Modernism:
A revolutionary movement encompassing all of the creative arts that had its roots in the 1890s, a transitional period during which artists and writers sought to liberate themselves from constraints and polite conventions we associate with Victorianism. Modernism exploded onto the international scene in the aftermath of World War I, a traumatic transcontinental event that physical devastated and psychologically disillusioned the West in an entirely unprecedented way. A wide variety of new and experimental techniques arose in architecture, dance, literature, music, painting and sculpture.
As a literary movement, modernism gained prominence during and, especially, just after World War I; it subsequently flourished in Europe and America throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Modernist authors sought to break away from traditions and conventions through experimentation with new literary forms, devices, and styles. They incorporated the new psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Young into their works and paid particular attention to language – both how it’s used and how they believed it could or ought to be used. Their works reflected the pervasive sense of lose, disillusionment, and even despair in the wake of the Great War, hence their emphasis on historical discontinuity and the alienation of humanity. Although modernist authors tended to perceive the world as fragmented, many- such as T. S. Eliot and James Joyce- believed they could help counter that disintegration through their works. Such writers viewed as a potentially integrating, restorative force, a remedy for uncertainty of the modern world. To this end, even while depicting disorder in their works, modernists also injected order by creating patterns of allusion, symbol, and myth. This rather exalted view of art fostered a certain elitism among modernism.
In literature, there was a rejection of traditional realism (chronological plots, continuous narratives relayed by omniscient narrators, ‘closed endings, etc.) in favor of experimental forms of various kinds.
Some Characteristics of Modernism
• new insights from the emerging fields of psychology and sociology
• anthropological studies of comparative religion
• a growing critique of British imperialism, and the rise of independence movements in the colonies
• the increasing threat of fascism and doctrines of racial superiority in Germany
• the escalation of warfare to a global level
• the extension of democracy, without discrimination as to race or sex
• the increasing dissemination, impact, and influence of non-white cultures
• the entrance of women into the broader work force, and the development of social feminism
• the emergence of a new "city consciousness"
• new information technologies such as radio and cinema
• the rise of mass communication, and the growth of newspapers and periodical literature
Major characteristics of Modernism in Literature:
o A new emphasis on impressionism and subjectivity, that is, on how we see rather than what we see.
o A movement (in novels) away from the apparent objectivity provided by features as: omniscient external narration, fixed narrative points of view and clear-cut moral positions.
o A blurring of the distinctions between genres, so that novels tend to become more lyrical and poetic, for instance, and poems more documentary and prose-like.
o A new liking for fragmented forms, discontinuous narrative, and random-seeming collages of disparate materials.
o A tendency towards ‘reflexivity’, so that poems, plays and novels raise issues concerning their own nature, status, and roles.
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Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The term encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, 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
ReplyDeleteModernism :was not conceived as a style but a loose collection of ideas. It was a term which covered a range of movements and styles that largely rejected history and applied ornament, and which embraced abstraction. Born of great cosmopolitan centres, it flourished in Germany and Holland, as well as in Moscow, Paris, Prague and New York. Modernists had a utopian desire to create a better world. They believed in technology as the key means to achieve social improvement and in the machine as a symbol of that aspiration. All of these principles were frequently combined with social and political beliefs
ReplyDeleteMODERNISM...
ReplyDeleteModernism is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The term encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, 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.
...some character of the modernism...
1.new insights from the emerging fields of psychology and sociology .
2.anthropological studies of comparative religion .
3.a growing critique of British imperialism, and the rise of independence movements in the colonies
4.the increasing threat of fascism and doctrines of racial superiority in Germany
5.the escalation of warfare to a global level
the rise of internationalism, and pacifist and disarmament movements
6.the extension of democracy, without discrimination as to race or sex
7.the increasing dissemination, impact, and influence of non-white cultures
the entrance of women into the broader work force, and the development of social feminism
8.the emergence of a new "city consciousness"
new information technologies such as radio and cinema
9.the rise of mass communication, and the growth of newspapers and periodical literature.
Criticisms of modernism
ReplyDeleteThe most controversial aspect of the modern movement was, and remains, its rejection of tradition. Modernism's stress on freedom of expression, experimentation, radicalism, and primitivism disregards conventional expectations. In many art forms this often meant startling and alienating audiences with bizarre and unpredictable effects, as in the strange and disturbing combinations of motifs in surrealism or the use of extreme dissonance and atonality in modernist music. In literature this often involved the rejection of intelligible plots or characterisation in novels, or the creation of poetry that defied clear interpretation.
