Contemporary Narrative class 1

- Modernism – deviation from 19th century Victorian perspectives

- Similar to romanticism in technique and aesthetic
- Realism gives impression to reader that it is reality that reader is constructing
- Modernist text looks for instability
- Does not want anything to do with the teleological narrative
- Looking for a certain inspiration
- Wants to provoke a new idea and invoke a new technique

Modernist aesthetics

- Modernity as an experience. An urban experience. The growth of the city. It has to do

with industry and how everything has suddenly sped up.
- Concept of fragmentation (the way in which we express the effect of the war as reality
is broken) is direct consequence of experience of the Great War and arts translates
this as fragmentation
- Teleology no longer useful to represent experience of modernity. We can no longer
have beginning, middle and conclusions. People go to war and die.
- Life expectancy of women – end of 19 th century average was 44. – 1920 – life
expectancy is 60 – has a psychological effect on how we understand life
- The text begins to have a life of its own as we dismantle the authority of the author as
a God. The death of the author. Idea that the author does not have complete authority
of the text as it belongs to the reader.
- In 1882 Nietzsche states the death of God, correlates to literature
- Teleology is displaced. As humans we seek stability but life is chaotic. Art offers us the
opportunity to attain this stability and organisation of certain works of art
- Modernism and postmodernism understand life as chaotic
- The theory of relativity by Einstein tells us that life is chaotic. If everything is relative,
there is no order behind it. Everything is our personal experience that is constantly
changing.
- Reality does not exist only our experience of reality
- The tripartite psychic model of Sigmund Freud. 1915.
- Cartesian model – I think therefore I exist. According to Rene Descartes – you cannot
stop thinking. If you stop, you are dead. The essence of being is rational thought. This
has an effect on culture and society – enlightenment. Victorianism is Cartesian
- We move on from this towards the theory of Sigmund Freud – he uses hypnosis to
reach certain women. The women hear that the can help with illnesses that begin with
no organic origin. He attributes these problems to hysteria. He decides that this does
not work. He begins to allow women to talk to allow all their ideas to flow without
interruption – tripartisde model – we do have a conscious part of our personality – our
ego and what we recognise about ourselves. However, there is something that helps
the ego become what it is p. A dark place in the psyche wear we put things that we do
not use daily ( the unconscious). Another element is the superego – whatever controls
the ego e.g. school, religion etc superstructures that teach the ego how to behave in
society. This ties in with the chaotic approach. This model has a tremendous impact on
ourselves. A model that is fragmented. It follows the idea that life itself follows
fragmentation and we cannot stabilise reality or the subject. Stability of the subject is
gone forever
Modernist approach to this

- There is a need to stabilise this chaos and make sense of this and this is done through
art.
- Chaos is celebrated through modernist art
- Arnold Schoenberg – gives us first and second quartet that represent the normal
sequence, but then diverges. E.g. he introduces an opera singer. He is looking for
different elements to defamiliarise the form
- Expressionism – several circles Kandinsky – the idea is to express something to create
an effect on the viewer. Creates our mind to wonder (chaos). Represents the
fragmented times much better.
- Les demoiselles davignon – in cubical geometry to show how we can see things from
different perspectives – simultaneity – the result is chaos, but alllows us to see many
perspectives at the same time – this is reality – it is more realistic than realism that
only gives you the perspective of the author
- The focaliser is the agent of perspective on the text and where you stand. The text is
the diegesis. The focaliser guides you towards or away from the diegesis. If it is
towards, then you are given more detail
- Acquiring perspective helps us understand the full picture, but we miss the details

Cubism

- It is the only technique that allows for simultaneity.

- The way the book is structured does not help with simultaneity
- Wolf and Joyce explore how to achieve simultaneity through the means of a book

Postmodernism

- Transition towards and continue from main aesthetics of modernism

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