MODERNISM

New way of looking at the universe both artistically and scientifically, new ways of understanding society, new forms of expression for what the authors saw and felt, which were different from any that had existed before. EXPERIMENTATION IN EVERY FIELD (Joyce Woolf Picasso) The term may be misleading, since it can be applied to all the artistic movements of the early years of the century (Futurism Imagism Dadaism Fauvism Cubism) The positivistic faith in progress, so popular during the VA and the Edwardian period, was to be struck in its rationalistic self-confidence. WWI left the country in a disillusioned and cynical mood: economy in recession, sense of guilt for what war had been, gap between the younger and the old generation, the latter considered to be responsible for the waste of lives in the war, slow dissolution of the Empire feeling of rootlessness and frustration (Forster Not even religion or science seemed to offer any comfort any more a. FREUD: The Interpretation of Dreams was published in 1900. The unconscious affects behaviour (Anna O. talking cure) = mans actions and behaviour can be motivated and originated by irrational forces of which he might not be aware. Our super-ego (constraint imposed by society, education, moral laws) can distort our behaviour. Libido. Mans sense of responsibility and good manners had little to do with all this: effects = childhood regained an important status, the relationship between men and women was readjusted, new method of investigation of the human mind through the analysis of dreams and the concept of free association b. JUNG: collective unconscious, a sort of cultural memory, containing the universal myths and beliefs of the human race, which operates on a symbolic level = some objects or figures of the everyday world have symbolic power and people responded to them unconsciously (only the psychologist and the poet can understand these symbols) c. EINSTEIN: time and space are subjective dimensions = the world lost its solidity ART: verbal experimentation exploration of memory no perspective in painting revolution of tone and harmony in music Modernism implied a break with traditional values, a rejection of Naturalism and Decadence in favour of introspection and technical skills. FEATURES: 1. intentional distortion of shapes no limitation in space and time 2. our perception of reality is uncertain, temporary and subject to change 3. art reflects the complexity of modern urban life 4. a true insight of things is provided by the intensity of the isolated moment 5. interest in primitive culture 6.importance of unconscious and conscious life 7. reality cannot be interpreted in an absolute way Fauvism: supremacy of colour to the detriment of form, primitive and magical Cubism: primitive art deconstructed shapes in space Abstract painting: attention on the line, on colour Futurism: power of speed, of dynamism, of motion Dodecaphony: Schonberg dissonance and distorted music effects d. FRAZER The Golden Bough study of anthropology: primitive societies began to be regarded as integrated structures, so many of them were analysed and made known In a word, man could not be defined or pictured anymore and this generated perplexities, isolation, alienation and anxiety Orwell)

The modern writer expressed the impossibility of mastering a chaotic universe through elaborate structuring, through allusion and literary references, through images and myths. ENGLISH LITERATURE The actual bridge from the 19th century to the 20th was constituted by the psychological novelists CONRAD: a complex writer; he is often defined as a writer of the sea, but the sea is to him just an ideal environment for his characters to experience their moments of truth and their epiphanies. His exotic settings are sinister since they mirror mans mysterious inner world, which he tried to explore. His technique is often highly involved, making him a true pioneer in experimentation. Keen analysis of the individual soul. HENRY JAMES: he developed his actions in chronological sequences, the only shift in time being determined by memory digressions; he rejected the traditional canons by shifting the focus of the novel from external events to the inner reactions to these events, which he analysed in all their finest nuances FORSTER: complexity of the characters, whom he usually presents caught in the clash between different cultures LAWRENCE: conflict existing between the conscious mind and the hidden drives of the unconscious; he was explicit in denouncing the dangers of repression and in presenting sex as a sort of religion

In E literature, Modernism refers to those authors who actually experimented with new forms and who, while focusing on the mental process that develop in human mind, tried to explore them through what is called stream of consciousness. This new technique applied to literature the theories developed by two philosophers: the Frenchman Henry Bergson and the American William James BERGSONs conception of what he called la dure, or duration flux, proposed that inner time has a duration which eludes conventional clock time, thus turning the old conception of time from a sequence of separate points into an unbroken continuum (psychological time is internal, subjective, measured by the relative emotional intensity of a moment) JAMES: in his Principles of Psychology 1890 had stated that conscience doesnt appear to itself chopped up in bitsbut it flows, from immediate past to immediate future, like a stream. The word consciousness doesnt indicate intelligence but the entire area of mental attention, from pre-consciousness on through the levels of the mind up to and including the highest one of communicable awareness In other words, while the psychological novel dealt with the rational communicable area, stream of consciousness fiction is concerned with that area which is beyond communication. There are TWO LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS: SPEECH LEVEL it can be communicated either orally or in writing PRE-SPEECH LEVEL has no communicative basis and is not rationally controlled or logically ordered

ICEBERG: stream of consciousness fiction is concerned with the part that lies beneath the surface To this purpose, the author must explore what initiates or constitute the mental process( memories, dreams, sensations, intuitions) and analyse how this process works (through use of symbols, associations of ideas) The METHODS used to depict consciousness (hard task for a writer, since consciousness is private and fluid, often combining past and present) include montage, flashbacks, fade-out, and slow-up or story within the story, or use of similes and metaphors or special forms of punctuation (parentheses) The basic method is however the use of INTERIOR MONOLOGUE. This term is often confused with stream of consciousness, but there is a distinction between them, since STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS: refers to the mental activity itself INTERIOR MONOLOGUE: is the instrument used to translate this phenomenon into words. To do so , the interior monologue often disregards logical transitions, formal syntax and even conventional punctuation, so as to reflect the apparently disconnected and chaotic sequence of thoughts.

VIRGINIA WOOLF: indirect interior monologue (introduced by he thought he decided) which provides a more rational link for the associations of ideas JAMES JOYCE: used direct interior monologue, where he shifted abruptly from thought to thought, without any apparent connection of verb, subject or even punctuation.