T HE A GE OF A NXIETY

M ODERN T HOUGHT A FTER WWI Doubt in human ability to progress after seeing the deaths of millions for little to no progress in land leads to gross disillusionment "Lost Generation" - question accepted ideas; expressed anxiety about the future

Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead” (Words and meanings: relevance comes from their history, those with firm control over words control society and culture) Rules are constructs of those in power Superman: breaks out of societal conventions and formulates new moral codes for himself There is no ultimate meaning and life has no purpose Accept the meaninglessness of life and move on

Existentialism There is no absolute meaning, everyone creates their own meaning

George Orwell 1984 “Big Brother” (the dictator) & his totalitarian state use a new kind of language, sophisticated technology, and psychological terror to strip a weak individual of his last shred of human dignity

Christian Existentialists Stressed human beings’ sinful nature, need for God, faith, grace Broke with Christian modernists of late 19 th c. (Jesus was only great teacher) Need for a savior to walk through troubling times of earthly world

N EW M EDIA Radio Known as the “wireless” Cinema: Silent films “Talkies” Useful as propaganda Triumph of the Will ( Hitler)

THE ARTS

JAZZ MUSIC Lively rhythms and sounds; jazz captured the freedom and spirit of the 20s

Distortion & use of color to portray emotion Expression over detail Objects fade away & replaced w/ abstraction Munch (1893) – the Scream Kandinsky (1913) – Composition VII

Broke images down to simpler forms & then reassembled for different perspectives Influenced by theory of relativity Picasso

Picasso (1937)- Guernica

Both movements are a reaction to WWI – pessimism & alienation Anti-art, show the absurdity of life Images often have no relation w/ each other Abstraction reduces reality to essentials Surrealism influenced by Freud and the unconscious "What this means is that they were generally in opposition to everything art stood for. They ignored aesthetics. They affronted sensibilities. In all, their thoughts concerning traditional culture were also thoughts of destruction."

Dali (1930) – The Persistence of Memory

Rene Magritte painting "Son of Man"

Truth by damnengine

Marcel Duchamp Title: Fountain

ARCHITECTURE FUNCTIONALISM – form follows function, no ornamentation, beauty in practicality

STOP

T HE I NTERWAR P OLITICAL S ITUATION Political instability: Search for governmental forms that will not lead to war and will control the chaos of the post-war world Reparations: end of Germany’s prosperity Rampant, soaring inflation (4 trillion marks to 1 US Dollar) by November 1923 Dawes Plan put in place to curb runaway inflation in European nations

G ROWTH OF D EMOCRACIES Kellogg-Briand Pact: 15 countries renounced war “as an instrument of national policy”, early attempt at a peace movement (idealistic, doesn’t work) Demonstrates the aggressive political optimism of the 1920’s Disillusionment mostly found in the artistic/literary circles; politics is philosophically a different place Various parties competed for seats in Parliaments and for influences among various constituencies (Communists, Socialists, Social Democrats – all wanted workers votes) Fragmentation of political spectrum grew as economic situations worsened

A RTISTIC AND P HILOSOPHICAL DISILLUSIONMENT Despair over the ability of mankind to solve his own problems by recourse to reason Reference the section entitled: Art giving special attention to all artists from Picasso to Kandinsky

E NTER THE G REAT D EPRESSION Stock Market crash in the US (October 1929) Wiped out the financial holdings of millions Banks went under because of bad debts US banks call in their loans; bad for Europeans who owe millions of dollars to the US; New Deal puts Roosevelt into office Germany’s solution: print billions of marks; leads to runaway inflation France: depression hits later but is more persistent Britain: less effected and also more socialist oriented; Liberal party surpassed by Labour Party Countries go off the gold standard Massive unemployment worldwide; in Europe socialism takes strong root in Scandinavian countries (welfare, pensions, healthcare)

P OLITICAL MOVEMENTS Authoritarianism: Human traditions of gravitating toward strong leaders in times of crisis Authoritarian regimes: trying to maintain peace and order; minimal restriction on freedoms (if you go along; passive acceptance) Totalitarianism: Seeks to control the totality of people’s lives Religion, leisure activities, culture (art, music, books), media, politics Afraid of and discouraged deviation