Modernism Mega-Review!
Feraco
American Literature
27 February 2008
Quick Capsule Review
 The test tomorrow will be worth about 80 points
 A mix of written response, true-false, and multiplechoice questions
 The book’s introduction to Modernism
 Hemingway + “Soldier’s Home”
 Thurber + “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”
 Eliot + “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
 Robinson + “Richard Cory” and “Miniver Cheevy”
 Faulkner + “A Rose for Emily”
 “In the American Society” (there’s nothing on Gish Jen
on the test)
 Material from class discussions and lectures
 Blog study group from 7-9pm tonight!
Why Modernism? Why Now?
 Modernism was a symptom of general
disillusionment with tradition
 Affected art and music as well as literature
 World War I – and the economic crash
that followed a decade later – served as
two of the genre’s “launch points”
 In the wake of such a destructive
experience, people called loudly for
change and experimentation – new ideas
for a new future
The American Dream
 Traditionally, there are three “underpinnings”
to the American Dream
 Remember them from the reading quiz?
 Faith in America as paradise – an Eden of
opportunity
 Faith in the goodness of progress
 Faith in the power of the individual
 Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!
 However, the war and the crash damaged
Americans’ faith in this dream, and much of
the art produced in the way of both reflects
shifting social attitudes.
Out With the Puritans!
 Because their faith in tradition –
including the American Dream – was
damaged, writers turned to new
methods and styles
 They rejected the New England Puritan
literary traditions that still influenced
American writing
In With the Rest of the Nation!
 Moreover, famous writing began to emerge
outside of New England
 Writers from the South, Midwest, and West had a
profound influence on American literary traditions
 Faulkner in particular represents a shift away
from New England
 He wrote in the “Southern Gothic” style
 This style drew on the South for its subject matter,
but not always in a positive way
 Southern Gothic writers pursued darker subject
matter, including the “dark side” of the South itself
(especially its traditions, which is in keeping with the
Modernists’ general assault on tradition)
 Does this make him a Deep-South Poe?
Stream of Consciousness
 In addition to growing regional influences, post-war
writers followed emerging intellectual trends and
incorporated them into their work
 Marxism and psychoanalysis, while differing significantly
in nature, both affected the ways that Modernist writers
worked
 Psychoanalysis – the study of the conscious and
unconscious – led to growing anxiety regarding the
amount of freedom individuals had
 This fascination with psychoanalysis led to the
development of a writing technique called stream-ofconsciousness, which called for narration that replicated
individuals’ thought processes (or the ways we draw on
memories, perceptions, and fantasies)
 Rather than writing everything in a chronological order,
these writers tried to bring their readers into their
characters’ heads
Check Out Mitty!
 By understanding stream-of-consciousness,
readers can better understand why Thurber
writes “Mitty” the way he does.
 While “Mitty” obviously serves as a parody,
it’s also a fragmented portrait of a man – a
deeply unhappy, lonely man
 When fantasy is better than reality, Mitty
retreats into his head and leaves the world
 He is alone, and the people who don’t
understand him can never understand his
thoughts as well as we, the readers, can
Check Out Prufrock!
 While works such as “Soldier’s Home” continued to
reflect somewhat traditional structures, other
works – especially those of stream-ofconsciousness writers such as Eliot, Joyce, and
Faulkner – defiantly headed in new directions
 “Prufrock” is a famous “stream-of-consciousness”
works
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We spend the whole poem inside Prufrock’s head
His thoughts are a mess; he’s drawing on literary references
(especially Biblical ones) while he’s talking about women at a
party who come and go and talk of Michelangelo
However, this stream-of-consciousness style gives us a view
into Prufrock’s consciousness, and helps us understand him
better – much better than if we simply watched him at that
party! It also helps us get a sense of the loneliness and
disillusionment that he (and many Modernists) felt
Experimental Poetry
 “Prufrock” contains many other noteworthy aspects
 It’s told in an unusual way – it’s a dramatic monologue,
almost like a soliloquy from Shakespeare
 Remember – is Prufrock singing to someone, or to
himself? We never know for sure!
 It’s extremely sensory and image-heavy – think about
Eliot’s descriptive language when the fog rubs against the
window-panes – and its images can have multiple
meanings
 When Prufrock is “pinned and wriggling on the wall,” has
someone else really put him there – or has he put himself
there?
 When he’s gazing out at the mermaids, lost in his
fantasies, staring at the love he’ll never have – is he
happy? Remember, when human voices wake him, he
drowns…
Experimental Poetry - Symbolists
 While Ezra Pound’s Imagist movement influenced
many of his followers, we’ll concentrate on the
Symbolists and the effects they had on Eliot
 Symbolist poets were deeply influenced by
Romanticism (our old friend!)
