Modernism
• In literature, we don’t mean the same thing by the
Modern period that they mean in philosophy or
history. THEY mean when science replaced
religion as the source of knowledge for most
people—back when Galileo’s revolution took
hold. In Literature, WE mean the first half of the
20th century, when artists called themselves
Modernists. What does Modernist mean, though?
• That takes a little explaining.
When it arrived.
• Virginia Woolf suggested 1910 as the beginning,
largely because poets were theorizing about the
changes already. In American Literature, we mean
approximately 1912 to 1945. There’s no definite
starting moment, but you can use the major texts
of the period as reference points: Tender Buttons
in 1914 and Three Lives (Gertrude Stein), Robert
Frost’s A Boy’s Will 1913, Winesburg, Ohio
(Sherwood Anderson)1919. The Waste Land
(1922, T.S. Eliot). Dubliners 1916; Ulysses 1922,
James Joyce). Poetry magazine began publishing
in 1912, with Pound’s manifestoes.
How it Arrived.
• Artists got sick of the
familiar routines, and
wanted to reflect new
knowledge, such as
Freudian theory or
scientific rediscovery.
They were shocked by the
decline of spiritual
confidence. They wanted
to “make it new,” to
embrace radical change.
What caused the shock:The Wars
• The world powers were
complacent after
colonizing the world (and
getting rich doing so),
then finding themselves in
a massive war that
undermined their
confidence in humanity
and in God. Please visit:
• http://www.ww1propaganda-cards.com/
World War I lasted for four years, cost 167 billion dollars (in 1918 dollars),
involved 32 countries, and caused 37,000,000 casualties. Another 10,000,000
civilians died. Mustard gas and other causes devastated many of the survivors.
By comparison, the U.S. lost almost 660,000 in the Civil War, its costliest.
In the Viet Nam War, the U. S. lost 53,000 men. In World War I, France
lost 6,160,080; the Russians had 9,150,000 killed wounded or missing;
Great Britain had 3,190,000, and the U. S. had 364,000.
Think of how unsettling it is to the United States
to have an attack on a building on its on soil in an
important city, with the loss of 3,000 lives, think
for a minute about what the above casualties
would be like for the world to assimilate.
In Flanders Fields
by Lt. Col. John McCrae, M.D. (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Where, then, is hope?
• Modernism demanded a
re-visioning of the world
and sought potential in a
completely new way of
looking at the world.
• http://www.allfoolsallsaint
s.org/encyclopedia/20thCe
nturyMovements.html
• http://www.english.upenn.
edu/~afilreis/88/gelpi.html