Modernism Post WWI 1910 1940s Modernism n n

Modernism Post WWI 1910 -1940’s

Modernism n n n Reflects a sense of cultural crisis Knowledge is not absolute Marx, Freud and Darwin had started it with the naturalists n n Freud’s psycho-analytic theories Loss of a sense of tradition Life is fragmented, not continuous Increasing dominance of technology

Modernist Period n Late 19 th century- 1930’s/1940’s n Historians say that modernism is the result of the general transformation of society caused by industrialization and technology during the 19 th century.

Modernism n Focuses on how modern life is ruining the individual spirit n Disillusionment- the impoverished human soul

Modernism n Sense of alienation, loss and despair n Portrays elements of society that serve to separate and isolate people n The “evils” and effects of modern life

Modernism n Radical style experiment with form and n Unconventional structures n Strange capitalization and lack of punctuation n Stream of consciousness n e. e. cummings and Gertrude Stein exemplified this experimentation

Prominent American Modernists Novelists: n F. Scott Fitzgerald n John Steinbeck n William Faulkner n Ernest Hemingway Playwrights: n Tennessee Williams n Arthur Miller n Eugene O’Neill Poets: n T. S. Eliot n William Carlos Williams n Ezra Pound n John Dos Passos n e. e. cummings n Edna St. Vincent Millay