Modernism and Identity

J.King Fall 2013

Winesburg, Ohio

What do you see? (Describe)

Nude Descending a Staircase

0New York Armory Show of 19130Cubist painting0Marcel Duchamp

First….a reminder about genres we have covered…

0 Romanticism (1785-1830)0 Imagination0 Nature0 Symbolism/myth0 Emotion0 Self importance of individual0 Artistic/philosophical

movement0 Exotic locales0 idealistic

0Notable authors: 0William Wordsworth0Samuel Taylor Coleridge0Percy Byshee Shelley0Mary Shelley

More genres…

0 Victorian (1830-1901)0 Closer to daily life0 Practicality0 Human progress0 Moral purpose0 Industrialism0 Truth, justice, love, brotherhood0 Not idealist—almost

pessimistic 0 Social and political ideas 0 Revolts against exaggerated

emotion

0Notable authors: 0Lord Alfred Tennyson0Elizabeth Barrett

Browning 0Matthew Arnold0Oscar Wilde

Modernism (1910-1960)

0an aesthetic movement coupled with an historical time period, recording a radical break with and from the past. It is multi-national and multi-disciplinary (i.e.: present in culture, philosophy, science, literature, art). At its root, this movement is a reaction to world affairs; such a reaction bleeds into all that is created/produced during the era. Specific to the literary movement is a major and self-conscious break with the American and European literary tradition.

Historically instigating factors of Modernism

- Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, over the expanse of the world, there were many brutal wars fought, there was unrest in the churches that had held ground for centuries, there was the return to the placement of man at the center of thought and exploration (as opposed to the periods of the Restoration and the Victorian, for example), just as there was a maintained logic, order, and style to literature and art produced. In other words, society becomes more secular, even though 95% of its citizens claim a belief in God.

- Nationalism of the late 19th century pinned “peoples” against “peoples”. - WWI: as technology gets better and better, there are more powerful

weapons, etc.—militarism—and so maybe this is why we have WWI…that there is no definitive “answer” as to why this incredibly brutal/brutalizing war was fought in an issue confronting those who come to be known as Modern writers. Also, of issue regarding WWI is that never before had there been such a “thing” as this, a happening that couldn’t seemingly be accounted for, at least by the way of employing reason.

Instigating social factors/the social landscape of the time:- Rise of cities, advancing technology, dehumanization

resulting from mechanization- Anonymity (aftermath of WWI, industrialization)- Changing class structure (economic boom and swing)- Einstein, quantum physics, uncertainty principle

Modernism and Disillusionment

Nietzsche: “God is dead and we have killed him.” Nietzsche’s announcement comes with nothing short of great anguish for him and others…he says this late in the late 19th century when the world had, for some time, been floundering in religious conviction and activity, when the countries of the world were at war within themselves and with each other, when morality was being slowly replaced with materialism and the quest for riches, when man could no longer look at the structure and functioning of society around him and “see” God’s presence.

What does Modernism look like?

- anti-Romantic (meaning is no longer in the act of art but in the art itself)

- meaning is subjective and no longer needs to be present—we don’t look to art to see ourselves

- deliberate break from the past (in style, form, content, as well as historical location)

- alienation from society, loneliness- procrastination, inability to act- agonized recollection of the past, causing man to

create own myths in his mind to fall back on

More characteristics of Modernism:

- fear of death coupled with a constant awareness of death

- inability to express or to feel “real” love- ironic: attenuated emotion yet a sense of excitement

about the future (that, incidentally never amounts to anything—a tragic struggle against disappointment)

- world as a wasteland- inability to see self reflected in the surrounding world,

in others

The writer in the Modern period will reflect these ideas through his

works. He will also:0Work to locate meaning from the viewpoint of the

individual; use of narrators located within the action of the fiction, experiencing the events from a personal, particular (as opposed to an omniscient and/or “objective”) perspective; use of many voices, contrasts and contestations of perspective so that the reader sees the story from many different “perspectives”; make disappear the omniscient narrator, especially as ‘spokesperson’ for the author

Writer will also:

0Move time into the interior: time becomes psychological time (time as “innerly” experienced) or symbolic time rather than a historic reality. Time is used as well more complexly as a structuring device through a movement backwards or forwards through time, the juxtaposing of events of different times, and so forth. Incidentally, art always attempts to “imitate” or re-present reality; what changes is our understanding of what constitutes reality, and how that reality can best be re-presented, presented to the mind and sense most faithfully and fully.

