DEFINITION MODERNISM (1900-1940) 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 the constraints and polite conventions we associate with Victorianism.
Formal characteristics Open form Poets who write in open forms usually insist on the form growing out of the writing process, i.e. the poems follow what the words and phrase suggest during the composition process, rather than being fitted into any pre-existing plan. Some do employ vestiges of traditional devices but most regard them as a hindrance to sincerity or creativity.
Free Verse (also at times referred to as vers libre) is a
term describing various styles of poetry that are not written using strict meter or rhyme, but that still are recognizable as 'poetry' by virtue of complex patterns of one sort or another that readers can perceive to be part of a coherent whole
Juxtaposition when two images that are otherwise not commonly brought together appear side by side or structurally close together, thereby forcing the reader to stop and reconsider the meaning of the text through the contrasting images, ideas, motifs, etc. For example, "He was slouched gracefully" is a juxtaposition.
Intertextuality the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. It can refer to an authors borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a readers referencing of one text in reading another.
Classical Allusions a stylistic device or trope, in which one refers covertly or indirectly to an object or circumstance that has occurred or existed in an external context Allusion differs from the similar term intertextuality in that it is an intentional effort.
Unconventional use of Metaphor
Borrowing from other cultures and languages Discontinuous narrative
Thematic characteristics Breakdown of social norms and cultural sureties Dislocation of meaning and sense from its normal context Valorization of the despairing individual in the face of an unmanageable future Disillusionment Rejection of history and substitution of a mythical past, borrowed without chronology Product of the metropolis of cities and urbanscapes Stream of consciousness
Canonical Modernist Authors
T.S. Eliot W.B. Yeats James Joyce Virginia Woolf Ernest Hemingway Franz Kafka Gertrude Stein F. Scott Fitzgerald Ezra Pound
Elements of Modernism Surrealism a movement stating that the liberation of our mind, and subsequently the liberation of the individual self and society, can be achieved by exercising the imaginative faculties of the "unconscious mind" to the attainment of a dream-like state different from, or ultimately truer than, everyday reality.
Futurism passionate loathing of ideas from the past, especially political and artistic traditions. He and others also espoused a love of speed, technology and violence. The car, the plane, the industrial town were all legendary for the Futurists, because they represented the technological triumph of man over nature.
Dadaism Dada sought to fight art with art. For everything that art stood for, Dada was to represent the opposite. Where art was concerned with aesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. If art were to have at least an implicit or latent message, Dada strove to have no meaning interpretation of Dada is dependent entirely on the viewer. If art is to appeal to sensibilities, Dada is to offend.
Imagism The Imagists rejected the sentiment and artifice typical of much Romantic and Victorian poetry. Imagism called for a return to what were seen as more Classical values, such as directness of presentation, and economy of language, as well as a willingness to experiment with non-traditional verse forms. Historically, Imagism is also significant because it was the first organized Modernist English-language literary movement or group
Vorticism short lived British art movement of the early 20th century. It is considered to be the only significant British movement of the early twentieth century but lasted less than three years. The style grew out of Cubism, but is more closely related to Futurism in its embrace of dynamism, the machine age and all things modern.
Black Modernism Duality of African American experience Slavery vs. Constitutional declaration of equality for all Freedom granted by Civil War vs. Jim Crow
Commingling of religion and folk values
Christianity vs. Ancestor Worship Bible beliefs vs. superstition
African American as social other
Black Modernist Writers
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man
Melvin Tolson Libretto for the Republic of Liberia
Robert Hayden Middle Passage
Modernism vs. Postmodernism
Postmodernism occurred after WWII Postmodernism rejects the order modernists try to instill in their work through allusion, myth and symbol Postmodernists take modernism to the extreme Postmodern authors do not see art as a restorative force, merely reflective
