Essays On Modernism

Modernism

–Barth, "Literature of Replenishment" (www.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0255.html)

Modernism was rebellion against not only the repressive principles of the Victorian erabut also the emergence of the fast–changing, materialistic corporate society. The period preceding modernism held up Victorian virtues, which accepted the worldview of everything being ordered, neat, stable, and meaningful. While fundamentally optimistic, Victorian culture featured hypercritical moralism as it had a very narrow, strict...show more content...

Stream–of–consciousness writing employed by Joyce and Woolf and other expressions of inward consciousness in narration threw asunder the safeguard of the reliability of the narrator and required active contemplation by the readers. Perspective assumed a far greater importance in literature as writers offered more impressionistic work without omniscient narrators and clean resolutions.

The proliferation of the experimental spirit in modernist works of literature often alienated popular readership, and such exclusivity served as a mark of quality to a certain extent as it went in hand with the modernist intellectuals' disdain towards the mass–consumption–driven popular culture. Modernist intellectuals rejected popular culture, as they perceived that creating work that would be universally accepted often involved certain sacrifices of their genius and ultimately degraded art. The movement was certainly not egalitarian in nature. Modernism in fact strayed away from the idea of thinking in terms of groups, opting instead to focus on the individual. It strove for self–knowledge, and the almost narcissistic interest in the self led to the "spiritual alienation, self–exile, and cultural criticism" that pervaded the period.

The place that Hemingway and Fitzgerald occupied in literary modernism is difficult to pinpoint. They both dabbled with modernist writing styles earlier

"An inclination to subjective distortion to point up the evanescence of the social world of the nineteenth century bourgeoisie."

Modernism emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century, following World War I and flowing through the "roaring twenties." Materialism, crime, depression, and change filled this era. Reflecting the revolutionary time period, modernism itself was a revolution of style. Musicians, artists, and writers broke away from traditional, conventional techniques to create new, rebellious art. Modernism, in other words, was a change in how artists represented the world in their works. Passionate, sporadic jazz music–referred to as "jungle music"–danced through the music scene. Painters such as Pablo Picasso and Wassily Kandinsky stroked over the paintings of impressionist, representationalist artists, such as Hilaire–Germain–Edgar Degas....show more content...

Before artists concerned themselves with what they said; now they were most concerned with how they said it. Therefore, content and subject matter became back–up dancers to style. Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, for instance, revolves around a few characters that go from cafГ© to cafГ© drinking and chatting nonchalantly. Another modernist artist, T.S. Eliot, writes a long, beautiful poem entitled "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufruck" about a man contemplating asking a girl out, and William Carlos Williams describes a plain red wheelbarrow in one of his poems. However, the reader does not become frustrated with these simple, somewhat shallow plots because the style triumphs. For example, J. Alfred Prufruck's silly contemplation of courtship does not seem so silly because Eliot has a charming style. The Great Gatsby is another huge triumph of style over content. Although the novel itself is about tragedy and loss and should leave one feeling very depressed, the reader feels quite the opposite. In other words, Fitzgerald's writing brings pleasure despite his dismal subject matter.

Not only are the subject matters of modernist works unconventionally simple, but the sentences and word choices are also quite uncomplicated. Modernist writers left behind the showy, overwritten, sentimental writing that was common before them and wrote leaner works. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses short, simple sentences throughout the work. For instance, Get more content

Modernism in Visual Art and Writing

Modernism is unlike any other form of art the preceded it. It began in the late nineteenth century. Modernism is anti–traditional and against the rules. It is about looking for new things instead of accepting the old. Innovation and creation are important aspects of Modernism. It is introspective and subjective. Modernism includes a wide variety of different perspectives and multiple ways of doing things. There is no simple order in Modern works. They are full of discontinuity and fragmentation. Many Modern artists were rebellious because of angst and e'nnui. Modern artists are often considered to be borderline insane.

What is the reason for all this craziness...show more content...

For example, T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" shows what war can do to a nation. Similar to this, Pablo Picasso shows his negative attitude towards war in Guernica. Both works show that a war can destroy everything good in a country.

Emily Dickenson wrote poetry about how she felt trapped in her house and in her ways. She wished to be able to experience the outside world and all its beauty. Many artists chose to paint this beauty. For example, Van Gogh's Sunflowers on Gold and Monet's Bouquet de Mauves are both pictures of beautiful flowers.

