The Modern Period

In Brief Late 19th c. and early 20th c. - natural and

social sciences saw enormous advances. This increase in the physical sciences

gain in material wealth. capitalism heightened contradictions

between production and private ownership economic depression and mass unemployment.

Wide gap between wealth and lower classes.

Modernism

Originated from the growing delusion with rise of and the negative effects of capitalism.

The First World War and the Second World War greatly influenced English literary production.

Second World War marked final breakdown of the British Empire.Heavy losses in the war; the economy suffered; former colonies

gained self representation. Ideological – Irrational philosophy and new social sciences

encouraged new forms of expression exploration into human nature and the complexities of individual relationships.

Literary – Artistic Expression New Trendssymbolism, expressionism, surrealism,cubism, futurism, Dadaism, imagism and stream of consciousness. English poetry:opposition to the conventional ideas and forms of Victorian poetry. English prose:early 20th c. powerful Modernist prose fiction. Gradual shift in dramatic perspective 20th c. drama:Oscar Wilde - George Bernard Shaw first innovators of modern drama through style and form, staging techniques leading to the new theatrical productions still on stage today.

Complex world wide movement in all creative arts proved to be great renewal of the 20thc

Modernism in literature

new existential philosophy and psycho-analysis as theoretical base. English Modernism dehumanization of art – removal of content in preference to form – perception must be re-educated. José Ortega y Gasset – Essay 1925

themes of the modernist literature are the difficult, alienating and complex, relationships between man and nature, man and society, man and man – man with himself.

Modernism

Key Voices of the Period George Bernard Shaw (1856- 1950) Mrs. Warren's Profession

John Galsworthy (1867- 1933) The Man of Property

William Butter Yeats (1865- 1939) The Land of Heart’s Desire

Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888- 1965) Murder in the Cathedral

David Herbert Lawrence (1885- 1930) Sons and Lovers

James Joyce (1882- 1941) Ulysses

D. H. Lawrence Themes such as the conflict between the coarse simple people and the refined, strong-willed “member of society” are presented Most autobiographical novel: Sons and Lovers (1913); The Rainbow – Women in Love – Lady Chatterley's Lover Writings expressed a strong reaction against the mechanical evolution of progress. Believed the wealthy, upper classes, fed by industrialization, survived a. at the cost of ravishing the land, b. started the catastrophic uprooting of man from nature c. caused the corruption of modern individual dominance of a sterile

intellect over the authentic inward passions of man. d. concern about the dehumanizing effect of mechanical civilization on the

innate/inherent/inborn sensitivity of human nature

James Joyce 1882 – Joyce was a Catholic from Dublin passed from involved religious

enthusiasm to the rejection of the inflexible bigotry of Dublin society. Joyce was not a prolific writer novels and short stories have a. the same setting: Ireland, especially Dublin, b. the same subject: the Irish people and their livesc. Universality of his works and the people he characterizes appeal to the

inherent sensitivity of the modern readerKey works _

Dubliners; A Portrait of Artist as a Young Man; Ulysses Refined a new prose style show the chaos and of consciousness – human

thought processes in written form- Stream Of Consciousness Stream Of Consciousness achieved great success as a genre of modern

literature.Finnegan’s Wake, pursuit of newness above normalness associable to “As I

Lay Dying” – William Faulkner (US – 1897)

His Master Work – Ulysses account of man's life during an 18 hour day (16 June, 1904) in Dublin. Three main characters : •Leopold Bloom, an Irish Jew, •Marion Tweedy Bloom, his wife•Stephen Daedalus, also the protagonist in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. •novel divided into 18 episodes in correspondence with the 18 hours of the normal laborer's waking day. Significance Ulysses - regarded as the most "revolutionary" literary effort of 20thc. "stream of consciousness" technique. LEITMOTIF create a modern hero – returned to classical myth and deconstruct the figure of the great and wise Greek warrior into a parody of the "Wandering Jew" •Joyce singles out a key figure – the anti-hero: a flawed but lovable human being. •Considerable prose space given especially to banal and taboo human weakness: gluttony, defecation, urination, dementia, masturbation, voyeurism, alcoholism, and other “unmentionables”•most of these involved the hero/un-hero – Leopold Bloom.

Characters Leopold Bloom – protagonist (mock-epic hero from Fielding, Thorpe, Dickens, etc.) in contrast to the Homeric Ulysses, our "modern" hero must struggle throughout the novelJoyce emphasizes how Bloom, an ad-canvasser, is an outsider – isolated by his very nature of being a simple creature Molly Bloom : The wife has a sexual affair with fellow singer, Blazes Boylan Stephen Dedalus : covers a series of symbolic positions taken, as contrast, from various works of literature – Hamlet, Icarus, Telemachus in search of his father, etc. StructureUlysses has become a prime example of MODERNISM in literature. •uncommon novel – essential qualities of the traditional novel are totally absent •no real story; no chronological plot, very little action, •characterization obtained through the characters own thought processes•The triviality of every day activities, insignificant HOWEVER – beneath the surface a.the seemingly natural flow of mental reflectionb.the shifting moods and impulses in the characters' inner world c.Unexpected candid language use deeply moving focus on the “inner” individual

Reader must re-invent a new set of rules for reading or it would be completely impenetrableperception must be re-educated. José Ortega y Gasset – Essay 1925