The Birth of American Modernism ( )

Introduction to Modernism CA Standard: LRA 3.5 c Analyze recognized works of American literature representing a variety of genres and traditions. Objectives: 1.Review American literary movements of the 18 th and 19 th Centuries. 2.Define Modernism and explain its causes.

Genealogy of Ideas Colonialism & the Revolutionary Period (Beginnings-1800) Puritan Morality  Total Depravity  Unconditional Election  Limited Atonement  Irresistible Grace  Perseverance of the Saints Enlightenment  Science begins to question religious authority (Truth discovered through reason rather than faith) American Revolution  America as the “birth of an idea”, Alexis de Tocqueville.  Democracy of individual freedoms (freedom from the bourgeois or ruling classes, and/or royalty).

Genealogy of Ideas Romanticism & Transcendentalism ( )  Birth of an American Literary Identity separate from Europe  A reaction to Enlightenment (Truth through reason).  Romantics found truth through the beauty of nature, death.  The principle of God (as essence) is felt through nature.  Transcendentalism is a reaction to formalized religion representing a form of spirituality.  Transcendentalism involves the ability to transcend physical principles for a higher spiritual plane.  Transcendentalism is based on an idea of basic human goodness underlying all people as opposed to Puritan Calvinism. (Emerson).  Transcendentalism based on Calvinism explores the darker sides of romantic issues such as death or human suffering (Poe).

Genealogy of Ideas Realism and Regionalism ( )  The Civil War (testing the nationality of the Constitution)  Romantic/Transcendental ideas are displaced by realism (depictions of everyday life).  The development of regional literature in the local vernacular (rather than “formal” English).  Issues of inequality become prominent.  The rise of industrialism.

Genealogy of Ideas American Modernism ( )  WWI— “A brutal assault on the orderly civilization of the nineteenth century” (Lathbury, 2006, p. 7).  WWI– Meaningless violence to many Americans  Mechanistic—first sight of the technology of killing (without seeing the face of the enemy)  Belief in human reason shaken.  Multiple perspectives on the traditional:  Picasso  Arnold Schoenberg  T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, James Joyce, & e. e. cummings  Abandonment of convention  The Roaring Twenties (Jazz Rhythms...  The Great Depression  The Harlem Renaissance

“World War I... destroyed faith in progress, but it did more than that—it made clear to perceptive thinkers... that violence prowled underneath man’s apparent harmony and rationality.” --William E. Leuchtenburg, The Perils of Prosperity

What is American Modernism? A cultural movement marked by cynicism and disillusionment that was that was influenced by historical events at the birth of the 20 th Century beginning with World War I.

Subversion of Social Norms/Cultural Sureties Subversion: is rebel, overthrow, or undermine something. Women were given the right to vote in Hemlines raised; Margaret Sanger introduces the idea of birth control. Karl Marx’s ideas flourish; the Bolshevik Revolution overthrows Russia’s czarist government and establishes the Soviet Union. Writers begin to explore these new ideas.

Theme of Alienation Alienation: the feeling of being turned away or rejected. Sense of alienation in literature: –The archetypal character belongs to a “lost generation” (Gertrude Stein) –The antihero suffers from a “dissociation of sensibility”—separation of thought from feeling (T. S. Eliot) –American Dream as “a Dream deferred” –(Langston Hughes).

Valorization of the Antihero The antihero Demonstrates the uncertainty felt by individuals living in this era. Examples include Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, Lt. Henry in A Farewell to Arms

Urbanscapes Life in the city differs from life on the farm; writers began to explore city life. Conflicts begin to center on society.

Summary Modernism can be defined as _______. Its attitude __________________. It was a result of ___________________. Features of __________ include ________, _______, _________ and ____________.