Instructions  Remember to take notes, you will be using these notes throughout the unit.  Ask questions if you are confused, and let me know if you need more time to write down the information.  You should title your notes, “Modernism in American Literature.”  NOW, LETS BEGIN!!!

“The greatest single fact about our Modern American Writing is our writers’ absorption in every last detail of their American world together with their deep and subtle alienation from it.” –Alfred Kazin American Modernism

Modernism Reaction to WW1  Response to a sense of social breakdown  Development of Cubism & Surrealism in the visual arts  International perspective on cultural matters

The Jazz age and The Great Depression  Investigation of the excesses of the “Roaring 20s”  Consideration of class and trauma as raised by the Great Depression

View of the world as “fragmented”  The usual connective patterns are missing: morals and frameworks are compromised.  Artist’s self-consciousness about questions of form and structure.  Stylistic innovations, disruption of traditional syntax and form.

Philosophy & Theory A brief overview of the intellectual current which influenced Modernism

Darwinism  Charles Darwin  Evolution  Displacement of the human position of privilege  Collapsing of boundaries between human and animal

Existentialist Philosophy  Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche  Economic & Psychological Determinism  No Divine Patterns  Search for Meaning  War & Spiritual Trauma

Freudian Theory  Sigmund Freud  Psychoanalysis  Psychological Determinism  Forces inside the self impact human behavior  Sexuality & Repression lead to Aggression

Marxism  Karl Marx  Economic Determinism  Forces outside the self impact human behavior  Class Struggle  Relationship between labor and capitol

Modernism as a Movement

Painting  Sprit of experimentation  New ways of seeing  New material  New Ideas about the function of art  Abstraction

“Report from Rockport” Stuart Davis

Sculpture  Addition: disparate objects and materials  Construction: involuntary sculpture  Abstract  Stylized  Minimalist

Architecture  Materials and functional requirements determine the results (form follows function)  Adoption of the machine aesthetic  Rejection of ornament  Simplification of form

Music  Sound-based composition; noise, factory, mechanical, speech  Extended techniques and sounds  Expansions on/abandonment of tonality

Sciences  Quantum Theory  Theory of Relativity  Treatment of light and color  Treatment of energy  Treatment of time and space

Themes of Modern Literature  Collectivism vs. Individualism  Anxiety regarding the past  Historical discontinuity (disconnection)  Disillusionment  Violence & Alienation

 Decadence & Decay  Loss & Despair  Breakdown of social norms and cultural sureties  Race & Gender relations  Sense of place, local color

Characteristics of Modernism Formal Experimentation  Free indirect discourse: a style of third-person narration which combines some of the characteristics of third person report with first-person speech. Passages written using free indirect speech are often ambiguous as to whether they convey the views, feelings and thoughts of the narrator or those of the character the narrator is describing. This allows a flexible and sometimes ironic interaction of internal and external perspectives.

 Stream of Consciousness Narration: a narrative mode which seeks to portray an individual’s point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character’s thought processes, either through loose interior monologue or in connection to action.

Tensions within Modern Literature  Democratic impulse  Anti-traditionalism  Celebration of international culture  Free expression of sexual and political matters  Technology as liberation  Revolution  Elitist impulse  Traditionalism  National jingoism & provinciality  Puritanical and repressive elements  Fear of technological advancement  Conservatism

The Modern Self  The chief characteristic of the self is alienation  The “Lost Generation” (Gertrude Stein)  “Dissociation of Sensibility” (T.S. Eliot)  The “Dream Deferred” (Langston Hughes)

 The modern self is often unable to act, feel, or express love  The modern self has a tormented recollection of the past

Major Authors

John Dos Passos  Critique of materialism in early works  Literature includes fragments of pop songs, news headlines, stream- of-consciousness, monologues, naturalistic fragments from the lives of a horde of unrelated characters.

T.S. Eliot  The most dominant literary figure between the two world wars.  Influential poet and literary critic.  Conceives of the poem as an object demanding a fusion and concentration of intellect, feeling, and experience.

F. Scott Fitzgerald  Focus on Jazz Age & Great Depression  Examination if American Materialism  Exploration of the American Dream

Nathaneal West  Satirizes American Society  Collapse of the American Dream  Investigation of Material Culture

Gertrude Stein  Expatriate Author  Coined the term “Lost Generation”  Patron of authors and artists as well as artistic innovator

William Faulkner  Southern American writer  Many works center on the mythical Yoknapatawpha county  Experimental techniques include stream-of- consciousness and dislocation of narrative time.

Ernest Hemingway  Iceberg Theory of literature (one-eighth above water)  Spare, tight journalistic prose style  Objective, detached point of view  Examination of masculinity, gender

Exit Ticket  What do you look forward to learning/reading in this unit? Explain. 3-4 sentences.