The Modern / Postmodern World 1901-present

1. The Modern / Postmodern World1901-present

2. The Modern Period • In 1901, Queen Victoria passes away. Her son Edward VII inherits the throne. With the death of Queen Victoria is the old Victorian glory of England. England is losing his colonial chokehold on the world.

3. Imperialism • Imperialism is defined as “The policy of extending a nation's authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony over other nations” (“Imperialism”). • Hegemony – “The predominant influence, as of a state, region, or group, over another or others” (Hegemony). • England, in earlier centuries, was known as a world power – it controlled a significant portion of the globe. However, as territories began to claim their independence (such as America in 1776), Britain began to lose control over their vast empire.

4. Imperialism (cont.) • Great Britain was in the business of expanding its empire. During the seventeenth century (1600s), England took control of India and established the East India Company, which monitored trade to and from India and held administrative functions for the British parliament. Britain’s pursuit of world power (and its poor, condescending treatment of natives) are captured in Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness (1902) and E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India (1924).

5. 1910 • In 1910, South Africa gains independence from Britain. The Union of South Africa is formed. Worldwide, tensions were mounting among the nations. This tension would eventually culminate into World War I (“The Great War”).

6. Psychology and Socialism • Among the “shakers and movers” of the Modern age were Freud and Marx. Freud introduced new ways of viewing dream interpretation, sexuality, and the human consciousness (stating our unconscious typically dictates our actions) while Marx (who created communism in his Communist Manifesto) fought for the rights of the working class. • Marxist terms • Bourgeois – member of the property-owning class; a capitalist • Proletariat- working class; a person who does not own property and must perform labor to make a living wage.

7. World War I : The Great War • In 1914, Britain was involved in a treaty with France and Russia. This treaty opposed Germany and Austria-Hungary. Two triggers of WWI : Germany invaded Belgium and the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated.

8. Advanced Warfare World War I distinguishes itself as a new “kind” of war due to the new tactical, technological and biological advancements made in weapons and warfare. World War I introduced the use of biological warfare (poison gas), trench strategies, and airplanes.

9. World War I • The Allied Powers (France, Russia, UK, Italy, and US) fought a long, bloody battle with the Central Powers (Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Ottoman Empire “Turkey”). After the last shot was fired, a total of nine million casualties were reported for the conflict (“World War I”). It was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. • The Great War” was also a costly one. Between 1914-1918 (the conclusion of the war) Great Britain alone lost 750,000 lives. It also smothered the last hope of Britain’s imperialism and ushered in an era of cynicism.

10. Literature and Modernism • Literature evolved much during the period between the first and second World War. The focus changed from a “concern with society” to a “focus on introspection” (The Modern World”). Virginia Woolf, a female British novelist, shifted the chronological order of a storyline and created the “stream of consciousness,” a method of storytelling that dissects the psyche and emotions of a character. D.H. Lawrence wrote to express discontent with “British society, with its class system, industrialism, militarism, and purdery” (“The Modern World”). Lawrence penned the scandalous novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover. It was so sexually explicit, it was banned in England until 1960. One of the most influential writers was James Joyce. Joyce wrote about his native country of Ireland, although Ireland, working to free itself from the grip of England, fought many bloody battles for its independence. His book Ulysses parallels Homer’s Odyssey.

11. Authors and Poets in WWI • Among those who fought in World War I were J.R.R. Tolkien, T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis, Siegfried Sassoon, and Wilfred Owen. Many were scarred by their experiences during war and wrote morbid and cynical literature reflecting their time in combat. American World War I veterans (such as Ernest Hemingway) also reflected this cynicism. This group of veteran writers was later called “The Lost Generation.” With the decrease of imperialism, British writers and veterans resonated a loss of patriotism and nationalism. Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, a novel about WWI soldiers

12. Easter Rebellion - 1916 • On Easter, 1916, a group of Irishman assembled at the Dublin post office in Belfast and made a “declaration of independence” (read by Pearse) against Britain. Many were slaughtered including James Connolly, a Scottish Socialist who was tied to a chair and shot in the street by British soldiers.

13. The Rise of the Dictator • After the First World War, unstable political conditions paved the way for dictators to seize control over vulnerable populations. Dictators included Mussolini, Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler.

14. Mussolini • Benito Mussolini, ruler of Italy, came to power in 1922. Mussolini and other dictators persuaded the public through a form of totalitarian government called fascism. Fascism’s power is through nationalistic emotions, swaying people to follow dictators for the “good of the country.”

15. Lenin / Stalin • In Russia, government was based upon the theories of Karl Marx, called communism. Lenin founded communism in the 1920. Communism structures a society without class in which “the state would distribute the country’s wealth among the people” (“The Modern World”). However, this was merely propaganda. Communism was as oppressive and limiting as governments before. After Lenin passed away in 1924, Stalin seized power and continued the tyranny of communism. Under Stalin’s rule, fifteen million were sent to detention or forced labor camps (“The Modern World”).

16. Hitler • After WWI, an aspiring artist named Adolph Hitler exchanged his paint brushes for a pen and an iron fist. Following the plan to rule Germany from his autobiography Mein Kampf (My Struggle), Hitler’s party, National Socialist Party (NAZI) won control in 1932. Soon after, Hitler established concentration camps (the first begin Dachau in 1933) to eliminate the Jewish and disenfranchised people of Germany. This “plan” was called the Final Solution. Before it was ceased by the conclusion of WWII, the “Final Solution” martyred more than six million Jews. A Painting by Hitler

17. Drop Da Bomb • The conclusion of World War II occurred after the Allied forced dismantled the Nazi forces and dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although it ended the war, the aftermath of biological warfare still scars and frightens many nations to this day.

18. Postmodernism • After the Second World War, global culture ushered in a new era of change. Many social changes took place, including the sexual revolution and women’s liberation. A new generation of liberal thinking emerged; the Beatles began to take over the world (a “British invasion”) and young rebels later demonstrated against current politics (“Woodstock”).

19. Bloody Sunday • In Ireland’s ongoing fight for freedom, many paid a bloody price. Bloody Sunday was a “peaceful demonstration” on January 30, 1972 in which the British turned gunfire on 13 protestors, killing all of them. Ireland’s religious landscape holds Catholics (seen as the native sons of Ireland) and Protestants (under the British influence). This is illustrated on Ireland’s flag • Green – Catholics • Orange – Protestants (followers of William of Orange)

20. Postmodernism continues… • Today we are still living in postmodern times. The postmodern boasts that it is a different animal than its modern predecessor, encouraging individuality and the avant garde.