Another common theme in art is women. Pablo Picasso's Woman with a Book and Salvador Dali's Muchacha de Espalda are two very different pictures of a woman. In each picture, the woman seems to be sad or confused. Similar to this, the stories we read by women portrayed these same ideas about women. During the late nineteenth century, women were not allowed to become what they wanted to be. They were controlled and oppressed. Many writers, such as Dickenson, Virginia Woolf, and Leslie Marmon Silko, and artists used this as inspiration for their creations.

It is easy to see that Modernism is a very distinguishable era of art. I find it interesting to be able to see the characteristics of the period in both

Modernism at Its Finest In the beginning of the twentieth century, literature changed and focused on breaking away from the typical and predicate patterns of normal literature. Poets at this time took full advantage and stretched the idea of the mind's conscience on how the world, mind, and language interact and contradict. Many authors, such as Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, and Twain, used the pain and anguish in first hand experiences to create and depict a new type of literature, modernism. In this time era, literature and art became a larger part of society and impacted more American lives than ever before. During the American modernism period of literature, authors, artists, and poets strived to create pieces of literature and art that...show more content...

As new technologies and advancements, such as the telephone and cinema, were created in America, modernist American literature also accepted and incorporated in the new change. Along with new inventions, social change in women and the black ethnicity caused rebellion and powerful literary movements to occur. The new social consciousness of these groups, referred to as theHarlem Renaissance in the 1920s, worked its way in literature rapidly and gave power to many minorities in America. Some African–American writers, from New York, who were recently enslaved, started this literary tradition in America. They were led by Countee Cullen, the British influenced poet, and Langston Hughes, raised on jazz music and black spirituals, and together, the Harlem Renaissance gave African–Americans a strong, clear voice with which they could express themselves to entire nation as a whole. In one of John Steinbeck's novels, Of Mice and Men, there were stern examinations of the hardships of tenant farmers in California, while Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby, laid bare the wide gap between society's wealthy elite and the lower classes. With these new advancements and the Renaissance, a new period of American literature rose to new heights and expanded across the nation. World War I and the Great Depression did not give many Americans hope for achieving the

Get more content

Modernism and Post Modernism

Have you ever wondered what the differences are between the modernism and post modernism? It seems like it would be easy to describe what they are by the words and what they are usually associated with. Yet, it's actually a lot different then your thinking. Modernism is the movement in visual arts, music, literature, and drama, which rejected the old Victorian standards of how art should be made, consumed, and what it should mean. Modernists want the absolute truth in everything. While on the other hand, Post Modernism is relating to, or being any of several movements (as in art, architecture, or literature) that are reactions against the philosophy and practices of modern movements and are marked by revival...show more content...

There seems to be no need for mistake in what they are doing and proceeding this way will fix any misconceptions they may have with the human body and war combat.

A man once lived by the name of Wilfred Owen and he wrote of the waste of human life and resources in the events of war. He also felt that is was overly barbaric to involve oneself with war. When you read through his poem reading 6.7, he explains to you the horror and reality of what is actually going on in the battlefield. The first few lines give you the feeling of what the men are going through. Line five and six explain that, "Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, but limped on, blood–shod. All went lame, all blind". Owen points out that there is no beauty in dying for your country and that it is all a lie on what has been made a reality for many. What's ironic about it all is that the poet died in combat at only 25 years old. Thus, making it that much more real in what he is trying to push across the minds of other people with this poem. It's not just another poem it's reality.

Postmodernism shows its face in many ways. One painting that I picked that you might find interesting is figure 36.2. Betye Saar portrays what looks to be Aunt Jemima in a fashion that goes completely against what she was first introduced as being. When you think of this famous face you would Get more content

