2. Modernism & “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” ENG4U

3. Contents Introduction: The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot Influences Characteristics Famous Modernist Writers Postmodernism: A Caveat T.S. Eliot “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

4. Introduction The Waste Land, by T.S. Eliot, is a seminal Modernist text. It was published in 1922 after undergoing many revisions by Eliot’s good friend, the poet Ezra Pound. It is a long poem characterized by its density and many allusions. Take a look at some quotations from the poem to help you understand the spirit of Modernism.

5. Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water.

6. I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

7. A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, I had not thought death had undone so many. Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled, And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.

8. “My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me. Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak. What are you thinking of? What thinking? What? I never know what you are thinking. Think.”

9. She turns and looks a moment in the glass, Hardly aware of her departed lover; Her brain allows one half-formed thought to pass: “Well now that’s done: and I’m glad it’s over.”

10. I sat upon the shore Fishing, with the arid plain behind me Shall I at least set my lands in order? These fragments I have shored against my ruins.

11. Historical Influences Charles Darwin (1809-1882) & On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection The beginning of the 20 th century: “avant-garde” coined Industrialization, railways, advancement in physics, engineering, and architecture Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) & subjective reality Friedrich Nietzsche & the will to power WWI, Rise of Fascism, & the Great Depression

12. Literary Influences Romanticism (1798-1870) was a reaction to the Industrial Revolution. subjective Realism (1820-1920) was a reaction to Romanticism. objective Modernism (1910-1965) was a reaction to Realism. subjective

13. Characteristics Isolation & Despair Pessimism Nihilism – life is meaningless Break with Tradition/Experimental Stream-of-consciousness & subjectivity Abstract & Symbolic Juxtapositions Collage/Pastiche (“Make it New”) Shattering Binaries & Preconceptions Pop culture > High culture Feminism

14. Famous Modernist Writers Virginia Woolf William Faulkner James Joyce Samuel Beckett e.e. cummings Wallace Stevens Ezra Pound William Carlos Williams

15. Postmodernism: A Caveat After -Modernism One critic's postmodernism is another critic's modernism. - Andreas Huyssen Is there a division between Modernism & Postmodernism? Is Postmodernism a continuation of Modernism? Modernism = Pessimism, Postmodernism = Optimism

16. This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper

17. T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) Born in the USA, but moved to the UK at age 25 Said his first marriage, “brought the state of mind out of which came The Waste Land.” Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939, light verse) inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, Cats. Believed his poetry was a combination of American and British influences Died of emphysema caused by heavy smoking