1. Modernism
Part 2 - G

2. Themes of modernism

3. alienation
Alienation: a withdrawing or separation of a person from an object or position of former attachment (Merriam-Webster)
Feeling disconnected, isolated, “alien” from others
Reduction in individuality – People reduced to numbers/productivity
Effect of industrialization
Traditional communities disrupted and changed by a move into factory work; families no longer can connect as before
Effect of the war
War challenged sense of blind allegiance to nation
Soldiers belong to a "lost generation" (Gertrude Stein)
Freud: Close awareness of how one’s inner mind is unknowable and how hard it is to connect with other humans – you can’t even know yourself

4. Fragmentation
to fragment: : to fall to pieces; to break up into fragments
Fragmentation of reality
Everything we thought we knew has been challenged/overturned/ proved wrong, so reality does not feel cohesive (put-together) anymore
Effect of war
Literal destruction of cities and landscapes–the world has literally been fragmented
Effect of industrialization
Traditional communities disrupted and changed by a move into factory work
time is divided up into hours
Assembly lines – duties are divided up

5. transformation to transform: a : to change in composition or structure
b : to change the outward form or appearance of
c : to change in character or condition
Revolutionary Thinkers
Marx, Darwin, and Freud transformed the way we think about the world
Effect of industrialization
Technology changed more rapidly than ever before
“Make it New!”
Let’s transform the texts and we know into something new
Lots of reinterpretation of classical texts; blending different cultural styles together (not copying, but making them new)

6. despair despair: utter loss of hope Not Just Sadness
Despair is not just sadness, but hopelessness
Effect of industrialization
Routine life, hard work, desperate conditions, lead to the thought, “What is the point?”
Effect of the war
Devastating destruction and loss of life
Again – what is the point?
Revolutionary Thinkers
Darwin’s thought challenged traditional faith systems, which can be connected to ideas of meaninglessness of life

7. Search for truth
truth: (1) : the body of real things, events, and facts
(2) : the state of being the case
(3) often capitalized : a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality
In the face of despair…
Well, what IS the point? What is true? What do we know? What is it all for?
Truth is relative

9. Techniques of modernism

10. Modernism in Literature
Embraced non-traditional syntax and forms
Syntax = word order
Challenged tradition
Writers wanted to move beyond Realism and reflect a chaotic, fragmented world
MC Escher

11. Literary Modernism – Techniques
Setting: Urban landscapes
Diversity in backgrounds and ideas vs. poverty and crime
Lost in a nameless, faceless crowd
Modernist characters
Quest to understand and/or recreate themselves
Despair, pessimism
Try to live as meaningful as possible
Loose reference to time
Chronological order is vague/confusing. Time is hazy
Characters on quest for self understanding
The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali

12. Literary Modernism - Techniques
Stream of Consciousness
From Joyce’s Ulysses
a quarter after what an unearthly hour I suppose theyre just getting up in China now combing out their pigtails for the day well soon have the nuns ringing the angelus theyve nobody coming in to spoil their sleep except an odd priest or two for his night office the alarmlock next door at cockshout clattering the brains out of itself let me see if I can doze off what kind of flowers are those they invented like the stars the wallpaper in Lombard street was much nicer the apron he gave me was like that something only I only wore it twice better lower this lamp and try again so that I can get up early

13. Literary Modernism -Techniques
Stream of consciousness
Discontinuous narrative
Open form
Juxtaposition
Classical allusions
Borrowing from cultures and other languages

14. Franz Kafka Kafka: a German Jew in Prague (Czechia / Czech Republic)
Metamorphosis: Modernist novella