1. “Make It New” -Ezra Pound Modernist Poet

2. The 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago was organized to commem- orate the 400 th anniversary of Columbus’s discovery of the New World. Ironically, this monumental tribute to the past would herald the beginning of another entirely New World, one marked by profoundly different values, goals, and, indeed, core beliefs.

3. The Harbingers of Change Monuments to the Modern Period The Ferris WheelThe Eiffel Tower Two structures summarized the direction the country would take: The Ferris Wheel and The Eiffel Tower. Essentially, these two marvels of beams and rivets – materials of the Industrial Age - gathered all the era’s technical knowledge and industrial know how and for the first time aimed them to the sky. Indeed, the Ferris wheel, with its circular shape, its endless spinning, its tireless revolving would for many come to epitomize the Modern age.

4. In earlier phases, capitalist economic development acquired a kind of “heroic” dimension: the self- made person became the cornerstone of American business mythology. And the American dream was inevitably linked to middle-class ideals of thrift, the Protestant work ethic and self-reliant perseverance. However, after the Civil War, the rise of large-scale organizations made the individual’s role much more ambiguous.

5.  What was built in Chicago was a monument not only to Columbus but to a society that would become increasingly dominated by the power of corporations and other large-scale organizations that were overtaking traditional confidence in the individuals’ ability to shape their own destinies.

6.  It remains a central paradox of modern history that while the United States has always been suspicious of concentrated power – a fear that lies behind the American Revolution itself and founding documents such as the federal Constitution - it has also given birth to the modern business mega corporation, beginning with the railroads. Andrew Carnegie, founder of U.S. Steel, the nation’s first billion dollar corporation.

7. As the century opened and at about the same time large-scale corporations began to etch away at the idea of self-determination, intellectual currants had been working to undermine long-held beliefs. In England, Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859. This work displaced traditional ideas of God as the creator of the universe, suggesting that man arose not from a divine plan but by a process of continuous change from a lower to a higher, often better, state. This was the theory of evolution. Charles Darwin – Monkey Man

8. In Vienna, Austria – Sigmund Freud rocked the world with his ideas about sexuality and his theories of personality, ideas that came to be referred to as Freudian. In The Interpretation of Dreams and other studies on the workings of the mind, Freud suggested that men and women were ruled by dark forces of which they were unaware, particularly the drive toward sex and death (eros and thanatos). At first Freud’s ideas were ridiculed but acceptance of them grew until they became widespread in the culture. Freud’s ideas had – and continue to have - a profound influence on many artists, writers and thinkers.

9. Like Freud’s studies, Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity – also in circulation at the time – opened a new window on the human mind. Both Freud and Einstein seemed to confirm that people were not in control of their lives.

10. But more than any factor or combination of factors, the modern period came to be defined by a single, shattering experience: World War I. For many who experienced it, nothing could have been less genuine than America’s involvement. In 1916, Woodrow Wilson was elected to a second term largely on the strength of a campaign slogan: “He kept us out of the war.” By 1917, Wilson got us into a war that would usher in the modern era with a vengeance. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson – “He almost kept us out of the war.”

11. Unlike previous armed conflicts, where soldiers squared off on the battlefield and obeyed time- honored rules of engagement, World War I demonstrated the horrific potential of new technologies of destruction. Poison gas, submarines, armored tanks, airplanes and machine guns now did the work of killing. Mechanization also made death far more accurate and far less personal.

12. By the time the war ended in 1917, nearly 10 million soldiers and almost as many civilians had been killed. Europe laid in ruins, its national boundaries redrawn. But the devastation was more than physical. WWI was a brutal assault on the orderly civilization of the nineteenth century. The world was left a collective sense of despair and a widespread feeling of uncertainty. All that people had known as fair, moral and correct had been challenged and shattered. The final description of men and women who experienced the horrors of World War I and came out of it shaken – having lost their faith in government, God and most of their peers and elders - was provided by the poet Gertrude Stein. In a conversation with the writer Ernest Hemingway, she despaired “You are all a Lost Generation.”

13. The end of the war signaled an end of idealism and ushered in an era marked by economic growth, technological advancement and new ways to have fun. During the Roaring Twenties, people had more money and more things to buy. Radios carried the new sound of jazz into American homes. Cars gave people mobility and freedom. Movies abounded. People visited nightclubs and speakeasies where illegal alcohol was plentiful.

14. It was an age of great disillusionment – people found the American Dream not only unavailable but shallow, empty, vulgar and unfulfilling. America had no idols. The idols of American life – small town goodness, the decency of the common man and faith in business and religion - were broken and gone... So...

15. If World War I deprived humanity of its faith and made daily living meaningless, then style – the way in which one lived – becomes all important. The Lost Generation could not redeem the conditions of existence, but it could take advantage of the ride. This ride was often littered with wild escapades and wild drinking and partying. To a shattered individual, what one did mattered less than how one did it.

16. “The Jazz Age” was a termed coined by Fitzgerald in the short story “May Day.” It began in May of 1918 and ended with the stock market crash of 1929. The Jazz Age brought about one of the most rapid and pervasive changes in manners and morals the world has ever seen, changes that we are still wrestling with today. It was a period when the younger generation – both men and women – were rebelling against the values and customs of their parents and grandparents. After all, the older generation had led thousands of young men into the most brutal and senseless war in human history. People had seen death, so when they came back, they were determined to have a good time.

17.  The saxophone replaces the violin  Skirt hemlines went up  Corsets came off  Women started smoking  Prohibition, which was supposed to end drinking, only reshaped it into a secret – and therefore more desirous way to have fun.  Public saloons, now illegal, were replaced with the private cocktail party  Men and women began drinking together.  Enormous parties began to thrive  Hoodlums became millionaires in a few months by controlling the bootleg liquor business.

18. “Keep it New” -Ezra Pound Modernist Poet Art of this period was a direct response to these social and cultural changes. Disillusioned by the war and appalled by the materialism of the day artists in all categories rejected the past as barren and useless. They sought instead a completely original form

19. In its disregard and disdain of the past, modernist art is highly experimental, highly expressionistic. Indeed, often it appears purposely chaotic, fragmented and disjointed.

20. The modernists period extends over 35 years and encompasses a variety of artists and movements, including the vibrant Harlem Renaissance period. Still it shares several common characteristics across time and practitioners. Characteristics of Modernist Literature  Artists threatened by a massive uncaring society  Alienated, isolated characters  Withdrawn, puzzled or worried  Unresponsive  Hurt by unnamed forces  Experimental styles of expression and form  Often pessimistic commentaries on the American experience  Dark summations on the man’s nature  A sense of futility, world weariness and disillusionment.  No narrative voice with explanations or details – the reader is left alone to hash out the details and the morals.  Duality or double nature of situations  Conflict between the old and the new

21. Scott Fitzgerald e. e. cummings John Dos Passos Langston Hughes T. S. Eliot Gertrude Stein William Faulkner Ernest Hemingway Robert Frost Zora Neale Hurston Eugene O’Neil Dorothy Parker

22.  Discuss with a partner the connections you can find between the themes and messages of our text and the emerging period of modernism.  Class Discussion