Modernism And Its Impact On The Environment

Modernism represents an optimistic view of human impact on the environment that has been the dominant viewpoint for the last 200 years. The knowledge that mankind holds the ability to control the environment heavily stresses why climate change is not such a problem to worry about. One of the core beliefs of the modernistic perspective is that people have no need to fear future environmental disaster because the next technological advancement that will prevent it is right around the corner. Furthermore, those who share this view do not include themselves in their image of the ecosystem, believing they are detached from it. Lastly, a laissez–faire approach is taken to environmental problems, focusing on progression through technology, stressing that as long as progress is made in this area all problems will be fixed. For a modernist,climate change is nothing to worry about. This may be a real situation, but it will be solved with advancements in technology before one's way of life is changed. What people should be worrying about is ensuring a laissez faire approach to the market with sponsorship to new technologies. As a result of reusable energy technology already existing, modernists believe that the problem of climate change has been solved and without disrupting free market system these technologies will be further implemented. As long as there are people given the opportunity to innovate, some will focus on and ultimately solve the concern of climate change. The issue of

Get more content

Modernism

Modernism is defined in Merriam–Webster's Dictionary as "a self–conscious break with the past and a search for new forms of expression." While this explanation does relate what modernism means, the intricacies of the term go much deeper. Modernism began around 1890 and waned around 1922. Virginia Wolf once wrote, "In or about December, 1910, human character changed." (Hurt and Wilkie 1443). D.H. Lawrence wrote a similar statement about 1915: "It was 1915 the old world ended." (Hurt and Wilkie 1444). The importance of the exact dates of the Modernist period are not so relevant as the fact that new ideas were implemented in the era. Ideas that had never before been approached in the world of literature suddenly began emerging...show more content... Stepping outside of the box, they wrote what they perceived in their own minds to be reality. The readers in turn were given a new form of literature that was not written on the basis of beliefs that earlier had seemed indisputable. Not only were old belief systems disregarded, they were openly opposed. Even more surprising, the new thoughts were acceptable, and in turn provided an alternative route for thinking that had not formerly been considered.

Anti–Realism is another feature of Modernism. This element included the use of myth and allusion in writing. Description was a prominent feature in literature before the Modernist period; writers had set the scene using an exactness that left little room for a reader's imagination. With Modernism emerged the allusion, which meant that only certain aspects of the setting or scene were revealed. This provided freedom for the reader to think about what the author was presenting through the text. The work was created through the inner feelings and workings of the characters and the symbols hidden in the plot and setting. The way themes and points of view were selected went against the earlier convention also. Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams in 1899 opened the door to previously undiscovered value in the human unconscious. This led to a whole new emphasis of individualism in both the writer and the reader, who were given free reign to explore not only who a character was

Get more content

Modernism describes the ideology of the art and design that were produced during the modernist period. There has been a lot of controversy about when modernism started, yet many believe it initiated sometime in the late 19th century and continued to the early 20th century. The modernist movement was meant to be a break from traditions and it was set up to separate the value of certain works from the conservative realism. For instance, Unlike the traditional art that was aesthetic, this movement was more about space and form. In modernist design, shape and organization of products and buildings were based on their functional requirements. As a result, designs became simpler without the traditional decorative concepts. The idea behind the...show more content...

The chair utilizes the space and structure well and also is developed from a traditional idea into an innovative modern design for a chair. This chair was famous for its new use of materials, in the original design, the frame was made out of chrome steel and the upholstery was covered with white kidskin and filled with cotton burlap and horsehair (Meadmore, 1997). This chair is still in production for over eight decades.

Moreover, I explained how each image is an example for the core principles of modernism as mentioned in the overview. In brief, modernist design is innovative. Space, form and structure is based on the functional requirements. Designs became simple and without overwhelming traditional aesthetic concepts. Therefore, technology together with simpler design made the product easy to be mass produced. After the first World War, designers in central Europe intended to change the world for better through art by rejecting ornamentation as it resembled of the past generations whom withstood the unpleasant effects of war and poverty (Smith, 2005). Dormer (1993) writes that:

'When intelligent designers of the late 19th or early 20th century looked at the anonymous artifacts of 18th– and 19th–century industrialization, they saw great beauty in the simple, engineered structures, and set

Get more content

Post –modernism The second part of this essay is devoted to post–modernism. I have chosen two periods of Modernism and Post–Modernism as they are so much interconnected, the further development of modernism resulted in forming another movement in art, called as post–modernism. The word 'post–modernism' is over used nowadays and it gives the impression of being just nothing behind the popular buzzword. Although, it is a separate movement, which has a number of commonalities with modernism art, but at the same time has significantly different characteristics. [12]

