Modernism

1918-1945

Difference between Realism and Modernism

Whereas REALISM

MODERNISM

Emphasized absolutism, and Believed that a single reality could be determined through the observation of nature

Argued for cultural relativism, And believed that people make their own meaning in the world.

Value Differences in the Modern World

Pre-Modern World Ordered Modern World (Early 20th Century) Chaotic

Meaningful
Optimistic Stable Faith Morality/Values Clear Sense of Identity

Futile
Pessimistic Fluctuating Loss of faith Collapse of Morality/Values Confused Sense of Identity and Place in the World

World War I:1914 (1917-1918)

WWI: Doughboys and Air Fights

WWI: Trench War Fare and Poison Gas

Russian Revolution: 1917

Social Snapshot of the Times

Result of Political Turmoil Revolutionary Ideologies Rise
Fascism

The separation and persecution or denial of equality to a certain group based on race, creed, or origin Socialism featuring racism, expansionism and obedience to a strong leader Control of the means of production should rest in the hands of the laborers.

Nazism

Communism

Fascism and Nazism

Communism

Social Snapshot of the Times

Scientific Revolution

Quantum theory
Explains

the nature of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic level quantum mechanics: increasing the accuracy of measurement of one observable quantity increases the uncertainty with which another may be known

Principle of Uncertainty
In

Snapshot of the Times: Implications for Nature of Reality

Many-worlds (multi-verse) theory

As soon as the potential exists for any object to be in any state, the universe of the object transmutes into a series of parallel universes equaling the number of possible states in which an object can exist. Stephen Hawking posits the possibility for interaction between universes.

Copenhagen interpretation: nothing exists until

it is measured:

Schrdinger's cat (dead and alive)

Schrdinger's cat

Forces Behind Modernism

The sense that our culture has no

center, no values. Paradigm shift

from the closed, finite, measurable, causeand-effect universe of the 19th century to an open, relativistic, changing, strange universe;

Characteristics of Modernism in Literature

Literature Exhibits Perspectivism

Meaning comes from the individuals perspective and is thus personalized; A single story might be told from the perspective of several different people, with the assumption that the truth is somewhere in the middle

Characteristics of Modernism in Literature

Inner psychological reality or interiority is

represented
o

Stream of consciousnessportraying the characters inner monologue

Characteristic of Modernism in Literature

Perception of language changes:

No longer seen as transparent, allowing us to see through to reality; But now considered the way an individual constructs reality; Language is thick with multiple meanings and varied connotative forces.

Characteristic of Modernism in Literature

Emphasis on the Experimental

Art is artifact rather than reality; Organized non-sequentially

Experience

portrayed as layered, allusive, discontinuous, using fragmentation and juxtaposition.

Ambiguous endingsopen endings which are seen as more representative of reality.

The Armory Show: International Exhibition of Modern Art, 1913

Watershed date in

American art Introduced astonished New Yorkers, accustomed to realistic art, to modern art; Teddy Roosevelt said, Thats not art!

Matisse

Cubism
Cubism1909-1911

Art in which multiple views are presented simultaneously in flattened, geometric way.

Cubism

Dadaism
Dadaism deliberately irrational

a protest against the barbarism of the War and oppressive intellectual rigidity; Anti-art Strives to have no meaning
Interpretation

dependent entirely on the

viewer; Intentionally offends.

Dadaism

Duchamp

Surrealism
Surrealism

Grew out of Dada and automatism. Reveals the unconscious mind in dream images, the irrational, and the fantastic,

Impossible combinations of objects depicted in realistic detail.

Surrealism

Dali

Magritte

Jackson Pollock

Futurism
Futurismgrew out of Cubism.

Added implied motion to the shifting planes and multiple observation points of the Cubists; Celebrated natural as well as mechanical motion and speed. Glorified danger, war, and the machine

Futurism

Kandinsky

Giacomo Balla

Modernism Timeline
1914: Outbreak of

WWI 1917: US enters war, Russian Revolution 1919:

WWI ends, Einsteins Relativity theory confirmed, Prohibition begins

Modernism Timeline
1920

League of Nations begins; 19th Amendment granting women the vote

1921Irish Free State

proclaimed 1922Fascists march on Rome under Mussolini 1923Charleston craze

Modernism Timeline
1925

Image of human face televised Hitler published Mein Kampf Lindbergh flies solo across Atlantic Al Jolson, first talkie

1927

Modernism Timeline
1929US stock

market crashes; 1933

Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany First German concentration camps Prohibition ends in US

Modernism Timeline
1934Hitler becomes

dictator 1936Civil War in Spain begins 1938Germany occupies Austria 1939

Hitler and Stalin make pact; Germany invades Poland Great Britain and France declare war on Germany

Modernism Timeline
1941

Germany invades USSR Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, US enters war Battle of Stalingrad, Battle of Midway; T-shirt invented

1942

1944D-Day invasion of

France

Modernism Timeline
1945

End of war in Europe Atomic bomb dropped on Japan First computer built Microwave oven invented United Nations founded