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Defining Modernism. Modern Versus Contemporary: Where the “contemporary” refers to time, the “modern” refers to sensibility, style, and critical judgement .
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Defining Modernism • Modern Versus Contemporary: Where the “contemporary” refers to time, the “modern” refers to sensibility, style, and critical judgement. • When Did it Begin? Some scholars argue for The Age of Enlightenment Some argue for the early days of the Industrial Revolution Some say it all began with WWI And others claim that it began with The Armory Show
Some Modernist Characteristics • 1. A response to sense of social breakdown, a reaction to WW I, a response to the Industrial Revolution. • 2. Artists see the world as "fragmented” patterns of construction. The patterns of moral framework are obliterated. • ”These fragments I have shorn against my ruin" -Wasteland • 3. Artists seek to find new, esoteric sources for literary composition in order to express the angst, futility, and horror of the time. • 4. Artists seek a reunification of irrational sensibilities that were clearly separated during the Victorian Age.
On the Idea of the Modern • The kind of literature called modern is almost difficult to comprehend: that is a clear sign of its modernity. To the established guardians of culture, the modern writer seems willfully inaccessible. He works with unfamiliar forms; he chooses subjects that disturb the audience and threaten its most cherished sentiments; he provokes traditionalist critics to such epithets as “unwholesome” and “decadent.” --Irving Howe “The Idea of the Modern”
Seven Influential Paradigms on the 20th Century • Charles Darwin • Karl Marx • Georg Hegel • Friedrich Nietzsche • Sigmund Freud • William James • Albert Einstein
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) • English naturalist (an expert in natural history, such as a zoologist or botanist) • He is the original proponent of the theory of evolution by natural selection, since known as Darwinism. • He wrote “The Origin of the Species”
Charles Darwin (con’t) • Darwin concluded that species evolved over long periods due to natural selection. Differences in the offspring are called mutations. • Darwin's theory suggested that organisms evolved to fit their environment based on natural selection. If a mutation was good, the organism lived and contributed the mutation to the gene pool. If the mutation was bad, the organism was more likely to die before contributing to the gene pool. • According to evolution, organisms have adapted to their environment. Lizards are green because if they were any other color they could be easily spotted and eaten. Humans eventually developed from less intelligent species through natural selection.
Charles Darwin (con’t) “It may be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up all that is good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life. We see nothing of these slow changes in progress, until the hand of time has marked the long lapses of ages, and then so imperfect is our view into long past geological ages, that we only see that the forms of life are now different from what they formerly were.” --The Origin of the Species
Social Darwinism • Social Darwinism is the theory that persons, groups, and races are subject to the same laws of natural selection as Charles Darwin had perceived in plants and animals in nature. The weak were diminished and their cultures delimited, while the strong grew in power and in cultural influence over the weak. Social Darwinists held that the life of humans in society was a struggle for existence ruled by “survival of the fittest.” • The social Darwinists believed that the process of natural selection acting on variations in the population would result in the survival of the best competitors and in continuing improvement in the population. Societies, like individuals, were viewed as organisms that evolve in this manner.
Darwin’s Influence on the 20th Century • In a Tennessee courtroom in the summer of 1925 a jury was to decide the fate of John Scopes, a high school biology teacher charged with illegally teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. The guilt or innocence of John Scopes, and even the constitutionality of Tennesse’s anti-evolution statute, mattered little. The meaning of the trial emerged through its interpretation as a conflict of social and intellectual values.
Karl Marx (1818-1883) • German political philosopher and revolutionist, cofounder with Friedrich Engels of scientific socialism and, as such, one of the most influential thinkers of all times. • He contends that the capitalist system contains the seeds of its own destruction. According to Marx, the masses should own the means of production, not a rich, select few.
The capitalist system will always be a failure, according to Marx, because it allows evil people to do evil things at the expense of those who do not have money. He viewed religion as a form of oppression of the people by the ruling class. He said “Religion is the opiate of the people.” He is the author of The Communist Manifesto. Karl Marx (con’t)
Idealism versus Materialism Karl Marx is a materialist. He devoted his life to giving the idea of materialism structure, consistency, and character. His concern was first and foremost man and his role in the world. He insisted on a return to dialectics (to “dialogue,” to argue, to contend) in order to understand the situation of man on earth.