 However, the Symbolists didn’t find comfort in
nature, nor did they see spiritual renewal
 They felt instead that nature had been overanalyzed
and stripped of its spirituality
 The modern world had left them disconnected from
one another and spiritually empty
 People were unable to communicate with one
another, or to understand the greater truths of the
universe
 Sound like “Prufrock” to you?
Experimental Poetry – But It Looks
the Same!
 Edwin Arlington Robinson was one of
many Midwestern writers to have a
profound impact on Modernist literature
 He was writing largely before the rise of
Modernism
 However, like Gish Jen, Robinson deals
with many of the same themes and
issues as the Modernists
It Still Looks the Same…
 His verse is traditional, but his characters meet with fates
that reflect their inner selves – something that was still
unusual at the time
 People believe that Cory is the ideal, what they aspire to
become – but his suicide shows they misunderstood the
dream itself
 Cheevy wants to lose himself in the past, but his
perceptions of the past are not accurate; as we’ve seen
through our studies in the first semester, the past was not
always romantic, and our hero would have been saddened
by what he found – much as those who had hope for the
future would be saddened by World War I
 His characters were meant to represent “American types”;
Richard Cory and Miniver Cheevy are meant to be the
types of people you could meet on the street. They are
people who must grapple with the confusing and terrifying
realities of the world – just like everyone else we’ve read!
Check Out Emily!
 “A Rose for Emily” may not spend much time in its
main character’s head, but it’s still fractured and
odd; things are told out of order, and we must
rebuild the narrative by separating the flashbacks
from the present day
 Although Emily is the main character, she isn’t
really telling the story
 In fact, it’s hard to say who is! Think about how
many times the voice shifts; it’s not simply a firstperson perspective, but a first-person plural
perspective!
 This achieves a very nice effect for Faulkner; it
helps us get a sense of the world that overwhelms
Emily, as well as a variety of views and opinions
Check Out Emily Again!
 Faulkner’s examination of Southern traditions is
also a way of looking at how time and progress
have changed us, both as people and as a culture
 Emily is a relic, left over from an earlier age, and
she cannot relate to those around her
 The new generation that has taken power cannot
understand her, and expects her to adopt their ways – but
Emily resists!
 She refuses to pay taxes, she doesn’t want a numbered
mailbox, and she doesn’t associate with any members of
the younger generation
 In the end, we find out that she has been sleeping next to
a corpse – the dead body of her lover – a decaying
symbol of the past she knew, and a past that will never
change
Other Experiments!
 In the wake of the war, many American writers moved
overseas to continue their work
 Hemingway, Joyce, Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald (The
Great Gatsby’s author) wrote in France, while Eliot went
to live in Britain
 Rather than write deeply complicated sentences (such as
Eliot and Faulkner), Hemingway simplified his style
 His sentences are short and plain
 His characters grapple with issues of truth because his
writing style sought to illuminate truth
 By stripping away all of the flamboyance that
characterized other writers’ works, Hemingway hoped
that readers could better connect to the meaning behind
his works
What’s a Hero?
 I asked this question on the blog
because it, along with the American
Dream, form the heart of our Modernist
studies
 What makes a hero in a complicated
age? Who can we look to for guidance
and salvation? Who can we respect?
 The days of the Romantic heroes
seemed to be over; they were painfully
unrealistic in a post-war world
The Modernist Hero
 Melissa pointed out yesterday that Emily seemed lonely
and sad – just like everyone else we’ve studied!
 But that’s the point – these characters share similarities,
and it’s these similarities that you should recognize and
understand!
 Krebs, Cory, Cheevy, Emily, Mitty, Prufrock – none of
them quite “fit” in the world
 Modernist writers focused on characters who reflected
their disillusionment and uncertainty
 In this way, art helped them cope with the realities of
their existences
 The Modernist hero was not Superman, or Indy, or anyone
like them; these heroes – or anti-heroes – were
disillusioned or down-trodden
 However, they kept goodness within themselves – honor,
or courage, or a recognition of the rare, beautiful
moments in life (before those moments slip away)
In Closing
 The Modernists both echoed and challenged
the American Dream
 Characters sought it, realized it, lost it, or never
tried to pursue it – depending on the author
 They introduced new characters to study –
heroes, anti-heroes, and antagonists – and
built an enduring literary tradition during a
terrifying and chaotic period
 To read the Modernists is to read history – to
understand who we are & where we came from
Final Straw
 Study your notes, your readings, and
this PowerPoint!
 If you feel confused about anything,
come to the study group and ask
questions
 If the group is silent again, I’m going to
assume that everyone feels 100%
confident in their understanding of the
Modernist movement
 If you aren’t, ask questions!