modernist literature background

♣ Characteristics of Modernism / literature:-

-high degree of complexity in structure
-anxiety and interrogation
-reworks tradition
-works are intensly self reflexive, exploring the process of their own composition.
-are often Fragmented and non linear, breaking up time frames and plots.
-some critics identify a sense of apocalypse & disaster in modernism.

-city based.
-it is also located in the context of Empire and world wars, of advanced military technology.

-a great deal of experimentation with language and form.

-an interest in subjectivity and the working of the human consciousness.
-often rejects realism & the idea that art has to capture reality.
-Modernist fiction defamiliarizes or makes strange what is common. MAKE IT NEW- is the Modernist slogan.
-highly elitist because it was complex and used allusions and classical references that called for great erudition- which was available only to certain classes of people.
★FRUSTRATION
★FRAGMENTATION
★ISOLATION
★BROKENNESS
★NOTHINGNESS Characteristics of modernist Literature.

▪Victorians V/S Modernist

☆ in the study of literature few things are most interesting than to consider periodic changes of outlook which sway the human mind and spirit, and to observe those fluctuations of value which cause the truths and certainties of one generation to appears as superstitions and baseless conventions in the eyes of the generation following.

★ young men & women during 20th century looked back upon the ( Victorian Age) as dully hypocritical.

★-Victorian ideals appeared mean and superficial and stupid.

☆from 1901 to 1925 English Literature was directed by mental attitudes, moral ideals and spiritual values at almost the opposite extreme to the attitudes, ideals & values governing Victorian literature.

★ the old certainties were certainties no longer.

★everything was held to be open to question.

☆question
☆examine
☆test→ watchword of Modern Age.

★ standard of artistic craftmanship and of aesthetic appreciation began to change fundamentally.

★wha the Victorians had considered beautiful their children and grand children thought hideous.
→ intellectuals and artists at the turn of the 20th century believed the previous generation's way of doing things was a cultural dead end. they could forsee worlds events were spiraling into unknown territory. the stability and quietude of Victorian civilization were rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

★ the post victorian generation disliked the furnishings of victorian households, they were even more contemptuous of the furnishings of the victorian minds.
in the Victorian age there was a widespread and willing submission to the rule of expert.
the voice of authority was accepted in religion, in politics, in literature, in family life.

★VICTORIANS:-

-hypocritical, artificial
-emotional
-literature-simple
-traditional narrative technique (Aristotle)
-Hardy, Dickens etc never broke the tradition of writing-way of telling.
religion

-without questioning willing submission to the rule/voice of expert/authority/religion.

-'MASK'
-old morality
-Believer
-living in a house built on unshakable foundations and established in perpetuity.
-sense of stability
-home, constitution, Empire, religion are the best form.
-permanence of institutions.
-our empire will never shaken.

Modernist:-

-realistic
-Rational
-all broken (Fragmented)
-stream of consciousness ( experimentation)
-no respect for tradition
-science
-'Origin of species', 'Interpretation of Dreams'
-Faith in Freud & Darwin- book ( The Descent of Man)than the voice of God in book of Genesis.
-New Morality
-Skeptical- (somebody denying knowledge is possible)
-doubtful- question everything
-Agnostic-(somebody denying God's existence is provable).

-H.G.WELLS- MEANWHILE
-UNIVERSAL MUTABILITY
-NOTHING IS PERMANENT

-Campside-modernist idea
-body is home- we've to leave it.

you victorians were wanted to eat fruits of garden of entire world- their own generation.
# the great Victorian and Modernist conflict

‪#‎Morally‬ and mentally frustrated great Britain.

-☆ G.B.SHAW→Question, examine old superstitions.

★ 'INTERROGATIVE HABIT OF MIND'

Major Barbara-quote-you will upgrade things but not thinking &morality.

G.B.SHAW》
H.G.WELLS》PIONEER

conflict with forefathers.
MASSMAN became important in 20th century.
mass production & threat/death of craftmanship.
Reader Response Theory emerged↓
Author is dead
craftmanship is not important.
reader: i will generate my meaning.
JAMES JOYCE-ULYSSES
T.S.ELIOT-THE WASTE LAND
V.WOOLF-JACOB'S ROOM-------Esoteric ( abstruce) Difficult to understand.

★requires high intellect to understand
★deep-philosophical
★ feeling of uneasiness, restlessness