Modernism: Overview

Thomas Aquinas.

(From Shobha di's class lectures 1 and 2)

1. The notion of Modernism: The movement's most distinctive feature was its drive to dislocate existing traditions, tendencies. 

- Peter Ackroyd: traces this back to the 17th century

- Flaubert: "The only truth in this world exists in a well-made sentence"
- Rationalist thought generally viewed to have existed till Aquinas. 

- Influence of Absurdity, Nihilism and Solitude may be attributed to Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Freud and Dostoevsky. Existential crises, the loss of god, socialist ideals - some of the shaping influences of early Modernism.

2. How the critics have attempted to temporally locate Modernism:

- James McFarlane suggests that the movement progressed in "increasing waves" right through the 19th century.

- Richard Ellmann considers 1900 to be an accurate and convenient starting point.

- Virgina Woolf: "On or about December 1910, human character changed."

- D.H. Lawrence: "It was in 1915, the old world ended."

- 1922 is a notable year because of the publication of Ulysses, The Wasteland among other critical Modernist texts.

- 1924 also is an important year => E.M. Forster's A Passage to India, Melville's Billy Bud, Sailor and more.

- The Interwar period (1918 to 1939) was especially productive to Modernist literature. Key figures (in addition to those already mentioned): Aldous Huxley (dystopian literature); Katherine Mansfield (for her contribution to the short story)

3. "Characteristics" of the Modernist Movement:

- The rise of polyglot cultures in the upcoming literary cities like New York, Berlin, Paris.

- Similar to A.O. Lovejoy's contention of "Romanticisms", "Modernisms" too may be distinguished within the larger stream of "High Modernism."

- A global phenomenon - focus redirects from England.

- Stephen Spender differentiates between the "recognisers" and "non-recognisers" of the modern situation. He goes on to suggest that the recognisers were out to deliberately create a new literature and took it as the duty of art to support progress.

- (Imp.) Spender also distinguishes the "moderns" (like Woolf, Joyce) from the "contemporaries" (like H.G. Wells): the contemporary is located firmly in the modern time and hence views it from within. The contemporary accepts the forces of science, history that move the world but may more often than not, be critical of it. The modern  is aware of the contemporary scene but does not participate in it in the same way. The modern has the vantage point of the past, s/he is the "past become conscious at certain points" (Spender, Struggle, 78). The modern therefore is preoccupied with trying to bridge the gulf between the past and the present. Eg. Ulysses conflates a setting of contemporary, localised, day-to-day life with the grand scale of the Homeric epic.

- The Modernist author challenges generally accepted "shared values". 

- Edward T. Hall calls it: "disenchantment of our culture with culture itself" (Hall, Beyond Culture).

Suggested Reading:

1. Preface to Plays Unpleasant - G.B. Shaw. (Will scan if you need - let me know)

2. The Social Context of Modern English Literature - Malcolm Bradbury

3. The Context of English Literature, 1900 to 1930 - Michael Bell

Works Cited:

Hall, Edward T. Beyond Culture. Anchor Books, 1977.

Spender, Stephen. The Struggle of the Modern. University of California Press, 1963.

--
Notes on "Characteristics" to be continued in addition to NG's lecture on Post-Modernism.