What do you understand by the term Modernism? What do you think does it mean to be modern in early 20th century? Do you think that some of these principles are relevant today in your life? How?
Answer:
The term Modernism is widely used to identify new and distinctive feature of the forms, concept and styles of literature and other arts of the present century. The general trend of modernism was in the methods, styles and philosophy of artists involving a break with the tradition of the past and a search for new modes of expressions. It is frequently applied to the literature written since the beginning of the World War in 1914. This half century has been one of the outstanding periods in English and American literature. It has produced major achievements in all the literary genres. It includes the poets like W.B. Yeats, Frost, T.S. Eliot, Wallace, Stevens, Auden, Robert Graves, Robert Lowell and Dylan Thomas; the novelists like Joseph Conrad, Joyce, Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, Ernest Hemmingway, E.Scott, E. Scott, Fitzerald and William Faulkner; the dramatists like G.B.Shaw, Sean O'Casey, Eugene O’Neill, Tenesse William and Samual Beckett, F.R.Levis, Lionel Trilling and the American new critics.
Modernism’s roots if we look at its theoretical background are in the rapid changing technology of late 19th century and in the theories of the late 19th century thinkers’ such as Karl Marks, Sigmund Freud, Darwin and Friedrich Nietzsche. Certain writers in different fields did change the world in the sense at least of massively altering people's most fundamental interpretations of 'reality'. They are not all from the same generations, but all were born in the nineteenth century and for a short time their lives overlapped around 1800, at the threshold of the artistic revolutions that would be collected under the heading of the Modernism.
From a Marxist's point of view Modernist art grew out of a European loss of communal identity, out of alienating capitalism and constant industrial acceleration. Marx's 'Das Capital' analyses the class structure and distribution of wealth in a given society and in a society a certain class i.e. bourgeoisie accumulate wealth through exploiting the proletariat. A society is defined by its mode of production- the way it produces wealth, calculates capitals and labor and controls ideological formations. The understanding of the nineteenth century shifts from country to city, land to factory, individual to mass-production can best be arrive at in terms of the influence of Marx's analysis of history, politics and society. Modernism has repeatedly been characterized as a literature of crises and it is Marx who places crises at the centre of capitalist development. Marx sees capitalism as driven to creation and recreative destruction, renewal, innovation and constant change which are also the dynamics of Modernism.
Darwin's Theory of Evolution based on his scientific findings, published in 'The Origin of Species' in 1859. Darwin strikes at the very root of Biblical myth of creation by claiming that species survive due to adaptability, natural selection and the principle of survival of the fittest. He further denies Biblical history by showing that evolution is a long process spanning millions of years, shows humanity not to be special creation of God, but an evolved species like all other animals.
Sigmund Freud develops his own views on psychoanalysis and the importance of infantile sexuality. In 1900 he published 'The Interpretations of Dreams' which argued that dreams were the product of repressed desires akin to neurosis. He divides the human consciousness into three points: id(unconscious),ego(conscious) and the superego(social and cultural consciousness). The libidinal desires are repressed by the ego and superego remains in the id, the id is governed by the reality principle. To normalize pressure id takes help of the processes of condensation, displacement and symbolism.
Fredriech Nietzsche in his various philosophical writings claims that humans are driven by the will to power and this denies the Christian values of compassion and pity. He also claims that the human spirit is governed by the contrary pulls of Apollonian and Dionysian instincts in his book 'The Birth of Tragedy'(1899). He also declares the death of God in 'Thus Spake Zarthustra'(1895) and foresees the birth of Superman.
The great destruction of the war left human kind nearly broken. Man lost his faith in God. It brought about the demise of many institutions and beliefs in the class system, rocked by the rise of trade unions and the labor party, beliefs in King and Country, patriotism and duty were betrayed by the carnage of the war. The strength of patriarchy was challenged as women went to work outside the home and the suffrage movement gained hold. The war produced a deep distrust of optimistic, secular or teleological understanding of history and seemed a climactic, severing that showed conclusively the failures of 19th century rationalism. The war was a defining moment in terms of both society and the individual. The suffering of the war destroyed man's interest in life. Everything seemed dark and hopeless to the man after war. Man became pessimistic and negative. Man became tense. This was the general picture of the entire Europe. In literature, Modernism came into being to picture the said tendency.