The Communist Manifesto A spectre is haunting Europe -- the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies. Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as communistic by its opponents in power? Where is the opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of communism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries? Two things result from this fact: I. Communism is already acknowledged by all European powers to be itself a power. II. It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the spectre of communism with a manifesto of the party itself. To this end, Communists of various nationalities have assembled in London and sketched the following manifesto, to be published in the English, French, German, Italian, Flemish and Danish languages.
Idealism versus Materialism • Idealism accepts the existence of supernatural and divine forces in the universe. It presupposes the existence of spirits and “idealizes” the state of man in the world. However, it does not offer evidence for what it proposes: it relies on faith. Georg Hegel is an idealist. • Materialism argues that there is nothing beyond natural objects. Materialism does not idealize, but seeks scientific explanations of matters. Idealists seek to explain the world through religion. Karl Marx is a materialist and devoted his life to giving it structure, consistency, and character. His concern was first and foremost man and his role in the world. • Idealists seek to understand the world through religion. • Materialists seek to explain the world through science.
Marx’s Influence on the 20th Century • Ideas of socialism • The promise of communism • Economic philosophy (production and labor) • The theories of Marx are even used to interpret and evaluate literature.
Georg Hegel (1770-1831) • German idealist philosopher, who became one of the most influential thinkers of the 19th century. • In Philosophy of History, he argues that humanity progresses only because of conflicts, wars, revolutions—through the struggle of oppressed against the oppressors. Peace and harmony, he contended, do not lead to progress. He focused more on religious struggles (idealism) rather than social struggles (materialism).
The dialectic begins with a THESIS (a position put forward for argument). In opposition to this is the ANTITHESIS. Out of this state of opposition comes a SYNTHESIS which embraces them both. Synthesis then becomes a new thesis. Thesis Antithesis Antithesis Synthesis
Thesis Universally Binding Conduct (Abstract and legalistic, ignores individual conscience) Antithesis Morality Individual conscience decides if an act is right or wrong Dialectics in Action Synthesis Social Ethics: The idea that what is right must be held by society as a whole. It is not abstract if everyone agrees, and it is not individual because is binding on everyone.
Hegel’s Influence • Hegel's application of the dialectic to the concept of conflict of cultures stimulated historical analysis and, in the political arena, made him a hero to those working for a unified Germany. • He was a major influence on subsequent idealist thinkers and on such philosophers as Kiekegaard and Sartre; perhaps his most far-reaching effect was his influence on Karl Marx, who substituted materialism for idealism in his formulation of dialectical materialism.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) • German philosopher who created the theory of the Ubermensch, the “superman.” He held that man has the potential to become a godlike creature. He says that this is possible if man revolts against middle class thinking. He claimed “that God is dead.” • He is the author of Thus Spoke Zarathusthra andBeyond Good and Evil.
In Thus Spoke Zarathustra • Superman has reached a state of being where he is no longer affected by “pity, suffering, tolerance of the weak, the power of the soul over the body, the belief in an afterlife, the corruption of modern values.” • Superman determines what is good and what is evil, not allowing religion or society to determine these things for him. • The Superman finds his happiness in this way. He uses a reason that is independent of the modern values of society or religion. He determines his own values. • The Superman does not believe in an afterlife or the power of the soul over the body because he does not believe in religion and has no proof of an afterlife or a God. Therefore, he makes the most out of this life, not depending on a reward in Heaven or a punishment in Hell for what he has done on Earth.
In Hitler's utterances there runs the theme that the supreme leader is above the morals of ordinary men.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) • Austrian psychologist and father of psychoanalysis • He claimed that there are three internal forces which control a person’s psychic life: the id, the ego, and the superego.
Sigmund Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) • Despite the widely-recognized failure of Freudian psychotherapy to heal disturbed people effectively and the rejection of many of his major theories Freud remains one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. Freud's basic insight that our minds preserve memories and emotions which are not always consciously available to us has transformed the way humanity views itself ever since. Freud said that there had been three great humiliations in human history: Galileo's discovery that we were not the center of the universe, Darwin's discovery that we were not the crown of creation, and his own discovery that we are not in control of our own minds. The tendency of modern people to trace their problems to childhood traumas or other repressed emotions begins with Freud. One of Freud's more important discoveries is that emotions buried in the unconscious surface in disguised form during dreaming, and that the remembered fragments of dreams can help uncover the buried feelings. Whether the mechanism is exactly as Freud describes it, many people have derived insights into themselves from studying their dreams, and most modern people consider dreams emotionally significant, unlike our ancestors who often saw them either as divine portents or as the bizarre side-effects of indigestion. Freud argues that dreams are wish-fulfillments, and will ultimately argue that those wishes are the result of repressed or frustrated sexual desires. The anxiety surrounding these desires turns some dreams into nightmares.
