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Unit 5: The Modern Temper

American Modernism

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"That's not it at all, that's not what I meant at all" —from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," by T. S. Eliot

•         The English novelist Virginia Woolf declared that human nature underwent a fundamental change "on or about December 1910."

•         The statement testifies to the modern writer's fervent desire to:

–         break with the past

–        reject literary traditions that seemed outmoded

–        Reject diction that seemed too genteel to suit an era of technological breakthroughs and global violence.

"On or about 1910"

•         The automobile and airplane were beginning to accelerate the pace of human life.

•          Einstein's ideas were transforming our perception of the universe.


Characteristics of Modernism

  • Marked by a strong and intentional break with tradition. This break includes a strong reaction against established religious, political, and social views.
  • Belief that the world is created in the act of perceiving it; that is, the world is what we say it is.
  • There is no such thing as absolute truth. All things are relative.
  • No connection with history or institutions. Their experience is that of alienation, loss, and despair.
  • Championship of the individual and celebration of inner strength.
  • Life is unordered.
  • Concerned with the sub-conscious.

Ideas: Constructivism

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Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in.

•         Each of us generates our own “rules” and “mental models,” which we use to make sense of our experiences.

•         Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences.

Ideas: Futurism

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Futurism was an international art movement founded in Italy in 1909.

•         It was (and is) a refreshing contrast to the weepy sentimentalism of Romanticism.

•         The Futurists loved speed, noise, machines, pollution, and cities; they embraced the exciting new world that was then upon them rather than hypocritically enjoying the modern world’s comforts while loudly denouncing the forces that made them possible.

•         Fearing and attacking technology has become almost second nature to many people today; the Futurist manifestos show us an alternative philosophy.

Artists

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There was an explosion of innovation and creative energy that shook every field of artistic endeavor. Artists from all over the world converged on London, Paris, and other great cities of Europe to join in the ferment of new ideas and movements:

•         Cubism,

•         Constructivism,

•         Futurism,

•         Imagism

•         These were among the most influential banners under which the new artists grouped themselves. It was an era when major artists were fundamentally questioning and reinventing their art forms:
    - Matisse and Picasso in painting
    - James Joyce and Gertrude Stein in literature
    - Isadora Duncan in dance
    - Igor Stravinsky in music
    - Frank Lloyd Wright in architecture.

Imagists

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 The Imagist movement included English and American poets in the early twentieth century who wrote free verse and were devoted to "clarity of expression through the use of precise visual language.

A strand of modernism, Imagism was officially launched in 1912 when Ezra Pound read and marked up a poem by Hilda Doolittle, signed it "H.D. Imagiste," and sent it to Harriet Monroe at Poetry.

Henri Matisse

Cubism: An early 20th-century style and movement in art, esp. painting, in which perspective with a single viewpoint was abandoned and use was made of simple geometric shapes, interlocking planes, and, later, collage. It was created by Picasso and Braque.

Igor Stravinsky in Music

Modern: The Rite of Spring

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synopsis: Part I: the adoration of the earth. The curtain rises to reveal young men and women in separate groups. Their surroundings are primitive and dominated by the dark forces of nature. At first the dances are light hearted but they slowly change to have more aggressive and savage movements. The young men take possession of the women and carry them offstage. A fight ensues until a wise old man makes peace. There is a stunned silence, then the men throw themselves on the ground in worship, rise again, and start an even more frenzied dance.

Part II: the sacrifice. The young women are standing on the stage near a fire, one of them will be chosen as a sacrifice to the earth. The chosen one stands alone and still in the middle of the stage after a mystic dance, and the young members of the tribe gather around her and dance in a "crescendo or brutal excitement." Finally the chosen one joins them and the dancing grows more and more violent until it climaxes and the chosen maiden falls exhausted and dies. The men then carry her over to the sacred stone and fall prostrate. The rite is over.

