The
modernist movement emerged in the mid 19th century in France. The
modernist believed that traditional forms of art, literature, social organization
and daily life had become outdated. They thought that it was necessary to
change all these. The Modern Movement argued that the new realities of the 20th
century were permanent. They believed that people should accept that what was
new was also good and beautiful.
(1) Precursors to Modernism:-
During
the first half of the 19th century there were wars and revolutions
in Europe since then the doctrine of ‘Romanticism’ was formed. It focused on
‘subjectivity’, ‘nature’. Revolutionary expression and individual liberty. By
mid century a synthesis of these ideas came. It suggested that what was ‘real’
dominated over what was subjective. Modernism believed that no idea was really
absolute.
Then
there were a series of ideas, e.g. Romantic school, pre-raphelite movement,
Rationalism, existentialism. All these separate reactions came tighter and
offered a challenge to any ideas of certainty.
After
1870 the idea, of ‘progress of history and civilization’ was questioned.
Critics believed that society could not move forward in its present form. Two
thinkers were emerging in biology it was Charles Darwin and in political science
it was Karl Mark. In arts and letters two ideas had particular impact. The
first was ‘Impressionism’. It was a school of painting that focused on work
done not in studies but outdoors. The second school was symbolism. They
believed that language is symbolic its nature.
At
the same time social, political and economic forces were leading for a
different kind of art and thinking.
(2) The Beginning of Modernism (1890-1910) : -
Modernism
began in France with Baudelaire and Flaubert in literature and manet in
painting. The thinkers asserted that it was necessary to change previous norms
entirely. In the first fifteen years of the 20th century, a series
of writers, thinkers and artists made the break with traditional methods of
literature, painting and music. Sigmund Freud offered the idea of unconscious
mind and Carl Jung added substance int. The modernist writers had a distrust of
Victorian positivism and certainly. Instead they championed irrational thought
process. The Modernist preferred reformation for previous artistic norms, and
new technique and new theory. This search for simplification of diction was
found in the work of Joseph Conrad. Leading modern writer were D.H. Lawrence, Virginia
woolf, James Joyes, William Faulkner, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens,
Max Jacob, Paul Reverdy, Gertrude stein,, Wyndham Lewis, William Carlos,
Williams, Franz Kafka etc. At first the modernism was called ‘avant-garde it
described ‘break from tradition’.
(3) The explosion of modernism (1910-1930)
Just
near the time of World War I number of writer simplified or rejected previous practice.
Modernism while it was still ‘progressive saw traditional forms and traditional
social arrangements as hindering progress. There for the artist was considered
as revolutionary, overthrowing rather than enlighting. An example of this trend
was to be found in Futurism. Thus in 1920 and increasingly after, modernism
came to definite age. There were shift form the earlier phase. Exhibition,
theotre cinema, books and building all showed that the words war changing.
(4) Modernism in Literature:-
Modernism
has no precise boundaries. At its strictest the period runs form 1890-1920. The
themes of Modernism began well back in the 19th century. Many did
not reach fruition until this period seems challenging. Writing of the
Modernist period exhibits these features.
(A) Experimentation:-
Modernists
believed that previous writing was stereotyped and inadequate.
There
were many technical innovations, sometimes for its own sake.
There
were originality. There was deviation There was deviation form the norm or from
usual reader expectation.
There
was rejection of the past.
(B) Anti- Realism:-
Modernist
writers gave preference for allusion (often private) rather than description.
World
seen thought the artists inner feelings and mental states.
Themes
chosen to question the conventional view.
Use
of myth and unconscious force rather than motivations of conventional plot.
(C) Individualism:-
Promotion
of the artist’s view point.
Cultivation
of an individual consciousness.
Break
away from religion, nature, science, economy or social mechanism.
Maintenance
of a cautious intellectual independence.
Belief
that artist and not society should judge the arts, leading to extreme self consciousness.
Search
for the primary image devoid of comment; stream of consciousness.
Exclusiveness
an aristocracy of the avant-garde.
(D) Intellectualism:-
Writing
more cerebral than emotional.
Tentative
work, analytical and fragmentary, more posing questions more than answering
them.
Cool
observation; viewpoints and characters detached and depersonalized.
Open
ended work not finished now aiming at formal perfection.
Involuted
the subject is often act of writing itself and not the references.
(5) Second Generation of Modernism (1930-1945):-
By
1930 there was increasing urbanization of population. It had started challenging
previous art and ideas. Modernism was developing a self conscious theory of its
own importance. Another strong influence at this time was Marxism. Bertolt
Brecht, Auden etc are examples of this Modern Marxism. The other modernists
were Wyndham Lewis, W.B. Yeats, Arnold Schoenberg, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound etc.
(6) Modernism after the Second World War (1945- ):-
This
period is often described as ‘High Modernism. It began to face a series of
crisis points. Artistic and Philosophical and progress became more problematic.
Some artists accepted this challenges and the result was ‘experimentation’.
(7) The Modern Criticism:-
The
Victorian Era in literature came to a close with the death of Queen Victoria in
1901. The age of experiments and adventure started. Criticism displayed a rich
variety of trends. In the beginning it was subjective and impressionistic. In
the beginning it was subjective and impressionistic. Chief among the impressionistic
critics have been Arthur Symons and J.M. Spingarm. Spingarm defined the
function in the presence of a work of art and to express them. The
psychological school of criticism regarded all literary creation as the
manifestation of the artist’s psychological aberrations. It illuminates a
writer’ work by significant details in his psychic life. The sociological school
of criticism mainly stress milieu and its cross currents and views a writer and
him work as their by products. Eliot says that the psychological and the
sociological are probably to two best advertise varieties of modern criticism.
The problems of criticism are approached in number of ways, so it is confusing
also.
(8) Two Directions:-
Modern
criticism has mainly proceeded in two dictions (1) It has created certain new critical
cannon and discarded the old ones. (2) It has achieved remarkable progress in
the direction of the revolution of the past writers. It has praised the greatness
of certain El4izabethan revived some Augustan from obscurity has re established
the importance of the metaphysical poets like Donne and has viewed the
Victorians in truer perspective.
Modern
criticism can be defined as the organized use of non- literary techniques and
bodies of knowledge to obtain insight into literature. In modern literary
criticism there are various modes and techniques.
(9) An Important Features of 20th Century
Criticism:-
An
important feature of 20th century criticism is that each critic
tends to have a master metaphor in terms of which he sees the critical
function. This metaphor then shapes, informs and sometime limits his work. R.P.
Blackmur considers a critic as a magical surgeon who operated without cutting
living tissue. Constance Rourke considers a critic as manure spreader,
fertilizing the ground for a good crop. For Ezra pound he is a patient man showing
a friend thought his library. Critics own intelligence, knowledge skill,
sensibility and ability to write also becomes helpful. No method is fool prof
and almost every techniques of modern criticism is used brilliantly by
brilliant critics.
(10) Expressionism:-
The
word ‘Expressionism’ was applied to avant-garde literature, graphics,
architecture etc in Germany in 1910-25. It was established as literary term
during 1913. Expressionism is uniform movement working toward well defined end.
Most generally it started from a personal rejection of paternalism. It then
moved to an aesthetic reaction against the representational and descriptive art
of late Romanticism. Expressionist poetry is marked by a self seerrender to irrationality
Thus
modernist believed that by rejecting tradition they could discover new ways of
marking art.
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