The world started to talk about post–modern in literature in 50s, after the end of Second World War. There was a strong historical background that influenced the authors. The rapid evolution of tensions between the nations into of cold war, up–growth of manufacturing leading to overconsumption, Chinese Cultural Revolution, devastation after using US atom bombs in Japan, rapid development of ICT and it is effect on the human communication, development of multi–corporations, mass media gaining the great importance in the society, all these could not leave the world of art without the reaction. All these new phenomena formed the new way of perception. [13]

In post–modern the denial of previous norms continues,...show more content... In modernism it started with the presenting ambiguity of the texts. In post–modernism intertextuality developed into two dimensions: horizontal (writer–reader relation) and vertical (one text to another text relation). Post–modernism doesn't hide the fact the texts are constructed, and sees the values of the text in text's place in the network of texts. Borges, the key figure in Spanish–speaking modern literature, writes that 'The certitude that everything has been written negates us or turns us into phantoms'. [15] This becomes one of the core statements of post–modernism: 'everything has been already written'.

Get more content

Modernist and Post–modernist in Development Modernism is closely associated with the setting in of modern civilization compared to postmodernism. It is modernism that lay the foundation for postmodernism (Muller 312). After the World War II, the human race achieved what is referred to as postmodernism. The two concepts may appear antagonistic in nature, but a closer look at each reveals how well each complements the other. Art and literature are among the numerous human aspects that have been influenced in diverse ways by the concepts ofmodernism and post–modernism. In this paper, the significance of developmental studies in elaborating the two concepts as the poles of negotiation rather than competing concepts shall be highlighted more so from Miller's school of thought.

Modernist concept in enhancing sustained engagement

In this case, we realize that modernism always tends to exclude the order and the rationality mainly in politics that come with the movements. It is geared as "two poles of negotiation" majorly in the context of agreement in that it is geared and motivated towards various masses and people. Schneider stipulates this when he comes out vividly in comparison of his art to that of the ancient time by saying that his work was fine simply because his portrayals were eye appealing and they...show more content...

It facilitated the fast developmental phases.From this, we realize that some of the hypothesis within modernization and those that make it an essential characteristic of the developmental feature, are that various politics tend to employ different ways of

Get more content

Late Modernism Reborn? In our world of ideas, different philosophical movements emerge from time to time and some of these movements completely alter the entire society and the way we interact with our environment. One such philosophical movement, modernism, virtually revolutionized both our society and culture, and also the graphic design world. With the emergence of the Swiss Style, our typographic understanding changed from subjective to objective. Clean, sans–serif typefaces replaced the earlier, more personal and complicated typefaces. Strict, structured design was achieved with the use of grid systems. After a period of simple and clean graphic design, post modernism emerged and rejected the concepts of late modernism. They adopted...show more content...

While this overly simplified system was adopted by so many in so little time as a result of this very simplicity, it does not reflect the true idea behind late modernism; because late modernism does not intend to take the designer out of the equation, it wants to alter the world around us and humanize our surroundings. First of all, late modernism does not support the idea of making the designer irrelevant to the design work. When it emerged, Swiss Style supported using simple typefaces, sans–serif and making clean, but powerful designs. You may notice most designer using simple fonts such as Helvetica while designing logos, roadside signs or posters. They use the Helvetica font, but it is not because they want to make their designs more boring or non–artistic. The use of such a simple font is for one purpose only, to make their designs more objective and less suggestive in a sense. Use of elaborate and overly decorated fonts can lead to the over personalization of typography. While the idea of using a strict set of typefaces could seem extremely restrictive on the graphic designer, it is nonetheless necessary. As the Experimental Jetset suggests, in

Get more content

The Impact Of Modernism

Jonathan Glance , author of the book 20th Century Architecture ; The Structures That Shaped The Century describes modernism as " an attitude rather than a style " an attempt to free the architect from the rules of convention. Form following function was an attribute adopted by architectural modernists. As a result of this, modernarchitecture is no longer ornamentally focused but uses materials such as concrete, glass, steel and wood for functional construction. With reference to Le Corbusier and his architectural masterpiece, Ville Savoye, this essay will discuss and analyze the impact the industrial revolution had on modernism, the influence the Bauhaus had on architectural development, social and economical effects that influenced social trends, how modernism was received and reviewed by society and why the modernist dream ultimately failed.

