Modernism was philosophical movement in art,

music, culture, and literature taking place in the

early 20th century at was a age where styles had
began to move away and rebel against its
original Victorian Period beliefs. This Era was a
time in which faith was lost in god, government
and social beliefs.

The Modernist Era

(Modernism) 1890-1950
Ravi, Mathuson & Guransh
 Events leading to Modernism
 Capitalism, Socialism & Communism
 Started after the end of the Victorian Period around the end of the
19th century.
 Stock market crashes & The Great Depression cause writers to
change their style of writers to show the struggles of the human
society and the motives of the future changing world
 Humans fueled the start of this period in many ways. First being WW1
as well as many pieces of literature including:
 Freuds Interpretation of Dreams
 1890 William James published: principals of Phycology. This
changed the view of modern writers.
 1905, Einstein develops theory of relativity and scientists begin focus
on real life future issues
 Industrial Revolution and inventions of modern technology
 Changes/ Ideas and Beliefs
 The movement had occurred in the late 1800’s and lasted between the years of
1890-1950, with distinct literature from the early and late time of modernism. This
period marked the loss of faith in god, government, and human goodness. This
movement was heavily focused in Europe and North America. According to Jack
Somerset at the University of Harvard:
- Was the rise of capitalism and rational thinking… greedier corporate mindsets
- Regarding Philosophy, it can be regarded by the term, “I think, therefore I am”
as the people of the era became more intuitive and less warried about their
culture and beliefs, it was basically the collapse of tradition
- Took out all mystical aspects and began on setting beliefs towards ideas which
could be proven, the world was no longer a fantasy place
- Acknowledges that politics of the era is not working (anarchy, need for
democracy and less corrupt system) world wars, crash of stock market, the
great depression
- Tried to move away and distinct itself from academic and culture writings from
the 19th century to give readers better views of our changing world
- Beliefs of loss in faith towards the American Dream
 Major Characteristics
 New writing tried to rebel against 19th century poetry
- Effort to consciously strip down Victorian Period writing styles
- Very experimental- New styles to writings including stream of consciousness, varied
point of view, interior monologue, and nonlinear time plots to better portray the
changing society
- Interest in showing perspectives of the human mind, therefore showing
different point of views
- Gives lessons towards changing world at the start of the 20th century e.g. In the Great
Gatsby where a person gets killed in a car accident. This had shown us the changing world
and problems which may possibly occur in future days
 Using words in parts they aren’t (Nouns as adjectives, verbs as nouns etc.)
 Addressing inner thoughts of people
 Using dis-jointed structure to show problems in western societies
 Changing up traditional forms of poems, art pieces and music
 Influential Writers
Ernest Hemmingway William Faulkner
• Jul,21,1899 – Jul,2, 1961 • Sep,25,1897 – Jul.6,1962
• Awarded Nobel prize in • Created and used many
literature in 1954 narrative techniques
• He traveled around the using extended
world to gain experiences descriptions and details,
to write about actions in one scene
• WW1 heavily influenced recalling another scene,
his writing style as he and complex sentence
wanted to rebel against structure
19th century writers and • Implemented first person
began a style in which view/narrative
“meaning is established • To better enhance
through dialogue” emotion of character and
• His style posed a lot of world issue
controversy as it was very • Uses description to give
simple, direct, and still deep emphasis on
concerning. specific character
Joseph Conrad
• Dec,3,1857 – Aug,3,1924
• Remembered for work
“Heart of Darkness”
• Prose style was known to
be as a translation of
personal inner thoughts
as words, one of the
major movements in the
Modernist Era
• Uses irony to implement
many cases of racism in
society in “Heart of
Darkness”
• Tries to express people in
an imaginary world &
show a 3rd dimension
within characters
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