Ashley Mohan 10/23/12 Eng 350 Prof Cameron Bradbury and McFarlane, The Name and Nature of Modernism

In Bradbury and McFarlane, The Name and Nature of Modernism, the theory of modernism as a literary and artistic movement is analyzed. The authors make a point to initially introduce the concept that Modernism is unlike any other prior artistic or literary movement in that it is comprised of cataclysmic upheavals of culture where great areas of the past [are left] in ruins (Bradbury & McFarlane 19). Prior standards of artistic and literary styles are regularly defied with the modernist approach. A sense of frenzied rebuilding seems to be commonplace in modernist literature with its defiance towards the styles of prior movements (19). Modernist literature breaks up the conventions created in periods of Baroque, Rocco, Romantic, and Impressionism in order to create something entirely new. In the process of defying prior stylistic conventions, Modernist literature can be seen as chaotic or apocalyptic (20). In addition, the authors reveal how Romanticism has a recognizable general meaning and serves as a broad stylistic description of a whole era where Modernism cannot be so easily defined (23). Unlike other creative movements, the style of Modernism is loosely attributed to the speed of the movement and its ability to constantly reinvent itself. The quick temper of the movement refers to the concept that last years modern is not this years and the notion of modern undergoes semantic shift much faster than similar terms of comparable function (22). Other artistic and literary movements can be centralized by major themes, styles, or conventions where as Modernism just consistently defies

anything even remotely centralized. Modernism engages in its absence of style with its concern to objectify the subjective, to make audible or perceptible the minds inaudible conversations (48). Prior artistic movements made clear distinctions between juxtapositions while Modernist literature relies and thrives through the fusion of these opposite concepts. Raymond Williams, Metropolitan Perceptions and the Emergence of Modernism In Metropolitan Perceptions and the Emergence of Modernism, Raymond Williams explores the relation of large metropolises to the theory of Modernism. It is initially noted that there are decisive links between Modernism as an avant-garde movement and the specific conditions and relationships of the twentieth-century metropolis (37). Modernist literature constructed itself in response to the development of large industrialized cities. Williams reveals how as the population of cities was dramatically increasing, the theme of a modern city as a crowd of strangers began to recur in Modernist literature (39). Closely following this theme, Williams displays the theme of an individual lonely and isolated within the crowd which also refers to the increasing populations of developing cities. The newly expanding and overcrowded cities provided the general sense of isolation and alienation within the big city crowds (40). An additional theme of the large city population is presented from a positive perspective. The unification and uniformity of industrialized masses organize[d] the words of working-class and produced revolutionary solidarity (43). Modernist literature began to reveal a sustained urban emphasis through the unification of the working class (43). As populations increased in developing cities the working class began to utilize its unity and diversity as mediums to produce modernist literature.

Stephen Kern, The Present In The Present, Stephen Kern analyzes philosophical and literary concepts referring to the present. Kern initially points out that the present is a culmination of various technological advancements that led to trends in modernist literature. The advancement of wireless communication allowed people to connect with each other from two different places at once. The new innovation of wireless communication allowed for speeding messages between people separated by vast distances to lead to the trend of simultaneity in modernist literature (Kern 67). Kerns describes how simultaneity attempts to capture the present as a sequence of single local events or a simultaneity of multiple distant events or as an infinitesimal slice of time between past and future or of more extended duration (68). The concept of the present, as Kerns describes, can be interpreted into various perspectives of the past and future. The lack of a strict guideline to interpret the present led to different trends in modernist literature. Simultaneous poetry attempted to capture the whole of humanity involved with catastrophes around the globe; international alliances [which] have increased the federative nature of the world (72). The globalization of news with the advancements in wireless communication allowed people to access information from all over the world. With the new influx of international news, simultaneous poetry sought out to present the age of democracy- of crowds and public assemblies within its structure (72). Modernist authors attempted to present lots of images through their work like a motion picture made up of several images or a song comprised of multiple notes. The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot

In the poem, The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot rejects literary conventions of prior artistic periods by utilizing avant-garde features of modernism, as revealed by Bradbury and McFarlane in, The Name and Nature of Modernism. Bradbury and McFarlane demonstrate how modernism is an apocalyptic and frenzied attempt to deny the artistic and literary styles formulated in past movements. Modernist literature produces itself by denying one-dimensional aspects of past period styles and engages in the fusion of juxtapositions. Modernism inherently combines the emotional and the rational, the past and the present, and the inner mind and the outer voice. In The Waste Land, juxtaposed perspectives and a pessimistic tone mark it as a piece of modernist poetry. In prior literary movements, an omniscient narrator helped to centralize the poem. In The Waste Land, multiple narrators and conflicting perspectives are utilized to decentralize and deconstruct past literary narrative conventions and add a level of complexity to the piece. The narrator Marie shifts from personally describing her life of drinking coffeeand staying at the archdukes as an Austrian aristocrat to the contrasting perspective of a fortune teller (Elliot 11-13). Marie is barely able to develop her persona before the fortuneteller is introduced as Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyant which forces the reader to consider the fluctuations in the narratives as social commentary about the chaos from the First World War (43). An elderly and sickly fortuneteller immediately follows an Austrian aristocratic child; the juxtaposition of perspectives could not be greater. The social ills of the First World War are utilized to create an overall pessimistic and apocalyptic tone throughout the poem. The poem initially confronts the reader with the title The Burial of the Dead and continues on to describes the life giving season of spring as the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land (1-2). Eliot captures

the apocalyptic feature of the modernist movement by providing imagery of the dead and the dying.

Works Cited Bloom, Harold. "The Waste Land." T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. New York: Chelsea House, 2007. N. pag. Print Bradbury, Malcolm, and James Walter. McFarlane. "The Name and Nature of Modernism." Modernism: 1890-1930. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976. 19-54. Print. Kern, Stephen. "The Present." The Culture of Time and Space: 1880-1918. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1983. 65-88. Print. Williams, Raymond, and Tony Pinkney. "Metropolitan Perceptions and the Emergence of Modernism." Introduction. The Politics of Modernism: Against the New Conformists. London [England: Verso, 1989. 37-48. Print.