The Industrial Revolution was a period of time that gave birth to a...show more content...

Decompartmentation is made up of three aspects: ascetics technics and society. Decompartmentation is when things that are normally categorized into groups are now not distributed but used together in order to achieve a desired result. He believed that design could be used as a solution to solve the alienation in modern, urban society and thus using decompartmentalization in linking social problems and design to create a solution. It was meant to 'improve the population who consumed it' states Greenhalgh when discussing his views on modernism. Due to this critic it reiterates that Le Corbusier did initially solve many of the social issues such as creating more land space by building upwards, building houses out of cheaper materials to help provide to those effected by the economic crisis and creating houses without ornamentation. However due to his neglect in focusing on the comfort of people living in these houses his work was

Get more content

The turn of the 20th century conveyed revolution in psychological, social, and philosophical thought. It was time for something neoteric. It was time to break out of the mundane tradition. This time of revolution conceded men, such as Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud, to rise to fame with their radical and cutting edge theories. Also, women were exasperated of their modeled roles in society. They sought to be independent, they longed to have the ability to vote, and most of all, they wanted legal equality. This time period also brought the renewal of European expansion. With new motivations, such as economic motivations, social imperialism, and the new theories of racial superiority, the British empire began concentrating on...show more content...

The space in between the front lines of the defenders and the attackers was known as "No Man's Land". ("Trench Warfare") Thousands of battle hardened soldiers would put their lives on the line by running into this "no man's land", just to win a few feet in the battle of the frontline. This led to hundreds of thousands of casualties just to gain two or three feet on the battlefield. There is no better picture of this theory of irrational creatures than in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which was published in 1902. ("Heart of Darkness") This novella is the story of a man, Marlow, who gathers a crew of sailors to journey down to the Congo, in British controlled Africa. As Marlow and his men begin the adventure down the river, they are soon given a mission to capture Mr. Kurtz, the best ivory extractor in all of Africa. The problem is, Kurtz has gone crazy, and his methods have gone tribal. The corporation believes he has gone insane. It's not until Marlow finally gets to Kurtz through a very trying journey, that he realizes Kurtz's actions are like the rest of ours, except Kurtz was tired of hiding behind civilization. Marlow realizes that we are all evil and we are all corrupt, but we attempt to hide it with civilization. "The horror, the horror" (Conrad) are Kurtz last words he utters to Marlow before he dies. Kurtz realizes the life of evil he has lived, the Get more content

In the time after World War One a new way of thinking became prominent. This new idea is what we call Modernism. After the war it was realized that many people had suffered absolute horrors, ones that they never could have imagined, or ever forget. The violence and pain witnessed by so many left them psychologically shell–shocked, and filled with disillusionment. These psychological effects would soon alter the world for years to come, and lead many to a loss in faith and questioning of everything they once believed true. Many of the social normalities these people had before they left for war, were abandoned. People exchanged their proper ways for more relaxed ideals. In this new society people were more able to express themselves, how...show more content... They were. The fact that women were now questioning the rules they once lived, only shows that people were finally shifting away from the past and into a new era of thinking. Women were not the only ones to questioning society during this time, both men and women had seen the use of chemical weapons, brutal battles, and an enormous waste of human life, people had "rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter "(e.e cummings, line 10 ) making it difficult to believe in a divine being or anything else, because who would let something that terrible happen? Due to this new lack in faith people came to question the moral code by which society ran. They became more concerned about their own moral code, rather than trying to fulfill societies expectations, since it seemed to only let them down. This is shown quiet well when Jake Barnes reflects on his own moral code in The Sun Also Rises, saying "That [is] morality; things that made you disgusted afterward. No, that must be immortality" (Hemingway 152). Jake like a great number of people after the war were clearly more interested in their own concerns than those of anyone else. People after the war were very selfish, they were tired of adhering to societies expectations and never seeing any results. The no longer believed in holding themselves back because of how society would view them.

Get more content

Modernism started as a movement around late 19th and 20th centuries. It rejected the conventional forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organisation and everyday life as they felt it was incompatible with the new economical, social and political conditions that was emerging at that period of time. Many distinctive styles can be defined as modernist, but majority of them had very similar values and theories on different aspects of society. It gave birth to a whole array of art, cultural and political movements. Often referred to as an avant–garde movement at that time, it was a loose assembly of ideas. They believed in creating a better world. Mainly consisting of left–leaning political ideology followers, they had...show more content...

