the Gorth 5tlantic still. 5nd obscure as that hea3en of the <ews, Thy "uerdon . . . 5ccolade thou dost bestow Ff anonymity time cannot raise/ 4ibrant reprie3e and pardon thou dost show. F harp and altar, of the fury fused, ,2ow could mere toil ali"n thy choirin" strin"sL1 Terrific threshold of the prophetHs pled"e, $rayer of pariah, and the lo3erHs cry,66 5"ain the traffic li"hts that s*im thy swift Anfractioned idiom, immaculate si"h of stars, Beadin" thy path66condense eternity/ 5nd we ha3e seen ni"ht lifted in thine arms. Ander thy shadow by the piers ! waited= Fnly in dar*ness is thy shadow clear. The CityHs fiery parcels all undone, 5lready snow submer"es an iron year . . . F :leepless as the ri3er under thee, 4aultin" the sea, the prairiesH dreamin" sod, Anto us lowliest sometime sweep, descend 5nd of the cur3eship lend a myth to @od.

*ui+ 1, Ans-er the follo-in in .rief/ i.Mention any three important mo3ements of modernism. ii. #ho are the major poets of modernism. iii. #hat is a stream6of6consciousness no3elM

Activit' Find out the historical si"nificance of the Broo*lyn Brid"e. 5re there more literary writin"s about the Brid"eM

Modernist 0ovel Modernist no3el had four preoccupations/ >ealin" with the comple9ities of its form ,the !ntro3erted Go3el1= Bepresentin" of inner consciousness= Comprehendin" a sense of the nihilistic disorder behind the ordered surface of life N reality= Freein" the art from the determination of the plot.

Modernism #riters on literature be"an ma*in" a distinction between classic and modern wor*s and attitudes since the Benaissance, althou"h the modern was not widely defended as an alternati3e until the end of the %'th century. 5 sense that they were in3ol3ed in creatin" new forms, suitable to and reflecti3e of a distinctly modern consciousness, per3ades both the theory and the practice of romantic writers, and under their influence, the "oal of creatin" a modern art became a central concern durin" the nineteenth century. By the end of the twentieth century, modernism was most frequently considered to ha3e be"un not with romanticism, howe3er, but with realism, which places its be"innin"

around the middle of the nineteenth century if one is spea*in" of modern paintin" or the modern no3el, and in the %&'(s, with the writin"s of )mile Oola. Modernism is concerned with brea*in" away from established rules, traditions and con3entions. )9periments in form and style and no3el use of lan"ua"e are some of the features of modernist writin"s. Thin* of the followin" lines from Daf*as Metamorphosis/ @re"or :amsa awo*e from uneasy dreams one mornin" to find himself chan"ed into a "iant insect.+ <ames <oyces Ulysses ,%-881 was quite unli*e anythin" that had "one before. The no3elist dispenses with the normal time sequence and plun"es the reader into the world of the subconscious. <oyces minute description and obser3ation of e3eryday life and interwea3in" of themes pro3ides a brilliant and comple9 masterpiece, Finnegans Wake ,%-0-1.

Assi nment (ead the follo)ing *oem by ee !ummings and freely inter*ret it/ r6p6o6p6h6e6s6s6a6"6r by e. e. cummin"s r6p6o6p6h6e6s6s6a6"6r who a1s w,e loo1* upnow"ath $$)@FB2B5:: erin"int,o6 aThe1/l e5 Lp/ : a ,r r!3!n@ ."Br)a$s$hFs1 to rea,be1rran,com1"i,e1n"ly ,"rasshopper=

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ested readin s -ournal of odernism. odernity. <ohns 2op*ins Ani3ersity $ress. Bradbury, Malcolm N <ames McFarlane. odernism. Bpt %-&7. 2armondsworth/ $en"uin, %-'.. Calinescu, Matei. Fi&e Faces of odernity/ odernism, %&ant/,arde, Decadence, 0itsch, Postmodernism. GE/ >u*e Ani3ersity $ress, %-&'. ?e3enson, Michael N ,ed1. The !ambridge !om*anion to odernism. Cambrid"e/ Cambrid"e Ani3ersity $ress, %---. #alder, >ennis. Literature in the odern World. F9ford/ F9ford Ani3ersity $ress, %--(.

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ested links http/PPen.wi*ipedia.or"Pwi*iPModernism http/PPen.wi*ipedia.or"Pwi*iPModernistQliterature http/PPwww8.iath.3ir"inia.eduPelabPhfl(877.html http/PPwww.online6literature.comPperiodsPmodernism.php http/PPen.wi*ipedia.or"Pwi*iPBobieQ2ouse