"The application of the term 'Modernism' of course varies with the passage of time, but it is frequently applied specifically to literature written since the beginning of World War 1 in 1914 said M.H.Abrahams in 'The Glossary of Literary Terms'.
What is it to be modern in early 20th century? To answer this question we would have to look at some of the features of Modernism.
1. The break with tradition:
The modernist’s art is in most critical usage reckoned to be the art to what Harold Rosenberg calls 'the tradition of the new'. Coming of the new age was discernible from the changes in tradition. Modernism was completely new cultural movement. In literature it put an end to textual continuity. In music it put an end to harmony and in painting, perspective. Thus the break with tradition was deliberate. The doctrine of Ezra Pound gave the initial thrust to major changes in poetry. Several avant-garde poets created new awareness. Poets confidently went ahead in their eager quest for new forms and subject matter. Very broadly speaking, the vast majority of attempts to offer alternative modes of representation from the middle of the twentieth century have at one time or another been termed modernist and this applies to literature, music, painting, film and architecture.
2. New in subject matter:
The great achievement of Modernism was an extension of subject matter. The writer was free to select any mood or experience for the subject of his work. The modernist writers rejected the romantic conventions and tried to recreate new realities of human life. Modernist therefore struggled in Ezra Pound's brief phrase 'to make it new, to modify if not turn down existing modes of representation partly by pushing them towards the abstract or the introspective and to express the new sensibilities of their time: in a compressed, condensed complex literature of the city, of industry and technology, war, machinery and speed, mass markets and communication, of internationalism, the new woman, aesthete the nihilist'. Now the writers of the modern period shifted to themes of the city rather than the countryside.
3. Formal experimentation:
Long before 1918, it had become obvious that in poetry, in the novel and in drama the old traditional forms were outworn. Experimenters in all three fields were evolving new forms to sustain new demands of the time. It is experimental, formally complex, elliptical, contains elements of decreation as well as creation and tends to associate notions of the artist's freedom from materialism, traditional genre and form with notions of cultural apocalypse and disaster. In the drama, progress is most rapid and the novel too in the hands of great master undergoes revolutionary changes. In poetry, Ezra pound was a great innovator and a key player. He insisted upon research for the new forms and development. The enthusiastic pursuit of experiment led to important changes in poetic style.
4. Free style:
The rejection of traditional themes and structures was followed by a rejection of traditional verse patterns. In poetry, Modernism is associated with moves to break from the iambic pentameter as the basic unit of verse to introduce vers-libre, symbolism and other new forms of writing. The modernist favored free verse because it suited to the demands of the new party for directions, correctness and economy. Free verse was favored for more subtle effect. Watt Whitman had already shown what could be achieved through free verse between the first English and American poets. To write in free verse in 20th century were Hulme, Fletcher, Pound, Richard Aldinton and Amy Lowell.
5. Discontinuous poem:
The discontinuous poem is marked by the absence of linking phrase, lines or topics. It does not evolve gradually from part to part, but places desperate units of meaning one after another. Often these units of meaning are presented in elliptical fashion. The prototypes of discontinuous composition are Ezra Pound's "Hugh Selwyn Mauberly" and T.S.Eloit's "The Waste Land". The effect of discontinuous is complex.
6. The Renewal of Tradition:
Although Modernists rebelled against traditional concepts and practice, they were not quite blind to the value of traditional. While it was clear that one could not continue in the conventions of the 19th century, it was not neither possible to de-link the present from the past. As Eliot asserted in his prose criticism, individual's talent is constantly modifying tradition. Literary newness was therefore defined in terms of a relationship with the past. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' is the example of the renewal of the tradition.
These are the main features of the Modernism and some of these features or principles, I think, are relevant even today in our life. Modernism is not different from our life because the world, in which we are living, as everyone knows, is modern world. The various technological advances including the inventions of telephone, wireless, electricity, medical drugs, aero plane, photography, films etc. are very useful today in our life. So, this is a kind of renewal of tradition that was previously not available. Even we can see the overcrowding of cities due to mass migration from rural life to industrial towns. There is also nuclearisation of families and disappearance of the joint-economy system. There are even different institutions for demanding women's rights. Due to evolutions of the western culture, there is distinct change in human behavior and cultural thoughts. This change in art, technology, psychology or human behavior is called Modernism and we, in India are still a part of this development process.