The book cover illustration by John Heartfield for instance is another image that springs up as modernist illustration. The image simply is of a human like figure but the elements of the body parts are made up of various mechanical accessories e.g. clock, levers, meters, etc. Modernist's were convinced, technology was the way forward and the image in particular echoed that ethos. The poster designed by Adolphe Mouron Cassandre for the "Nord Express" was one of the iconic image during the later part of modernist era. The image has certain identical mark–making traits with other illustrators working around same period of time. The poster itself in some sense advocates industrialisation. The bold colours and figurative lines demonstrates the strength of industrialised future. Equality, and the desire to create a utopian world was one of the underlying principles of the modernists. George Grosz's images often attacked the class system that was occurring in Berlin. The caricature drawings of the elite capitalist bankers and the disillusioned lower class people illustrated the critical problem in the society that made the movement ever progressive. "Arrangement" – New York (1925) was a lithograph print of a heavily industrialised cityscape by Jan Matulka. Modernist architects were fascinated by the idea of simplicity in design, functionality and rejection of ornament, decoration, etc. The image underlines those ethics they maintained.

'In the Get more content

There is often some confusion when people start talking about the post–modernism and modernism in architecture in terms of their philosophical terminology differences. Modern architecture is known for its minimalism (Linder, 2004); buildings were functional and economical rather than comfortable and beautifully decorated. The post–modernism architecture, however, is called a "neo–eclectic, significantly assuming the role of a regeneration of period styles for designing houses, and a never–ending variety of forms and characteristics, asymmetrical designs for commercial buildings" (Fullerton Heritage, 2008). An example of these two polar opposites, "Less is more" made by Mies van der Rohe in 1928 (Blake, 1976) and "Less is a bore" made by...show more content...

Although, most post–modernist architects had been associated with modern architects in terms of training during the twentieth century, they refused most their teachers ideas. In addition, today's architects cannot deny the modern architecture ways of designing any building. Their design, for instance, has many philosophical meaning such as constructional, environmental, sociological, commercial and metaphorical meaning. The main difference between these two schools is that the architects point of view to any design as a means of communication (Chan, 1997). Modern architecture, for example, focus on the aesthetics of architectural language, while post–modernity adjust in constant effort to achieve what is more than unity and focus on the traditional concepts, therefore both schools are in competition with each other. Second basic principle of modern school is the production beauty by basic technology (Chan, 1997), and this led to a contradiction on the post–modernism architects being attempted to use primitive technology. Their particular case is to access and change the impact of the traditional architecture through all people. Therefore, to achieve this goal they have addressed the issues of beauty and technology within the general concept of the design. Despite different thoughts on the features of post–modernism definition, it is clearly seen that people ,who are interested in beauties, are

Get more content

The sixties was an era of radical change. With the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam War, the assassinations of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King, plus the success of the moon landing, people all around the world and especially in the United States were beginning to see a change in the world itself and the minds of the people in it. The sudden ability to receive messages from across oceans and the ability to travel internationally much safer and quicker also changed the way people looked at themselves and their fellow neighbors. The Norton Anthology of World Literature Vol. F explains this: "At the beginning of the twentieth century, the world was interconnected as never before. New means of transportation, such as the...show more content...

The main purpose is to understand the two philosophies, and how they effected the period in which they were born. From doing this, we can show the impact of them effected not only in the sixties, but also today. The firstgenre of fiction that was born during these times was Postmodernism. Its predecessor, Modernism, also came from the events that were happening around the world, especially through the newfound interconnectedness with different nations through new technological communications, and through easier and safer travel. Through this, the world experienced a change in its thinking, interpreting, and defining. This is explained better through The Norton Anthology of World Literature Vol. F: "Writers around the world responded to these cataclysmic events with an unprecedented wave of literary experimentation, known collectively as modernism, which linked the political crises with a crisis of representation– a sense of that the old ways of portraying the experience were no longer inadequate. The modernists therefore broke away from such conventions as standard plots, verse forms, narrative techniques, and the boundaries of genre." (Norton Anthology of World Literature Vol. D) It was through this genre that Postmodernism was born of. When other problems began to settle and others began to rise, its birth changed things even further than its predecessor. Looking at its definition found in Magil 's Survey of