The Modernism movement is often difficult to define because it carries many different meanings. Indeed, some argue that Modernism refers to a specific literary period, while others believe it is a certain literary style or genre. However, it is generally accepted that Modernism connotes a kind of avant-garde writing, one that rebels against traditional literary conventio
ReplyDeletePhilosophy renders great service to the cause of truth; but error calls for its assistance too. Many consider the philosophic groundwork of modernism to be Kantian. This is true, if by Kantian philosophy is meant every system that has a root connection with the philosophy of the Koenigsberg sage. In other words, the basis of modernist philosophy is Kantian if, because Kant is its father and most illustrious moderate representative, all agnosticism be called Kantism (by agnosticism is meant the philosophy which denies that reason, used at any rate in a speculative and theoretical way, can gain true knowledge of suprasensible things). It is not our business here to oppose the application of the name Kantian to modernist philosophy. Indeed if we compare the two systems, we shall find that they have two elements in common, the negative part of the "Critique of Pure Reason" (which reduces pure or speculative knowledge to phenomenal or experiential intuition), and a certain argumentative method in distinguishing dogma from the real basis of religion. On the positive side, however, modernism differs from Kantism in some essential points. For Kant, faith is a really rational adhesion of the mind to the postulates of practical reason. The will is free to accept or reject the moral law; and it is on account of this option that he calls its acceptance "belief". Once it is accepted, the reason cannot but admit the existence of God, liberty, and immortality. Modernist faith, on the other hand, is a matter of sentiment, a flinging of oneself towards the Unknowable, and cannot be scientifically justified by reason. In Kant's system, dogmas and the whole positive framework of religion are necessary only for the childhood of humanity or for the common people. They are symbols that bear a certain analogy to images and comparisons. They serve to inculcate those moral precepts that for Kant constitute religion. Modernist symbols, though changeable and fleeting, correspond to a law of human nature. Generally speaking, they help to excite and nourish the effective religious sentiment which Kant (who knew it from his reading of the pietists) calls schwärmerei. Kant, as a rationalist, rejects supernatural religion and prayer. The modernists consider natural religion a useless abstraction; for them it is prayer rather that constitutes the very essence of religion. It would be more correct to say that modernism is an offshoot of Schleiermacher (1768-1834), who though he owed something to Kant's philosophy, nevertheless built up his own theological system. Ritschl called him the "legislator of theology" (Rechtf. und Vers., III, p. 486). Schleiermacher conceives the modernist plan of reforming religion with the view of conciliating it with science. Thus would he establish an entente cordiale among the various cults, and even between religion and a kind of religious sentimentality which, without recognizing God, yet tends towards the Good and the Infinite. Like the modernists, he has dreams of new religious apologetics; he wants to be a Christian; he declares himself independent of all philosophy; he rejects natural religion as a pure abstraction, and derives dogma from religious experience. His principal writings on this subject are "Ueber die Religion" (1799: note the difference between the first and the later editions) and "Der Christliche Glaube" (1821-22). Ritschl, one of Kant's disciples, recognizes the New Testament as the historical basis of religion. He sees in Christ the consciousness of an intimate union with God, and considers the institution of the Christian religion, which for him is inconceivable without faith in Christ, as a special act of God's providence. Thus has he prepared the way for a form of modernism more temperate than that of Schleiermacher. Though he predicted a continual development of religion, Schleiermacher admitted a certain fixity of dogma. For this reason it seems to us that modernists owe their radical evolutionary theory to Herbert Spencer (1820-1903). de l'esprit", Paris, 1902).
ReplyDeleteA salient characteristic of modernism is self-consciousness. This often led to experiments with form, and work that draws attention to the processes and materials used (and to the further tendency of abstraction).[4] The poet Ezra Pound's paradigmatic injunction was to "Make it new!" However, the break from the past was not a clean break. Pound's phrase identified one modernist objective, even as T.S. Eliot emphasized the relation of the artist to tradition. Eliot wrote:
ReplyDelete"[W]e shall often find that not only the best, but the most individual parts of [a poet's] work, may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their immortality most vigorously."[5]
Literary scholar Peter Childs sums up the complexity:
"There were paradoxical if not opposed trends towards revolutionary and reactionary positions, fear of the new and delight at the disappearance of the old, nihilism and fanatical enthusiasm, creativity and despair."[6]
These oppositions are inherent to modernism: it is in its broadest cultural sense the assessment of the past as different to the modern age, the recognition that the world was becoming more complex, and that the old "final authorities" (God, government, science, and reason) were subject to intense critical scrutiny.
