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MODERNISM – HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 1901 – 1945 After the death of Queen Victoria, Edward VII became king. However, the role of the monarch was more and more symbolic than political, even if at the end of the century, Britain still had an Empire which was the greatest Empire of the World. In the course of the XX century, we will assist to its decline and end. At the end of the century (11899-1902) the British Empire took place in the Second Anglo Boer War against the Transvaal and the Orange Free State (Dutch descendants). It was a very cruel and bloody war; many common people were involved in this violence in receiving and doing. In this war, most foreign opinion saw Britain as the oppressor and this war created a lot of opponents not only against the violence of the war but also against the empire. 1914-1918: the violent history of Britain continued with the World War I in which Britain was involved against the German Empire. This war was quite new in his methods, because it involved the mobilisation of masses. If at first it was greeted with enthusiasm by the British population, as time and year passed by, it gave way to horror and revulsion to the loss of human life. One million Britons died and two million were wounded. Britons needed to face not only the death but also the memory of the violence. 1916: another important political issue Britain needed to face was the “Irish question”. The majority of Irish population was catholic and they wanted an independent Parliament in Dublin, but the protestant population, mostly settled in the north, wanted to stay under British rule. During the 1WW the Republicans (catholic) staged a rebellion against Unionists (protestants) which became the symbol of this resistance. This is known as the Easter Rising and the rebellion lasted three years, since 1921 when a treaty was established and the southern part of Ireland recognized as a free state. With the rise of the Nazism, Britain declared again war to Germany in 1939. The Second World War lasted 6 years, and it was harsh and more violent than the previous. Anyway, Britons were unified under a great national pride, which was based on the will to resist to the German invasion. The war ended in 1945. At that time, Britain had lost its power as global empire. Many colonies got independence and England had no more lands out of its own isle. The British Empire came to the end, but war had strengthened the British national feeling. SOCIETY The education Act of 1840 had increased the public education. A new mass of readers was born to whom a new kind of literature was addressed: this literature was popular, easy reading and pleasant. It was not sophisticated nor difficult. This increased the gap between popular literature and for-expert literature. Since the final decade of 19th century, a growing anti-Victorian feeling was present in literate men, towards the Victorian compromise and the conception of family, education, life.... The Victorian optimism gave way to a new sense of scepticism, due to a great rush of modernity which weakened the social value. The modern era is a time of drastic and rapid changes: - Telephones, electric bulbs, cars were all invented in the last decade of 19th century. - First wireless communication across the Atlantic - First airplane was flight - First mass-produced car (made by the assembly line). - Middle class and working class became dominant and powerful. - Urbanisation of new industrial cities which were crowded but in a constant growth. But then the first world war brought violence, death, difficulties, economic problems, mass dislocation, migration. The social order was destroyed for a new cultural, social mix, due to the disorder created by the war.
CULTURE Some authors are a key for this modern era, due to their work. - NIETZCHE: he looked at this era of progress as an era of decay and decline. He declared the death of God, repudiated Christian values and considered the man as an irrational spirit which cannot control his whole action and this led to the repudiation of any system of belief and to a decadent consideration of the human being. - FREUD with his “Interpretation of Dreams”, brought the life the inner self study, which are focused on the unconscious and irrational. In his view, the perception of reality changes and he studied methods to guide and control this irrational part. Both of them, recognized the irrational part of the human being as something separate in the human being and this is the greatest innovation in considering the human soul. - ALBERT EINSTEIN: he formulated the Theory of relativity which is a new concept of time and duration, which tell us that time and space are relative to the observer: no one thing is universal. - BERGSON: he deals with time and the conception of time by the human mind. He opposed the real duration of an action to the “clock time” which leads to say that time can be measured differently depending on our perception. In the first years of 20th century, a new complex movement started, involving all forms of art (literature, music, visual arts): this is the modernism. Modernism wants to make a break with the before traditions and such a great importance is given by the SELF. Modernism is the awareness of the SELF, which means introspection. Human reason is the barrier to overcome. This means experimenting new modes of expression and refusing old traditions. We can find two forerunners of this era: - HENRY JAMES (1843-1916): he had a peculiar technique in which the narrator is unreliable and the subject is asked to become part of the work. So, the realist and omniscient narrator is abandoned and the focus is brought to the psychological aspect of the work. - JOSEPH CONRAD (1857-1924): he was one of the earliest writers to experiment the shifts of time. He emphasized the narrator’s perception rather than the plot and this creates a discontinuous narration which flows through memory (flashbacks), the present and the future without a chronological time. Moreover, importance is given to introspection and the aim is not to explain something but to evoke. LITERATURE Modernist writers are thinkers who doubt about the certainties of their time, both social, political and also the traditional ways to consider the human. This changes the way people see reality: is this positive or uncertain? NOVEL In the development of the novel, the World War I marked a break with the past and with the Victorian feeling. For many people, the experience of the war had been and experience of violence, instability and uncertainty, losing faith in society and institutions. So, the artists tried to recover the experience of the individual rather than the external world. The modernist novel broke with the Victorian one, which represented a specific type o society with its stereotypes and manner code. Modernist novel shows the ambiguity of life, the emptiness and the absence of values of this new society. - Omniscient narrator (a sort of guide for the reader) is replaced by the presentation of the character’s thought, feelings and memories, and this create a different point of view in which the reader is not guided, but he is brought into the character’s mind. - The plot is not chronological and it does not follow the usual development in more days or years. What is new is the idea of duration: some modernist novel last no more than one day or some hours, but their content is not less rich than others. - Novel is no more the mirror of the society - The psychoanalytic theories of this time made the writers focus on the inner self, with techniques such as the interior monologue (like V. Woolf)
POETRY In the first half of 19th century poetry developed following two ways - Traditional: the Georgian Poets (which published under king George V). They wrote conventional poetry, following the Victorian model - Modernist: they believed that modern poetry needed to be made new in order to confront the complexity of the time. This new way of poetry is shown in the Imagist movement. Imagists wanted to break with romantic poet (Victorian style) and with its regularity and accuracy. Imagist poet used concise language, free rhythm and focused on various theme and subjects. The poetry was hermetic and full of symbolism. - After the War, a generation of poet was known as the “war poet”. In their works they reported the feelings and the images of the destructions - of the war. They gave a new face to the “futile heroism” which had been part of the English society in many authors and poets. They were soldier, believing in the war and soon disillusioned by its violence.