Great Britain’s sense of community had disappeared and was replaced by the isolation of urban life

an attempt to make sense of the fragmented worlds

sense of alienation, loss and despair

rejection of traditional values and assumptions

elevation of the individual

WWI

Psychology: understanding and accepting that all minds are not “normal” and that all identities are constricted- we are all counterfeiting

Religion: old answer doesn’t seem to fit new and uncertain times Nietzsche: “God is Dead”

effect of tradition on individual writers, trying to get out of under perceived weight of the past

Romanticism

Victorianism

Realism

reflects the lack of order seen in a growing urban society

celebrates passion over reason

questions traditional moralities

open and experimental form

discontinuity

juxtaposition

intertextuality

classical allusions

Breakdown of social norms

Spiritual loneliness

Alienation

frustration when reading the text

disillusionment

rejection of history

objection to religious thoughts

two world wars effects on humanity

had to be different from that which pleased the masses- modernists believed that art had to be perceived as elitist and “hard” to have value

anthropology, mythology, psychology, and science

challenges the readers’ knowledge and expectations

attempts to recreate the thinking of characters in works, to find a literary equivalent for how minds work

Irish author who pioneered the stream of consciousness from in which a character’s thought process are given written form

stated that people were complex, inconsistent, and unpredictable; driven by irrational urges that might be hidden even to themselves

highly experimental; a narrative, frequently uneventful and common place; is seen through the warped perception of the characters; dark, depressing, and hopeless

focused on the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialization; often faced persecution and censorship for “inappropriate” material

takes modernism to a logical place, through extreme conclusions; dismantling literature entirely to examine its inner works

Atomic bombings

Holocaust

Fire bombing of Dresden

Japanese-American internet

-No longer seen as transparent, allowing us to “see through” to reality-Considered the way an individual constructs reality

Language is “thick” with multiple meanings and varied conative forces

French philosopher who stated “there is nothing outside of the text” meaning there is nothing outside of context– In other words, until an item or concept is given a name and put into a context, it does not exist– As humans, we are trying to always understand context

-French philosopher who was known for his contributions to philosophy and literature-declined the Nobel Prize for literature in 1964 because he did not want to be “institutionalized” as a public figure– In Being and Nothingness, Sartre said humans are “left alone, without excuse” and therefore responsible for their actions and can not blame them on a higher power

author of Waiting for Godot

explored the absurdity of the human condition

death, human existence, and the question of God

French psychoanalyst who first identified the “mirror” stage– Stated that as infants, humans become fascinated with their own images in mirrors– However, infants are unaware that mirrors are not everywhere– Therefore, they believe every person is a reflection of themselves, eventually creating a devastating break

Philip Larkin

W.H. Auden

Stevie Smith

Ford Maddox Ford

Seamus Heaney

Margaret Atwood