Current interpretations of modernism vary. Some divide 20th century reaction into modernism and postmodernism, whereas others see them as two aspects of the same movement.
modernism is the name given to the movement which dominated the arts and culture of the first half of the twentieth century .
ReplyDeletewith regards to literature the aim was to produce a literature that seems dedicated to experimentation and innovation.
in all arts touched by modernism what had been the most fundamental elements of practise were challenged and rejected :thus 1-melody and harmony were put aside in music.
2-perspective and direct pictorial representation were abandoned in painting3- in architecture traditional forms and materials were rejected .4-in literature ,there was a rejection of traditional realism (chronological plots ,continuous narratives relayed by omnicient narrators ,closed endings...etc
I'd like to mention what some theorists contributed with regards to modernity and post modernism .for instance ,Habermas is a German theorist who delivered the influential paper 'modernity - an incomplete project 'in 1980 .He believes that modern period started with the Enlightment ,from the mid -seventeen to the mid -eighteen century ,when a new faith arose in the power of reason to improve human society .The so-called Enlightment 'project 'is the fostering of this belief that a break with tradition ,blind habit ,and slavish obedience to religious precepts and prohibitions, coupled with the application of reason and logic can bring a solution to the problems of society .This outlook is what Habermas means by modernity.what's noticeable about Habermas that he called for an end to artistic experimentation though it was one of the features of modernism.
ReplyDeleteJean Baudrillard ,whose book is 'simulation' , is associated with what is usually known as 'the lose of the real ' ;the view that in contemporary life the pervasive influence of images from film,T.V,and advertising has led to a loss of the distinction between real and imagined ,reality and illusion ,surface and depth.
Oedipus complex, Freudian term, drawn from the myth of Oedipus, designating attraction on the part of the child toward the parent of the opposite sex and rivalry and hostility toward the parent of its own. It occurs during the phallic stage of the psycho-sexual development of the personality, approximately years three to five. Resolution of the Oedipus complex is believed to occur by identification with the parent of the same sex and by the renunciation of sexual interest in the parent of the opposite sex. Freud considered this complex the cornerstone of the superego and the nucleus of all human relationships. Many psychiatrists, while acknowledging the significance of the Oedipal relationships to personality development in our culture, ascribe love and attraction toward one parent and hatred and antagonism toward the other not necessarily to sexual rivalry but to resentment of parental authoritarian power.
ReplyDeleteModernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The term encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, 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.
ReplyDeleteModernism after World War II (The visual and performing arts)
ReplyDeleteIn Britain and America, modernism as a literary movement is generally considered to be relevant up to the early 1930s, and "modernist" is rarely used to describe authors prominent after 1945. This is somewhat true for all areas of culture, with the exception of the visual and performing arts.
The post-war period left the capitals of Europe in upheaval with an urgency to economically and physically rebuild and to politically regroup. In Paris (the former center of European culture and the former capital of the art world) the climate for art was a disaster. Important collectors, dealers, and modernist artists, writers, and poets had fled Europe for New York and America. The surrealists and modern artists from every cultural center of Europe had fled the onslaught of the Nazis for safe haven in the United States. Many of those who didn't flee perished. A few artists, notably Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Pierre Bonnard, remained in France and survived.
The 1940s in New York City heralded the triumph of American abstract expressionism, a modernist movement that combined lessons learned from Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, surrealism, Joan Miró, cubism, Fauvism, and early modernism via great teachers in America like Hans Hofmann and John D. Graham. American artists benefited from the presence of Piet Mondrian, Fernand Léger, Max Ernst and the André Breton group, Pierre Matisse's gallery, and Peggy Guggenheim's gallery The Art of This Century, as well as other factors.
modernism:The first half of the nineteenth century for Europe was marked by a number of wars and revolutions, which contributed to an aesthetic 'turning away' from the realities of political and social fragmentation, and so facilitated a trend towards Romanticism: emphasis on individual subjective experience, the sublime, the supremacy of 'Nature' as a subject for art, revolutionary or radical extensions of expression, and individual liberty. By mid-century, however, a synthesis of these ideas with stable governing forms had emerged, partly in reaction to the failed Romantic and democratic Revolutions of 1848. It was exemplified by Otto von Bismarck's Realpolitik and by 'practical' philosophical ideas such as positivism. Called by various names—in Great Britain it is designated the 'Victorian era'—this stabilizing synthesis was rooted in the idea that reality dominates over subjective impressions
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