Sigmund Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) • “Dreams are not comparable to the spontaneous sounds made by a musical instrument struck rather by some external force than by the hand of a performer; they are not meaningless, not absurd, they do not imply that one portion of our stockpile of ideas sleeps while another begins to awaken. They are a completely valid psychological phenomenon, specifically the fulfillment of wishes; they can be classified in the continuity of comprehensible waking mental states; they are constructed through highly complicated intellectual activity. • But as soon as we delight in this discovery, a flood of questions assails us. If, according to dream analysis, the dream represents a fulfilled wish, what creates the astonishing and strange form in which this wish-fullfillment is expressed? What transformation have the dream thoughts undergone to shape the manifest dream which we remember when awake? Through what means has this transformation taken place? What is the source of the material which has been reworked into the dream? Where do the many peculiarities which we notice in dream thoughts come from, for instance that they may be mutually contradictory? Can a dream tell us so mething new about our inner psychological processes? Can its content correct the opinions that we have held during our waking hours? “
Id, Ego, and Superego • The id refers to the sexual and aggressive tendencies that arise from the body. These instinctual drives claim immediate satisfaction, which is experienced as pleasurable; the id thus is dominated by the pleasure principle. • The ego is the domain of perception, thinking, and motor control. The ego must enforce the postponement of satisfaction of the instinctual impulses in the id. To defend itself against unacceptable impulses, the ego develops specific psychic means, known as defense mechanisms, such as repression and the exclusion of impulses from conscious awareness. • The function of the superego is to control the ego in accordance with the internalized standards of parental figures. If the demands of the superego are not fulfilled, the person may feel shame or guilt.
Pioneered the field of psychoanalysis Contributed to the study of dream theory Freud’s theories on dreams and the human psyche are often used to explore literature. Freud’s Influence on the 20th Century
William James (1842-1909) • American philosopher and psychologist, a leader of the philosophical movement of Pragmatism. • Pragmatism: school of philosophy, dominant in the United States during the first quarter of the 20th century, based on the principle that the usefulness, workability, and practicality of ideas, policies, and proposals are the criteria of their merit. • He coined the phrase “stream of consciousness”
Stream of Consciousness • Virginia Woolf compared life to “a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.” • To capture such a reality, modern writers have employed many strategies, one of which is “stream of consciousness.” This strategy describes the procession of thoughts passing through the mind. In fiction, the stream of consciousness is a kind of selective omniscience: the presentation of thoughts and sense impressions in a lifelike fashion--NOT IN A SEQUENCE ARRANGED BY LOGIC, BUT MINGLED RANDOMLY.
Fishing the “Stream” • When in his novel Ulysses James Joyce takes us into the mind of Leopold Bloom, an ordinary mind well-stocked with trivia and fragments of learning, the reader may have the impression not of a smoothly flowing stream but of an ocean of miscellaneous things.
Fishing the “Stream” • From Ulysses: As he set foot on O’Connell bridge a puffball of smoke plumed up from the parapet. Brewery barge with export stout. England. Sea air sours it, I heard. Be interesting some day to get a pass through Hancock to see the brewery. Regular world in itself. Vats of porter, wonderful. Rats get in too. Drink themselves bloated as big as a collie floating.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) • German-born American physicist and Nobel laureate, best known as the creator of the special and general theories of relativity and for his bold hypothesis concerning the particle nature of light. He is perhaps the most well-known scientist of the 20th century.
THE GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY • Even before he left the patent office in 1907, Einstein began work on extending and generalizing the theory of relativity. He began by enunciating the principle of equivalence, a theory that gravitational fields are equivalent to accelerations of the frame of reference. For example, people in a moving elevator cannot, in principle, decide whether the force that acts on them is caused by gravitation or by a constant acceleration of the elevator. The full general theory of relativity was not published until 1916.
Albert Einstein: Citizen of the World • After 1919, Einstein became internationally renowned. He accrued honors and awards, including the Nobel Prize in physics in 1921, from various world scientific societies. His visit to any part of the world became a national event; photographers and reporters followed him everywhere. While regretting his loss of privacy, Einstein capitalized on his fame to further his own political and social views.
