Chapter 6 Modernism Bilde inn Pablo Picasso: Bottle of Pernod and Glass 1912
Modernism as reaction Both Romanticism and Realism wished to present life whole Reality seen as a given Individual lives presented chronologically Both movements essentially optimistic – life had meaning Aims of art either beauty (Romanticism) or truth (Realism) – or both
Modernism as reaction Pace of urban life and new insights into psychology Experience fragmentary, existence unknowable – even meaningless Subjective experience rather than “objective truth” Inspiration in mundane urban life rather than Nature
Historical and social context 1 Changing world picture due to scientific discoveries –biology (evolution), psychology (sub- conscious), physics … Technological innovation changing pace of life –automobile, aeroplane, telephone… Sigmund Freud
Historical and social context 2 First World War undermined faith in progress, patriotism and western superiority “The Lost Generation” of American writers who shared deep disillusionment
Historical and social context 3 Overblown prosperity of 1920s followed by Wall St Crash (1929) and Great Depression 1930s sees growth of Nazism and Fascism - and finally Second World War
Modernist innovations Fiction – “hard-boiled” style (Hemingway) – “the interior monologue” > “stream of consciousness” (Joyce, Woolf, Mansfield) Poetry –“Imagism”, “free verse” Art –Cubism, Expressionism, Abstract art Music –New tonality (twelve-tone technique), jazz