It is well known that on the opening night of this ballet it was "greeted by riotous disapproval." From the beginning there were whistles and boos, which was soon countered by applause. Eventually the audience became uncontrollable, some members actually came to blows, and although the company did finish the ballet, it was very difficult to do so because the dancers could barely hear the orchestra. What upset the audience so much was not only that Nijinsky had "turned the conventions of ballet inside out" but he had dealt with the subject of barbarism, a subject that the world was not yet ready to deal with.

Traditional: Swan Lake

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Swan Lake SYNOPSIS
Act I
Scene I: Deep in a Dark Wood
Odette, a young maiden, is in the forest.  The evil knight Rothbart appears and captures her, turning her into a white swan.  She is cursed to remain a swan during the day, and a maiden at night.


Act I
Scene II: A Royal Hunt at the Edge of the Wilderness

Later, the young Prince Siegfried and his entourage arrive in the forest and set up camp, celebrating the day’s hunt.  The Queen calls her son aside and reminds him that tomorrow is an important day.  She introduces him to four eligible young princesses, but he is distant and uninterested.  The Queen sternly warns him that this is the last night of his youth and that he must soon take on the responsibility of adulthood.  Upset, Siegfried decides to leave the camp and venture out into the woods alone. 


Act I
Scene III: In the Forest

Deep in the forest that evening along the edge of the lake, Siegfried sees a young maiden.  She is beautiful, and he falls instantly in love.  However, she is terrified, and begs him to leave, to no avail.  Charmed by his bravery, Odette finds herself falling in love with him.  As the sun begins to rise, the evil knight Rothbart summons Odette.  She goes to him and is transformed into a swan and flies away.  Soon thereafter, a large flock of swans lands on the lake.  Siegfried’s friend and some hunters from the royal party see the flock and prepare to shoot, but the Prince intervenes and orders them to leave.  Siegfried notices that one of the swans is Odette and he professes his love to her.


Act II
The Ballroom of the Castle

The next night, the Queen hosts a ball and presents eligible princesses to her son, but the Prince pays little attention.  Suddenly, Rothbart and a maiden dressed in black arrive.  It is Odile.  She is the mirror image of Odette.  The Prince is smitten with the mysterious woman in black and begs his mother to consider the new arrival.  Siegfried and Odile dance and he proclaims his love for her.  The Prince tells his mother that he wants to marry Odile.  Just then, Siegfried sees Odette in the crowd.  She is horrified by the betrayal and runs out.  The prince runs to Odile and realizes that she is one of Rothbart’s swans and that he has been fooled.  The devastated prince chases Rothbart as he flees the court.

Act III
By the Lake in the Forest

The Prince arrives at the edge of the lake in the forest and begs the distraught Odette for forgiveness.  The sun comes up and the maidens turn back into swans in the morning mist.  Before long, Rothbart and his black swans appear and he summons all of the swans, including Odette.  The Prince, desperate to be with his love, grabs his crossbow to kill Rothbart. The Prince shoots, but his arrow hits Odette instead.  Rothbart holds Odette in his arms but when she falls, she is a maiden.  The spell Rothbart cast on Odette is broken, and the Prince runs to her.  Odette, as a woman, dies in the Prince’s arms.  He picks up her body and walks into the lake, drowning himself.  Young maidens appear from the forest, forever changed.


Concepts about War

WWI: The War to End all Wars

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"Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

1.

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

2.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

3.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

4.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

5.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

6.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made,
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.

Copied from Poems of Alfred Tennyson,
J. E. Tilton and Company, Boston, 1870

"Dulce et Decorum Est"
by Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! — An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime. --
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
Bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, --
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Notes on Dulce et Decorum Est 1.  Most popular poem of WWI

2. DULCE ET DECORUM EST - the first words of a Latin saying (taken from an ode by Horace). The words were widely understood and often quoted at the start of the First World War. They mean "It is sweet and right." The full saying ends the poem: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - it is sweet and right to die for your country. In other words, it is a wonderful and great honor to fight and die for your country.

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