Toward a New Century “On or about 1910, the world changed” Virginia Woolfe
What was new? New technologies: cars, planes, communication, medical breakthroughs, etc New scientific ideas: –Physics: Einstein’s theory of relativity –Biology: Darwin’s Origin of Species
What was new? New social ideas: –Economics and social structure: Karl Marx –Human psychology: Sigmund Freud –Religion: more interest in cultural diversity New ways of living and working: –Shift from country to city –Increased industrialization and mechanization –Faster travel and communication meant ideas and trends spread faster.
new inventions and technology a NEW century Hope and optimism – human beings can achieve anything World War 1 Destruction of the “old world” Technology for warfare Mustard gas Warplanes Tanks Disillusionment and Questioning
Is all of this “progress” really healthy? As life gets more mechanized and urbanized, what does it mean to be human? Are we becoming less human? If we were wrong about the potential of human invention, have we been wrong about other things too? Do we have to do things they way we have always done them?
Disillusionment A loss of “ontological ground” – a sense that there is not a reliable, knowable existence Culture has lost its bearings—a collapse of values and tradition Reinvention of art forms as old ways are challenged and rejected.
How were the arts re-invented? These are just a few examples…
In architecture… Frank Lloyd Wright
In visual art Picasso and Matisse
Picasso
Matisse
In music and dance … Igor Stravinsky
In dance… Isadora Duncan
In literature… James Joyce and e e cummings
From Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce Countlessness of livestories have netherfallen by this plage, flick as flowflakes, litters from aloft, like a waast wizzard all of whirlworlds. Now are all tombed to the mound, isges to isges, erde from erde.
A poem by e e cummings l (a le af fa ll s) one l iness
What does this mean for literature? Modernism!
Modernism means… Experimentation with form –Playing with time, structure, conventions, appearance Challenging traditional values Vernacular (everyday) language and speech, along with more literary language Non-rhyming poetry (free verse)