Chapter 11: Modernism and Modernist Literature
現代主義與現代主義的文學
I. Some Notions about Modernism
1.Modernism is a practice, an attitude, a usage, an
expression, a way of thinking, a way of living, etc.
2.Modernism is to “make new” in form or content.
3.Modernism is expressed in painting, sculpture,
music, theater, etc., as well as in literature.
4.Modern literature is not necessarily modernist
literature. Modernist literature is not necessarily
modern.
5.The period of modernism is often said to be from
1910 to 1930 or 1965.
6.Modernism covers a number of schools with various
ideas and techniques.
II. Characteristics of Modernism:
• Formal/Stylistic Characteristics:
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Free indirect speech & free association
Stream of consciousness & interior monologue
Discontinuous narrative & multiple narrative points of view
Quotation & wide use of classical allusions, etc.
• Thematic Characteristics:
• Life is viewed as incoherent, experience as fragmented, reality as a
matter of perception.
• Alienation & spiritual loneliness
• Objection to traditional thoughts and moralities
• Disillusionment and despair of the individual
• Breakdown of social norms, etc.
III. Some Branches of Modernism:
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Free verse
Dadaism
Stream of consciousness technique
Anti-novel, anti-play, nouveau roman
Imagism, symbolism
Expressionism
New humanism
Existentialism
Theater of the absurd, etc.
IV. Some Important Modernists:
• Ireland: James Joyce, W. B. Yeats
• England: Virginia Woolf, Dylan Thomas, D. H. Lawrence,
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E. M. Forster, Joseph Conrad, Katherine Mansfield,
Samuel Beckett
France: Marcel Proust (pioneer of 意識流)
Italy: Luigi Pirandello (relativist)
Bohemia: Franz Kafka (alienation)
America: T. S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, H.D. (Hilda
Doolittle 意象派 Imagist),, Ezra Pound,
William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway,
Katherine Anne Porter, F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Robert Frost
V. Some Famous Modernist Works:
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Ulysses by Joyce
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Waiting for Godot by Beckett
Remembrance of Things Past by Proust
Six Characters in Search of an Author
Metamorphosis by Kafka
The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot
The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner
The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway
by Pirandello
VI. Stream-of-Consciousness Technique:
• “It is a narrative mode that seeks to portray an individual’s point of
view by giving the written equivalent of the character’s thought
processes, either in a loose interior monologue, or in connection to
his or her actions.”
• “Stream-of-consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special
form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative leaps
in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow.”
• “In stream of consciousness, the speaker’s thought processes are
depicted as overheard in the mind (or addressed to oneself); it is
primarily a fictional device. “ -- Wikipedia
• In using the technique, the author focuses mainly on
characterization, rather than on action or setting of the narrative.
The story, however, can be reconstructed from the thought content.
VII. Some Works
Written with
the Stream-of-Consciousness Technique:
• T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”:
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“With its weariness, regret, embarrassment, longing, emasculation, sexual
frustration, sense of decay, and awareness of mortality, Prufrock has
become one of the most recognized voices in 20th-century literature, and is
the quintessential urban zeitgeist of the 20th century.” --Wikipedia
• Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past (or, In Search of Lost Time):
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“It is known for its length and the notion of involuntary memory, the most
famous example being the episode of the madeleine. ... Involuntary
memory is triggered by sensory experiences such as sights, sounds and
smells which conjure important memories for the narrator.” It explores a lot
of themes (snobbism, deceit, jealousy and suffering, etc.). One of them is
the nature of art. For Proust, “art can recapture the lost and thus save it
from destruction, at least in our minds.” --Wikipedia
VII. Some Works
Written with
the Stream-of-Consciousness Technique:
• Joyce’s Ulysses:
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It “chronicles the passage of Leopold Bloom through Dublin during an
ordinary day, 16 June 1904.” Leopold corresponds to Odysseus, Molly
Bloom to Penelope, and Stephen Dedalus to Telemachus. It has 18
episodes. The book contains a number of pages without punctuation to
show the stream of consciousness that goes with the words.
• Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway:
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It details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway in post-World War I England.
The story is about Clarissa’s preparations for a party of which she is to be
hostess. It travels forwards and back in time and in and out of the
characters’ minds to construct an image of Clarissa’s life and of the interwar social structure. Woolf blurs the distinction between direct and indirect
speech throughout the novel. The novel has such themes as mental illness,
existentialism, feminism, and homosexuality.
--Wikipedia
西洋文學概論
Introduction to Western Literature
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Vol. II
The Romantic Movement and Romantic Literature
Realism and Naturalism in Literature
Symbolism in Literature
Modernism and Modernist Literature
Existentialism and Literature
Postmodern Literature
董崇選
中山醫學大學應用外語系教授
「懂更懂學習英文網站」負責人
http//:dgdel.nchu.edu.tw