1. Warm-up State whether you agree or disagree and explain why.
Daily life is boring.
Most people appreciate what they have.
If they knew they were going to die tomorrow, most people would be happy with the way they lived.
In order for your life to have meaning, you have to achieve great things.
People are mostly unaware of each other.
It’s impossible to be grateful for what you have until it’s gone.
It’s easy to enjoy life’s “little things.”

2. Modernism-the age of the “modern”
Authors & Artists

3. Ezra Pound- “Father of Modern Poetry” was well-known for his critique of American society
Began tradition of “experimental poetry”
driving force behind imagism
Outraged by loss of life in WWI
Supported Mussolini in WWII
Strove to “make it new”
Institutionalized for 12 years.

4. T.S. Eliot-awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948; friends with Pound
Most difficult poet of his era.
Complexity of life captured in poems.
Influenced by symbolism.
Critiqued spiritual emptiness of modern era.

5. William Carlos Williams
Friends with Pound.
Poetry should be stripped to bare essentials.
Objectivism – depict things in unbiased ways
Common place objects/things

6. Carl Sandburg Unconventional education. Free verse, everyday speech
Worked in factories
Free verse, everyday speech
Portrayed working class.

7. William Faulkner Mediocre student; did poorly in English.
Wrote about the American South.
Boldly used stream of consciousness.
Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature 1949.

8. Ernest Hemingway
Modern hero: disillusionment with conventions of optimistic, patriotic society; belief that essence of life is violence
His life mirrored in stories.
Committed suicide in 1961.

9. e. e. cummings
Unconventional use of grammar.
Broke every rule of proper writing.
Studied in France; developed a great interest in modern art (impressionism, cubism) and began painting.

10. Robert Frost
Became famous in France, where he studied with Pound.
Wrote his poems in traditional rhymes and metrical forms.
Like his romantic predecessors, Frost often wrote about individualism and working out one’s relationships with God and existence.
“The death of Robert Frost leaves a vacancy in the American spirit…”
-John F. Kennedy

11. F. Scott Fitzgerald-considered a Modernist writer
How does The Great Gatsby fit into Modernism?
Fitzgerald was good friends with Hemingway.

12. Themes in Early Modern Art
Uncertainty/insecurity.
Disillusionment.
The subconscious.
Overt sexuality.
Violence & savagery.

13. Claude Monet~Impressionism
Includes visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on light in its changing qualities, ordinary subject matter, the inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles.
Not blended; color more important than perfect lines.
Poppies

14. Edvard Munch -Expressionism
Tendency of an artist to distort reality for an emotional effect— “being alive.”
Using bright colors to express a particular emotion.
The Scream

15. Henri Matisse~Fauvism
Fauvism emphasized intense color, bold lines, and vigorous brush strokes.
Color for color’s sake.
Translated feelings
in an almost clumsy
way.
The Moroccans

16. Pablo Picasso~Cubism
Objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form
Subject is depicted from a multitude of viewpoints.
Art didn’t have to
resemble nature.
Three Musicians

17. Pablo Picasso~
Guernica What do you think of cubism?

18. Salvador Dali~Surrealism
Stresses the subconscious or non-rational significance of imagery.
Confusing and startling images, like those in dreams.
Often features unexpected juxtapositions (things placed close together for contrasting effect).
What are some possible meanings of this painting?
The Persistence of Memory

19. Salvador Dali
What does this mean?

20. Renee Magritte~Surrealism
The title says, “This is not a pipe”
The Son of Man

21. Modern Poets Assignments
Ezra Pound Pg
William Carlos Williams pg
ee Cummings pg. 603
Read a poem from each of these authors and complete the following for each:
-List modern elements.
-Brief summary and analysis of each one.
-Create a five line found poem for each.

22. For our first modern poem!
And now…
For our first modern poem!

23. “The Road Not Taken” - Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

24. Thornton Wilder Born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1897 Highly educated
Greek and Roman classics, Yale University, archaeology in Rome, Princeton University
Read widely in English, French, and German and conversed in Italian and Spanish.
Won many Pulitzer Prizes
The Bridge Of San Luis Rey (1927), Our Town (1938), The Skin of Our Teeth (1943), The Matchmaker (1954), Hello, Dolly! (1964)
Earned 10 Tony Awards on Broadway
Died on December 7, 1975 at the age of 78 in Hamden, Connecticut

25. What is the most ordinary thing you can think of?
Well, what did you think of?
Even though it is ordinary, do you consider it important to life (yours or someone else’s)?
Why or why not?

26. Thornton Wilder would believe anything in your ordinary life is important…
Why? To Wilder, human life, however painful, dreary, or inconsequential in its daily events, is both a precious gift in its own right as well as a portion of the mysterious plan that rests in the “Mind of God.”

27. Where does Our Town take place?
Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire from
Fictitious town representing small town America at the turn of the century
Out-of-the-way, simple existence
Modeled after Peterborough, New Hampshire

28. Central Values of Our Town
Christian morality
"Love your neighbor as you love yourself"
Mark 12:31
Known as the “Golden Rule”
Community
The family
Appreciation of everyday pleasures

29. “Our claim, our hope, our despair are in the mind, not in ‘scenery
“Our claim, our hope, our despair are in the mind, not in ‘scenery.’” --Thornton Wilder
MODERN ELEMENTS
Stage directions read
No sets, no scenery, few props; invisible
At the time he wrote this, theater sets on Broadway were lavish.
Wilder was being radical and experimental
Mimed actions
4th wall broken
Narrator also acts

30. “It's a little play with all the big subjects in it
“It's a little play with all the big subjects in it.” -- Thornton Wilder
Play aims to capture the universal experience of being alive and existing:
Act I: “Daily Life”
Act II: “Love and Marriage”
Act III: “Life and Death”

31. With 2-4 people, re-read the opening passage of the play that describes Our Town in detail.
Then, to connect the play to your own life, pretend you are the narrator and write a brief opening speech of “A Day in the Life of Jordan High School” describing the setting, people, and a typical day, drawing from the same stereotypical characters and daily routines.