And…

- Represent various typical themes, including: question of the reality of experience itself; the search for a ground of meaning in a world without God; the critique of the traditional values of the culture; the loss of meaning and hope in the modern world and an exploration of how this loss may be faced.

- Work to show the surface disorder of the world/society and nevertheless imply there exists a certain underlying unity.

- Work to depict the myriad ways his characters can become honorable and dignified in a world seemingly lacking both honor and dignity.

What is the point of Modernist writing?

- Complete a search, or simply to undertake a search and so be “battered” and educated by it, for an understanding of the self in the context of the world/society

- Simple search for meaning- Make meaning out of experience to make living

purposeful

Continued…

0 Modern characters are generally on some type of quest, preparing to recompense themselves (and often recreate themselves in a fashion that is understandable to them). They undertake this quest so as to live all they can and find meaning in a disordered and confused world. These characters do not know or understand a world of rationality and staunch morality that once reigned, but see in front of them a world characterized by loose morality and a people easily seduced by transitory pleasures, who exhibit little ambition or motivation or regard for the consequences of their action

Thus generalized, Modernism can be said to be:

- arise from a sharp and biting sense of loss on ontological grounding

- be a response to a sense of social breakdown- be a reaction to WWI- see the world as fragmented, unrelated in its pieces- perceive the connective threads of existence (that which

unites mankind) previously present as missing (i.e.: morality, religion, common goals and experiences)

- be ironic, but not unfeeling- question the purpose of art because it perceives the

world as falling apart

Timeline/Context/Texts

0The Norton Anthology of American Literature 1914-1945 Chart

Moving on to “Identity”…

0 a : sameness of essential or generic character in different instances0 b : sameness in all that constitutes the objective reality of a thing : 

ONENESS0 20 a : the distinguishing character or personality of an individual: 

INDIVIDUALITY0 b : the relation established by psychological identification0 30 : the condition of being the same with something described or

asserted <establish the identity of stolen goods>0 *according to Merriam-Webster

Personal Identity vs. Social Identity

0 Personal=stable0 Often assumed to mediate

between social identities and make sense of them

0 An “identity crisis” is a crisis rather than an “identity opportunity” because personal identity demands proper and unimpeded expression. It is a value, something we prize. This sense of identity as ours implies an immutable essence unchanged by physical development or external circumstances.

0 Social=changes0 Can shift throughout the day, what allows us to move

coherently from one to another is often imagined to be our personal identity, or “who we are”—our constant

0 In reference to social categories, identity has long carried the meaning of relational and mutable identifications, actuated either by the individuals’ chosen identifications or by others who label individuals or groups based on characteristics and behaviors that seem shared.

0 Identity Politics (women’s movement, civil rights movement, gay rights struggles, New Left, etc.) 0 “a person or group of people can suffer real

damage, real distortion, if the people or society around them mirror back to them a conflicting or demeaning or contemptible picture of themselves.

0 Social struggles for justice, equity, and right

Thoughts on Identity

0 Identities are not really “our own” and we are not really “what we are”; rather , we are how we identify—a process that is mutable and changeable

0We see a persistent desire for identity, however much identity may be constructed, illusory, and unstable

What are different aspects of your social identity?

01. Gender02. Race03. Ethnicity04. Religion05. Familial06. Materialism07. Class (Socio-economic status)

Now lets discuss your ideas about identity. (Introductory Statement)