Modernism
1918-1945
Difference between Realism
and Modernism
 Whereas REALISM


Emphasized
absolutism, and
Believed that a
single reality could
be determined
through the
observation of nature
 MODERNISM


Argued for cultural
relativism,
And believed that
people make their
own meaning in the
world.
Value Differences in the Modern
World
Pre-Modern World
Modern World (Early 20th
Century)
Ordered
Chaotic
Meaningful
Futile
Optimistic
Pessimistic
Stable
Fluctuating
Faith
Loss of faith
Morality/Values
Collapse of Morality/Values
Clear Sense of Identity
Confused Sense of Identity and
Place in the World
World War I:1914 (1917-1918)
WWI: Doughboys and Air
Fights
WWI: Trench War Fare and
Poison Gas
Russian Revolution: 1917
Social Snapshot of the Times
 Result of Political Turmoil

Revolutionary Ideologies Rise
 Fascism

The separation and persecution or denial of
equality to a certain group based on race,
creed, or origin
 Nazism

Socialism featuring racism, expansionism and
obedience to a strong leader
 Communism

Control of the means of production should rest
in the hands of the laborers.
Fascism
and
Nazism
Communism
Social Snapshot of the Times
 Scientific Revolution

Quantum theory
 Explains
the nature of matter and energy on
the atomic and subatomic level

Principle of Uncertainty
 In
quantum mechanics: increasing the
accuracy of measurement of one observable
quantity increases the uncertainty with which
another may be known
Snapshot of the Times:
Implications for Nature of Reality
 Many-worlds (multi-verse) theory

As soon as the potential exists for any object to be
in any state, the universe of the object transmutes
into a series of parallel universes equaling the
number of possible states in which an object can
exist. Stephen Hawking posits the possibility for
interaction between universes.
 Copenhagen interpretation: nothing exists until
it is measured:

Schrödinger's cat (dead and alive)
Schrödinger's cat
Forces Behind Modernism
 The sense that our culture has no center,
no values.
 Paradigm shift

from the closed, finite, measurable, causeand-effect universe of the 19th century to
an open, relativistic, changing, strange
universe;
Characteristics of Modernism
in Literature
 Literature Exhibits Perspectivism


Meaning comes from the individual’s
perspective and is thus personalized;
A single story might be told from the
perspective of several different people,
with the assumption that the “truth” is
somewhere in the middle
Characteristics of Modernism
in Literature
 Inner psychological reality or “interiority” is
represented
o
Stream of consciousness—portraying the
character’s inner monologue
Characteristic of Modernism in
Literature
 Perception of language changes:



No longer seen as transparent, allowing us
to “see through” to reality;
But now considered the way an individual
constructs reality;
Language is “thick” with multiple meanings
and varied connotative forces.
Characteristic of Modernism in
Literature
 Emphasis on the Experimental


Art is artifact rather than reality;
Organized non-sequentially
 Experience
portrayed as layered, allusive,
discontinuous, using fragmentation and
juxtaposition.

Ambiguous endings—open endings which
are seen as more representative of reality.
The Armory Show: International
Exhibition of Modern Art, 1913
 Watershed date in
American art
 Introduced
astonished New
Yorkers, accustomed
to realistic art, to
modern art;
 Teddy Roosevelt
said, “That’s not art!”
Matisse
Cubism
 Cubism—1909-1911

Art in which multiple views are presented
simultaneously in flattened, geometric way.
Cubism
Dadaism
 Dadaism –deliberately irrational


a protest against the barbarism of the War and
oppressive intellectual rigidity;
Anti-art
 Strives to have no meaning
 Interpretation
dependent entirely on the
viewer;
 Intentionally offends.
Dadaism
Duchamp
Surrealism
 Surrealism



Grew out of Dada and automatism.
Reveals the unconscious mind in dream images,
the irrational, and the fantastic,
Impossible combinations of objects depicted in
realistic detail.
Surrealism
Dali
Magritte
Jackson Pollock
Futurism
 Futurism—grew out of Cubism.



Added implied motion to the shifting planes
and multiple observation points of the
Cubists;
Celebrated natural as well as mechanical
motion and speed.
Glorified danger, war, and the machine
Futurism
Kandinsky
Giacomo Balla
Modernism Timeline
 1914: Outbreak of
WWI
 1917: US enters war,
Russian Revolution
 1919:



WWI ends,
Einstein’s Relativity
theory confirmed,
Prohibition begins
Modernism Timeline
 1920


League of Nations
begins;
19th Amendment
granting women the
vote
 1921—Irish Free State
proclaimed
 1922—Fascists march on
Rome under Mussolini
 1923—Charleston craze
Modernism Timeline
 1925—


Image of human face
televised
Hitler published Mein
Kampf
 1927


Lindbergh flies solo
across Atlantic
Al Jolson, first talkie
Modernism Timeline
 1929—US stock
market crashes;
 1933



Hitler appointed
Chancellor of
Germany
First German
concentration camps
Prohibition ends in
US
Modernism Timeline
 1934—Hitler becomes
dictator
 1936—Civil War in Spain
begins
 1938—Germany
occupies Austria
 1939



Hitler and Stalin make
pact;
Germany invades
Poland
Great Britain and
France declare war on
Germany
Modernism Timeline
 1941


Germany invades
USSR
Japan bombs Pearl
Harbor, US enters war
 1942


Battle of Stalingrad,
Battle of Midway;
T-shirt invented
 1944—D-Day invasion of
France
Modernism Timeline
 1945





End of war in Europe
Atomic bomb
dropped on Japan
First computer built
Microwave oven
invented
United Nations
founded