MODERNISM 1910 1930 Experimentation in all forms of

MODERNISM (1910 – 1930) • Experimentation in all forms of artistic expression • Break of formal conventions • Rejection of traditional forms of narration and representation • Representation of the modern world under various and different perspectives • Subjective perception of reality • Interest in the working of the unconscious mind • Tension between the avant – garde (intellettuals that address their works to a very educated audience) and the popular writers (that address their works to a simple unrefined public)

Europe in 1919

The Age of Anxiety What was it? A break in the faith in human progress. It was a consequence of the aftermath of World War I W. H. AUDEN The British poet expressed the uncertainty of the years between WWI and WWII in a poem in eclogue form published in 1948.

The Age of Anxiety • The poem inspired a symphony by composer Leonard Bernstein, The Age of Anxiety (Symphony no. 2 for piano and orchestra) Leonard Bernstein

MAJOR INFLUENCES Scientists and philosophers Sigmund Freud (multi - layered consciousness; irrational unconscious) Carl Gustav Jung (collective unconscious < myth, religion, symbolism) William James (the “stream of consciousness”) Henry Bergson (time of Mathematics vs time of the Mind) Albert Einstein (theory of relativity)

Modern Philosophy Friedrich Nietzsche • rejected Christianity and argued that West overemphasized rationality Friedrich Nietzsche • believed that Western civilization was in decline weakened by Christianity and by the idea of “Slave Morality” which praised humility.

Modern Philosophy Henry Bergson believed that immediate experience/intuition was as important as rational/scientific thinking for understanding reality

The new Physics Albert Einstein E=MC² • postulated that time and space are relative • they can be altered (curved) with energy • the universe is infinite • matter and energy are interchangeable Prof. Albert Einstein, Princeton U.

Freudian psychology According to Freud, human behavior is basically irrational. The key to understanding the mind is the irrational unconscious (the id) Behavior is a compromise between the needs of the id and the rationalizing conscious (the ego), which mediates what a person can do, and ingrained moral values (the superego), which tell what a person should do. Sigmund Freud

Freudian Psychology SUPEREGO Id primitive irrational unconscious, driven by pleasure seeking desires Ego rationalizing conscious part Superego deeply ingrained moral values ID EGO

Modern Philosophy Existentialism • Individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives, as opposed to deities or authorities creating it for them Jean Paul Sartre • Absence of a transcendent force • Individual is entirely free and, therefore, ultimately responsible. Albert Camus

Artistic expressions involved Painting Salvador Dalì Henri Matisse Pablo Picasso Georges Braque Marcel Duchamps

EXPRESSIONISM Henry Matisse - La danse (1910)

Cubism Pablo Picasso Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) The subject matter is broken down, analyzed, and reassembled in abstract form. “The artist should treat nature in terms of the cylinder, the sphere, and the cone” (Cezanne)

CUBISM Georges Braque: Woman with a Guitar (1913)

Dadaism Marcel Duchamp: Nude Descending a Staircase (1912) Down with convention and tradition Nihilist Ridiculed contemporary culture & traditional art forms. Marcel Duchamps Fountain (1917)

Surrealism Salvador Dali: Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War), 1936 Late 1920 s-1940 s. Came from the nihilistic genre of Da. Influenced by Freud’s theories on psychoanalysis and the subconscious. Confusing & startling images like those in dreams.

Artistic expressions involved Music Arnold Schoenberg Igor Stravinskij

Foreign writers associated with Modernism Russia Fëdor Dostoevskij (Memories from the Underworld, 1864) France Marcel Proust (A la recherche du temps perdu, 1908 – 1922)

Foreign writers associated with Modernism Germany Herman Hesse (Siddharta, 1922) Franz Kafka (The Castle, 1920 – 1922)

Foreign writers associated with Modernism Italy Italo Svevo (La coscienza di Zeno, 1923) Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (Manifesto della Letteratura Futurista, 1910);

Twentieth century literature Postwar moods: • Pessimism, • Relativism • Alienation Literature focused on the complexity and irrationality of the human mind Proust psychological relativity attempt to understand oneself by looking at one's past Woolf, Faulkner, Joyce stream-of-consciousness technique ideas and emotions from different time periods bubble up randomly Kafka, Orwell, Huxley dystopia prediction of a future of doom.