The Moderns

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The Moderns

• Challenging the American Dream

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What is Modernism?

• Modernism refers to the bold new experimental
  styles and forms that swept the arts during the
  first part of the twentieth century.
• Modernism reflects a loss of faith in traditional
  values and beliefs, including the American Dream.

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What is the American Dream?
Progress is a good thing, and we can
optimistically expect life to keep getting
better and better.
America is a New Eden, a promised land of
Beauty, unlimited Resources, And
endless opportunities.
The independent, self-reliant individual will
triumph. Everything is possible for the person
who places trust in his or her own powers and
potential.
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A Harsh Awakening

• Events of the early twentieth century brought a
  loss of innocence and a strong disillusionment
  with tradition. These events included
• 1. World War 1 (1914-1918) and World War II
  (1941-1945), which resulted in destruction on a
  scale never before seen
• 2. The Great Depression that followed the 1929
  crash of the New York stock market
• Disillusionment to free from illusion or false
  ideas to take away ideals or idealism of and
  make disappointed, bitter, etc.

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Cultural Changes

• European modernist painters such as Henri Matisse
  and Pablo Picasso explored new ways to see and
  represent reality.
• In the Russian Revolution of 1917, Russians
  adopted socialism as the new system of
  government. Socialism was in direct opposition to
  the American system of capitalism.
• Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis,
  introduced new insight into the workings of the
  subconscious mind.

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Cultural Changes

• The 1919 Prohibition Law led to bootlegging and
  ushered in the Jazz Age.
• In 1920, women in the U.S.A. won the right to
  vote.

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Characteristics of Modern Literature

• New experiments with form and technique in both
  poetry and prose.
• A new kind of hero who is flawed and
  disillusioned yet honorable and courageous
• Questioning of traditional beliefs and social
  structures

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Characteristics of Modernism Literature

• Modernism is marked by a strong and intentional
  break with tradition. This break includes a
  strong reaction against established religious,
  political, and social views.
• Modernists believe the world is created in the
  act of perceiving it that is, the world is what
  we say it is.
• Modernists do not subscribe to absolute truth.
  All things are relative.
• Modernists feel no connection with history or
  institutions. Their experience is that of
  alienation, loss, and despair.
• Modernists champion the individual and celebrate
  inner strength.
• Modernists believe life is unordered.
• Modernists concern themselves with the
  sub-conscious.

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Post-War World

• WWI destroyed Americas confidence in itself and
  its superior and more evolved civilization
  (remember Social Darwinism?)
• Disillusionment is what many felt toward nations,
  governments, values, and social institutions
  (like the church)

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Existentialism

• A philosophy
• The world seemed absurd, hopeless, and did not
  make sense.
• Human thoughts express confusion and
  disorientation.

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The Arts

• This confusion and hopelessness showed in the
  arts.
• Modern Art developed, which often does not have a
  theme or point but just tries to express a
  feeling.
• Artists tried to display, through art, that the
  world was absurd.

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Guernica by Pablo Picasso

• This painting was created in response to the
  bombing of Guernica, Basque Country, by German
  and Italian warplanes at the behest of the
  Spanish Nationalist forces, on 26 April 1937,
  during the Spanish Civil War.
• Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the
  suffering it inflicts upon individuals,
  particularly innocent civilians.

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Effects of the War

• Similar to after the Black Death
• Some became hedonistic (self-indulgent) and tried
  to live it up
• They often practiced escapismusing drugs,
  alcohol, sex, etc. to escape the realities of
  life.
• Some turned to traditional values and tried to
  turn to the past

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What Still Remains

• American Modernist challenged the American Dream,
  but they also retained some of its ideals.
• The ideal of self-reliance persisted.
• Writers such as Hemingway still envisioned the
  American landscape as a kind of Eden.
• Regardless of their experiments with literary
  form, writers still continued to ask basic,
  universal questions about the meaning and purpose
  of our existence.

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Central Focus of Modernism

• Based on these notes, how would you summarize the
  central focus of Modernism?

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Discussion Questions

• 1. Why do you think a period of major cultural
  changes led to innovations in literature?
• 2. What do you think of when you hear the word
  hero?
• 3. Consider a flawed hero and a hero who has no
  faults or doubts. Which one do you think is more
  heroic? Explain.
• 4. Give an example of an action hero or heroine
  in movies? What type of hero are they
  likeflawed or perfect? Explain.
• 5. Explain how the Modern version of a hero is
  different.
• 6. Do you think self-reliance is still an
  important value in American life today? Explain.