The Movement Of Modernism

Modernism was a movement in literature, art, and music that began with the thought that everything there was to be written had already been written. Modernist writers believed that in order to create new works, they needed to create a completely new genre, using new styles of writing. These writers wanted to differentiate themselves from past literary movements, especially those of the Victorian era, dated roughly from 1837 to 1901 (Kirschen). Although Modernism was a collective movement, Modernists came from all different walks of life. Modernists also come together on one important issue, the push to form something new. They felt that in the new time of industrialism, old ideas of traditionalism were becoming quickly outdated. Modernists, in literature at least, were people who wanted to create a new relationship between reader and author. Generally, though, Modernists aimed to create a new form of expression. To define Modernism as a "general movement in literature,...show more content...

In the time before the nineteenth century, most artists were commissioned by wealthy people, or large foundations such as the church. In turn, this caused most of the art from the previous time period to depict religious scenes, intended to teach the viewer. In the Modern period, artists began creating things that interested them, using people, places, and ideas that captivated them. Many artists were influenced by the publication of Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams and in turn began investigating their dreams and symbolism as ways to create new works of art. Many modern artists challenged the thought pattern that art was meant to portray the world realistically. They tried out new uses of color and brand new materials. Artists used many new techniques and mediums as a means of producing new art, especially with the invention of photography. Photography made it possible to depict the world in new ways, and to reinterpret it

Get more content

Modernism or modernist poetry refers to the time period where poems were written by various people between the 1890s and 1970s. Modernism poets have a lot of knowledge and their works reflect it. The Era of modernism brought on modern language as it referred to thought, practice or someone's character. This brought on a lot of change in the world. The thought behind the thinking of modernist poets were that of individualism. The modern movement came about as the result of the industrial revolution. This was during a time were most people were moving out of the rural farm areas and began moving into cities around more people. The advancement in technology also played a big part in the modern movement. During this time new factories were...show more content...

This was a time were a lot of black poets were emerging. Hughes believed that everyone under the same race could live together, which became a downfall during this time. People did not want to hear about someone and their poems on Negro America. Hughes still went on and made very famous works that are still and will forever be popular. His poems mostly follow the guideline of being a modern writer, having a main subject line and comparing everyday living to living in the city. A good example from Langston Hughes giving a modernist perspective in a poem is his poem Mother to Son. In this poem Langston is describing to her small son on how not to be. In this poem there is only one subject, common black music traditions and the realistic life of an African American family in the twentieth century. He used this poem to respond to the tension that had been set in the world as far as race. In this poem he created a clear vibrant explanation on life. Mother to Son also presents a clear–cut subject matter which lays out the mother's life and sadness to her son by writing such lines as: "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up, and places with no carpet on the floor, Bare". This showed Hughes' understanding of human individuality in respect to African Americans. Being a black writer back then in a white society was not east but he influenced and remains positive throughout his

Get more content

Brian Blair–Whitaker LA LIT 4 H B1

Modern Thesis Paper

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, changes in the dynamics of society caused intellectuals to question the traditions of everyday life. From religious views to the arts of literature, traditional values and forms were rejected, thus defining a line between the two time periods, which can be considered as the start of the Modern era. Also known as Modernism, the modern era used literature as an outlet for expressing the thoughts and feelings of the time. Modern texts use city life, industrialization and globalization, and ironic and satirical themes to showcase their bleak outlook on life post both world wars. The nature of these events are aspects of society...show more content...

The mistrust of the world which is at the center of modernism can be attributed to the world wars and the psychological effect that it had on the individual. The horrors and violence altered public perceptions of life, a change that is evident within writers of the time period. The focus of writing shifted from the outward world to inner thoughts and feelings and overall representation of an individual's stream of consciousness which are themes associated with modern text. In "Impact of Modernism", focuses on the idea that world needed new outlets for expression and in finding them rejected the tradition that was already there with the quote, "Many modernists believed that by rejecting tradition they could discover radically new ways of making art." (Impact) .The world no longer had the beauty it once did so a a discovery of new arts were needed. The mind of an individual became that new found inspiration and beauty that modern writers needed and for that reason it was one of the main focuses of modern