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The Modernist Revolution

The Modernist Revolution. Science and Philosophy. The beginning of the 20 ° century  an explosion of new ideas that would change man’s view of himself and the universe . Albert Einstein , Theory of Relativity (1905). Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche  existing

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The Modernist Revolution

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  1. The ModernistRevolution

  2. Science and Philosophy • The beginning of the 20°century  an explosion of new ideas that would change man’s view of himself and the universe . • Albert Einstein, Theory of Relativity (1905). • Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche  existing • abstract values were decadent and the • expression of the levelling of modern • democracies. • Robert Oppenheimer, the nuclear bomb.

  3. Psychoanalysis Its founder was Sigmund Freud. He began to explore new areas of sensibility, which came to be known as the unconscious. a dynamic force originating in instinct and repressed desires the human mind has many layers, some of which are hidden

  4. Modernism • It indicates 20th century literature and art, which expressed the reaction against 19th century ideas and conventions. • Its most important features are: • the breakdown of traditional literary genres • the fragmentation of time and place • the collapse of the traditional plot • the use of complex language • the emphasis on psychological truth • the use of myth • the adoption of free verse

  5. First-Generation Modernists • Literary Modernism flourished from 1922 to 1925 with: • T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land(1922) • J. Joyce, Ulysses(1922) • V. Woolf, Mrs Dalloway(1925) • Much of the modernist literature: • deals with the unconscious in daily life • used the stream-of-consciousness technique • reproduced the flow of human thought

  6. Modernist Mythology • The great modernist writers were influenced by Cubism, Futurism, Dada and Surrealism. • Modernist writers were looking for what was valuable and could be rescued from the past. • They were trying to create their own interpretation of reality, a key to reading of the modern world. • They were completing a process of personal myth-making. • Ancient myths were investigated with an anthropological • interest.

  7. Second-generation Modernists • From the mid-1920s onwards, artists began to take sides in the philosophical and political fight between right- and left-wing views • During the 1930s, many of them turned to the political Left. • During the Spanish Civil War, some intellectuals • went to Spain to fight for the Republican forces • against General Franco’s forces.

  8. Modernist Poetry • 1900-1918  English poetry changed profoundly. • The 1910s were a crucial decade, which saw the first poetic efforts of the great first-generation modernists. • In the 1910s, Ezra Pound founded two literary and artistic movements: • Imagism  clear thoughts were fixed in simple, clear images; • Vorticism a celebration of energy, speed and dynamism.

  9. Celtic Revival and Myth • William Butler Yeats • The most important figure of the so-called Celtic Revival; • One of the symbols of Irish nationalism; • The French symbolists and Ezra Pound influenced him; • He adopted a clear language and his images are both realistic and symbolical. • Thomas Stearns Eliot • His masterpiece is built on myth and anthropology.

  10. The 1930s Generation • In the 1930s, a new generation of poets came to the fore. • the ‘Oxford Poets’  Wynstan Hugh Auden • no nihilistic attitude; • no experimental techniques; • more traditional forms; • less obscure language; • concerned with social problems both at home and abroad.

  11. Modernist Novels • Late 1910s – early 1920s  the English novel changed. • Modernist writers reflected: • the novelists’ lack of faith in traditional values; • the trauma of World War I; • the disillusion with myths  progress, science, technology • The breakdown of time divisions: • time became a continuous flux; • only individual consciousness could identify significant moments; • stream of consciousness / interior monologue

  12. Joyce & Woolf • James Joyce • Irish background • Dubliners the central theme is ‘paralysis’ • Ulysses  the lack of heroism • Virginia Woolf • Her house became the centre of the Bloomsbury Group • Human perception depends on the way the mind is affected by time • Mrs Dalloway the space of a few hours can contain a whole life

  13. The Colonial Novel • Edward Morgan Forster • Inability to believe in accepted values; • Reality is elusive and many-faceted; • A Passage to India the difficult relations between the • British and the Indians; • He has little in common with the experimenters of the novel form.

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