1. Modernism

2. Voices from the times
The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough” –Ezra pound Poets in our civilization, as it exists at present, must be difficult… The poet must become more and more comprehensive, more allusive, more indirect, in order to force, to dislocate if necessary, language into it’s meaning. –T.S. Eliot

3. Voices
Four be the things I am wiser to know: Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and foe. Four be the things I’d been better without: Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt. –Dorothy Parker

4. Voices
Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his father’s heart? Which of us has not remained forever prison-pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone? –Thomas Wolfe

5. Voices
The further you go in writing, the more alone you are. –Ernest Hemingway You are all a lost generation. –Gertrude Stein, to Ernest Hemingway

6. World War I First large scale modern war
Modern technology
Civilization, as it had been known, was being destroyed
Uncertainty reins –distinguishes the era

7. End of Idealism Roaring Twenties Corruption More money, more stuff
Radios = Jazz
Cars = freedom to go
Speakeasies = illegal alcohol
Movies
Corruption
Politics
gangsters

8. Something new in literature
Modernism grows as a direct response to social change
Writers need a NEW form for expression of a NEW modern consciousness
Disillusioned from the war
Appalled by materialism
“Make it new!” –Ezra Pound

9. Characteristics of Modernism
Mass society threatens the individual, especially the artist
Characters are almost always alienated
Withdrawn
Unresponsive
Hurt by unnamed forces

10. Characteristics of Modernism
Experimentation
Stream of consciousness (Holden)
Dramatize the INTERIOR life
Meandering patterns of thinking
Short fragmentary stories
No traditional beginning or ending
Reflects the fragmentation (breaking apart) of experience
Hemmingway, Richard Wright

11. Characteristics of Modernism
Fragmentation in poetry
Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot wrote verses made of:
Pieces of dreams, feelings, dialogue, images, and allusions
Artists
Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp
Visual fragmentation
Cubist design, cutouts, collages

15. Characteristics of Modernism
What they leave out, rather than what they include
No narrative voice
Reader is left alone
No explanations or details
Figure it out on your own
INFER what characters and speakers are thinking and feeling
Demanding
Put together the pieces

16. Finally… Everything is subjective Fragmented view of society
EVERYTHING is influenced by the POV a story is told from
There is no single truth
Fragmented view of society
Society is not a whole that operates together
Stories feature a sense of great loss or sadness or loneliness
The American Dream is represented as something that is false, or unattainable