Modernism 1918-1945

Do Now Open your textbooks to 1007 and take out your notebooks and a pencil. Read the quote on page 1007 from Doris Lessing and respond to the following in your notebook: Explain the quote in your own words. What do the quote and the title of this unit suggest about attitudes during this time period?

With a Partner… Read the “Historical Background” on pages 1012 and 1013. You must have at least 8 bullet points of important information in your notebooks (15 minutes).

Notes: Value Differences in the Modern World Pre-Modernist World Modern World (Early 20th Century) Ordered: Faith in Leaders Chaotic Meaningful: God Futile Optimistic: Technology Pessimistic Stable: Gradual Change Fluctuating: Sudden Change Faith: God cares Loss of faith: God? Morality/Values Collapse of Morality/Values Clear Sense of Identity Who am I? What is my place in the world?

Disenchantment Major World Events Around the world, people saw… World War I (1914-1918) The Great Depression (1930-1941) World War II (1939-1945) Around the world, people saw… big corporations and mass production Widening divide between people and the govt. Rise in Revolutionary Ideologies: Communism, Fascism, and Anarchy Powerful and deadly weapons International tensions and domestic unrest

People Felt… Fractured Isolated and alone The very structure of society is different. We must think “globally.” Isolated and alone Nothing is the same after the war. Swallowed up and a loss of control The war and other international forces are beyond any one person’s control. Lost in the new global society They felt as if they were wandering in a void.

Notes: After World War I… Disillusionment: to free from “illusion,” a loss of naïve faith or trust There was an overriding sense of doom The world was seen as a violent, vulgar, and spiritually empty place.

Notes: What is Modernism? Content Class, race, gender, political and economic issues Appearances are not always realities Perspective Cannot rely on the world for stability So we must rely on our individual perceptions of the world. Form Experiments with no capital letters or punctuation, really long sentences, or obscure phrasings (mostly in poetry)

The Armory Show: International Exhibition of Modern Art, 1913 Watershed date in American art Introduced astonished New Yorkers, accustomed to realistic art, to modern art; Teddy Roosevelt said, “That’s not art!”

Art Matisse

Cubism Cubism—1909-1911 Art in which multiple views are presented simultaneously in flattened, geometric way.

Cubism

Dadaism Dadaism –deliberately irrational Strives to have no meaning a protest against the barbarism of the War and oppressive intellectual rigidity; Anti-art Strives to have no meaning Interpretation dependent entirely on the viewer; Intentionally offends.

Dadaism Duchamp

Surrealism Surrealism Grew out of Dada and automatism. Reveals the unconscious mind in dream images, the irrational, and the fantastic, Impossible combinations of objects depicted in realistic detail.

Surrealism Magritte Dali

Jackson Pollock

Futurism Futurism—grew out of Cubism. Added implied motion to the shifting planes and multiple observation points of the Cubists; Celebrated natural as well as mechanical motion and speed. Glorified danger, war, and the machine

Futurism Giacomo Balla Kandinsky

Modernism in Music Randomized http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG1SZroFfFY&feature=related Non-melodic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNPAD-yKJQ0&feature=related

Modernism in Dance Le Sacre Du Printemps by Pina Bausch Wuppertal Dance Theater “The Rite of Spring” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXVuVQuMvgA Compare to “Swan Lake” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_5WCZ-XvG4 The Rite of Spring Riot http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/20thcenturymusic/qt/rite-of-spring.htm

Dali, The Persistence of Memory 1931 Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, The Street, 1907 Henri Matisse, Odalisque in Red Trousers, 1925 Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942

Small Groups… You have15 minutes to discuss the painting as a group and be prepared to answer the following questions in front of the class: What story is the painting telling? How do the composition, line quality, and color contribute to the painting’s meaning? What does the title of the painting contribute to its meaning? How does this painting reflect Modernism?

W. B. Yeats Read: Introduction to W.B. Yeats (p. 1022) Listen and Discuss: “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by W.B. Yeats http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL8vEW-JTZE&feature=related Closing Type II Quick Write: Yeats writes this poem about escaping from civilization and living a Thoreau-like lifestyle at Lake Innisfree. Based on what you have learned about the modern period, why do you think he is expressing these sentiments in this poem? What is he responding to in his society?

Respond to the following in your notebooks… “It is better, in a paradoxical way to do evil, than to do nothing: at least we exist …. The worst that can be said of most of our malefactors [wrongdoers], from statesmen to thieves, is that they are not man enough to be damned” – T.S. Eliot

The Atomic Cafe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOUtZOqgSG8