th
20
Century Short
Stories with
MOVEMENTS
(ISMS)
We will examine popular short
stories through the lens of the
artistic movement that influenced
each writer.
Introduction
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The early 20th century pulled influences
from previous artistic movements (so we
will examine movements from the 18th
century onward) in addition to focus on 20th
century artistic movements.
Your task will be to learn the basic
definition of each artistic movement with a
writer from our unit as well as a popular
artist. Dates are important.
Short Stories in the Unit with author
and date
The Metamorphisms by Franz Kafka (Handout)
-written in 1916
The Wall by Jean Paul Sarte (Handout)
-written in 1939
The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving (Textbook)
- written in 1824
Bliss by Katherine Mansfield (Handout)
-written in 1920
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall by Katherine Ann Porter (Textbook)
-written in 1930
A Rose for Emily (Textbook)
-written in 1930
Trapped in A Comic Book by Jules Feiffer (Textbook)
-written in 1986
Use the dates to help you decide which literary unit the author
found as an influence.
How to critique art: remember “DAIJ”
Focus on Description
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It stands for Description, Analysis,
Interpretation, Judgment or “Dem Apples Is
Juicy.”
How to critique art: remember DAIJ:
Focus on “Description”.
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To start: give the title, artist, medium, etc.
Next, describe the colors that you see. What
does the art look like? Are the colors bright or
subdued? What is it made of? What objects and
textures do you see in it?
What is the entrance point. (I’ll explain).
Remember: This is all factual, there is NO
OPINION involved in description.
Now you try.
Okay, give me a “D”.
How to critique art: remember DAIJ:
Focus on “Analysis”.
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Next, tell how all of the answers form the
“Description” stage are related to one another. i.e.
how the above facts are organized and
compliment one another or create harmony or
distress. This step can be the most confusing
because it is very similar to the first step and can
easily overlap. A good suggestion is to think
about some of the principles of art: movement,
variety, proportion, emphasis, balance, and
contrast.
How to critique art: remember DAIJ:
Focus on “Interpretation”.
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Interpretation. Basically, how does the painting
make you feel? What does it make you think of?
Don’t say the artwork “sucks”. Not yet. (That
comes in the next step.) What do you think the
artist is trying to communicate to you as a viewer?
Just because this step is more open-ended than
the previous steps, and there are not any right or
wrong answers, I still think it is the most important
(and fun) step.
How to critique art: remember DAIJ:
Focus on “Judgment”.
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Judgment. Okay, so whether or not in the
previous step you interpreted the paintings as
“reminding you of regurgitated lunchroom tater
tots”, you NOW say whether it is a success or a
failure in your opinion. Also, do you feel it is
original or unoriginal? Would you hang it on your
wall at home? Here is the place for all the gut
feelings you had when you first looked at the
artwork.
Agenda
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Gothicism
Modernism
Post-Modernism and Existentialism and
Surrealism
Expressionism
Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
Pop Art
Gothicism Definition
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Time Period: Late 18th century; early 19th
century (parallel to Romantic movement)
Gothic Fiction (sometimes referred to as
Gothic horror) is a genre of literature that
combines elements of both horror and
romance. As a genre, it is generally
believed to have been invented by the
English author Horace Walpole, with his
1794 novel The Castle of Orantho.
Modern Day Gothicism
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdL496
Oc3VQ
History of the Gothic Movement
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The word Gothic, is very old and was used from
the Renaissance on to signify the art of the Middle
Ages. It was named after the German tribe of the
Goths who once had invaded Italy and broken up
the Roman Empire to revive the Classic age. The
term Gothic had a negative connotation because
the Italians blamed the Goths for breaking up the
empire. The art style of this period they called
Gothic, by which they meant barbaric.
Gothic Literature/ Writers
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A literary genre that began in England in
the late 1700s. The word “Goth” came
from the architecture where it describes
castles and cathedrals as they served for
the mysterious settings of early Gothic
fiction.
Writers: Percy Shelley, John Keats, Lord
Byron, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley.
Elements of Gothic Style
(Study this carefully. We will do an entire unit on Gothicism later in the semester).
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Bleak or remote settings
Macabre or dismal settings
Characters in psychological or physical
torment
Supernatural or otherworldly elements
Strong language full of dangerous
meanings
Gothic Architecture
Gothic Art
More Art
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“American Gothic” by Grant Wood was created in the 20th century.
However, it depicts a house from 1881 that is described as Gothic
revival.
A Definition of Modernism
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Time Period: late 19th century mid-20th century (1945)
Definition: Modernism describes both a set of cultural
tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements
arising from wide-scale and far reaching changes in Western
society in the 19th and early 20th century. BIG CHANGE:
WWI. The term encompasses the literature, religious faith,
social organization and daily life were becoming outdated in
the new economic, social and political conditions of an
emerging, fully industrialized world.
Modernism rejected the lingering certainty of Enlightenment
thinking, and also that of a benignly, intervening, all-powerful
Creator. CONTROVERSIAL-influenced by Charles Darwin’s
ideas on evolution.
Famous Artists and Authors:
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Artists: Manet, Hans Hoffman
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Authors: Baudelaire, Flaubert
An example of art from the Modernist
movement
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“Rope Swinger” by
Hans Hoffman: mid
20th century. This is
also considered
abstract
expressionism.
A definition of Post-Modernism
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Time period: mid-late 20th century (specific start1945)
Postmodernism-literally means ‘after Modernism
movement’. This movement carries Modernist
styles or practices to the extreme!
Largely influenced by Western European
“Disillusionment” induced by WWII. It refers to an
artistic state lacking a clear central hierarchy or
organizing principle and embodying extreme
complexity, contradiction, ambiguity, diversity or
interconnectivity.
Famous Existential Authors:
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Existentialism emerges from a movement
in twentieth-century literature and
philosophy Kafka and Sarte.
Famous Post-Modern Authurs:
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Arthurs: William Burroughs, and Kurt Vonnegut.
NOTE: Postmodernist writiers often point to
earlier novels and short story collections as
inspiration for their experiments with narrative and
structure.
Artists: Tristan Tzara (dadaism specifically). Rene
Magritte and Salvador Dali (surrealism
specifically).
Definition of Existentialism:
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Given to 19th and 20th century philosophers who
share a belief that philosophic thinking begins with
the human subject-not merely the thinking
subject, but the acting, thinking, feeling, living
human individual. In existentialism, the
individual’s starting point is characterized by what
has been called the “existential attitude” or sense
of disorientation of confusion in the face of an
apparently meaningless or absurd world.
Surrealism defined as an offshoot of
Post-Modernism
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Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the 1920s
and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the
group members.
Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected
juxtapositions (a paring of two unlike things, i.e. pox, politics,
and beans). However, many Surrealist artists and writers
regard their work as an expression of the philosophical
movement first and foremost with their works being an
artifact. In the 1920s, the movement developed from the
Dada movement, and spread around the globe affecting the
visual arts, literature, film and music of many countries and
languages, as well as political thought and practice and
social theory.
Famous Surrealist authors and artists:
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Authors: Marx Ernst,
Franz Kafka, Shirley
Jackson
Artists: Joan Miro,
Pablo Picasso,
Salvador Dali, Rene
Magritte
Surrealist Artwork- Rene Magritte
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“C’est n est pas une pipe” or “this is not a
pipe” AND IT ISN’T. 
Surrealist Artwork-Salvador Dali “The
Persistence of Memory”
Surrealist artwork: Max Ernst and
“The Couple in Lace”
The Expressionism Movement
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Dates: 20th century-roughly 1914-1945
Definition: Expressionism is the tendency of an
artist to distort reality for an emotional effect: it is
a subjective art form. Expressionism is exhibited
in many art forms, including painting, literature,
theater, film, architecture, and music. The term
often implies emotional angst. the artist's
subjective expression of inner experiences was
emphasized; an inner feeling was expressed
through a distorted rendition of reality.
Expressionist Artists/Authors:
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Edward Munch,
Vincent Van Gogh,
Max Weber
Authors: Nietzsche,
Franz Kafka
Expressionism in
architecture:
Babelsberg
“Einsteinturm” in
Potsdam, Germany
Expressionist Artwork: “The Scream” by Edward
Munch and “View of Toledo” by El Greco influenced
the Expressionism Movement (But it was painted in the
16th century)
Expressionist Art- “On White II”
by Wassily Kandinsky-1923
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Please D.A.I.J. this
painting.
Expressionism is the opposite of
Impressionism (a quote to prove it)
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The term was also coined by Czech art historian in
1910as the opposite of Impressionism. “An
Expressionist wishes, above all, to express
himself…(An Expressionist rejects) immediate
perception and builds on more complex psychic
structures…Impressionists and mental images that pass
through mental peoples’ souls as through a filter which
rids them of all substantial accretions to produce their
clear essence and are assimilated and condensed in
more general forms, into types, which he transcribes
through simple short-handed formulae and symbols.”
Gordon, 1987)
Impressionism Defined
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Dates: 1860s-mid 20th century
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Impressionism was a 19th century art movement that began as a
loose association of Paris-based artists exhibiting their art publicly
in the 1860s. The name of the movement is derived from the title of
the Claude Monet work, “impressionist Sunrise” (this is a test
question)
Characteristics of impressionists paintings include visual brush
strokes, open composition, emphasis on light and its changing
qualities (often exentuating the effects of the passing of time)
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ordinary subject matter, the inclusion of movement as a
crucial element of human perception and experience
and unusual visual angles.
Impressionistic Authors and Artists
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Authors: James Joyce
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Artists: Claude Monet, Winslow Homer,
Pierre-Auguste Renior, Edgar Degas
“Der Star des Ballets” by Edgar
Degas”
Gustave Caillebotte-”La Place de l’Europe,
temps la pluie” (a place in Europe, when it
rains, I think)
Pop Art
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Pop Art was a visual art movement that
emerged in the 1950s in Britain and the United
States. The origin of the term Pop Art is
unknown but is often credited to British art critic
Lawrence Alloway in an essay titled "The Arts
and the Mass Media", although he uses the
words "popular mass culture" instead of "pop
art". Alloway was one of the leading critics to
defend Pop Art as a legitimate art form.
Pop Art Part Deux
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It was one of the biggest art movements of the twentieth
century and is characterized by themes and techniques
drawn from popular mass culture, such as television,
movies, advertising and comic books. Pop art is widely
interpreted as either a reversal or reaction to Abstract
Expressionism or an expansion upon it.
Pop Art Continued…
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Pop Art aimed to employ images of
popular culture as opposed to elitist
culture in art, often emphasizing kitsch
and thus targeted a broad audience. It
was easy to understand, easy to
recognize because it was iconic and
accessible to the mass public. Pop art is
sometimes considered to be very
academic and unconventional, but it was
always easy to interpret.
Pop Artists: Crash, Jim Dine, Keith Haring, Roy
Lichtenstein , Andy Warhol and Tom
Wesselmann
Summary
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You must know which movements
influenced your story and your author.
You must remember which movements
influenced other movements.
You must know one author and one artist
from each movement for the “ISMS” exam.