Modernism

1
Modernism

• 1900 1950
• Stephanie Ormston
• Claire Nolan
• Elisa Bucur

2
Timeline

• 1903 First Successful Flight by the Wright
  Brothers
• 1905 Einstein develops theory of relativity
• 1908 Ford produces first Model T
• 1912 Titanic
• 1917 America Enters WWI
• 1918 WWI Ends
• 1920 Prohibition Begins
• 1920 19th Amendment Passed
• 1929 The Great Depression
• 1933 21st Amendment Passed
• 1941 America Enters WWII
• 1945 End of WWII

3
1900 - 1909

• This decade marked the beginning of the
  Progressive movement. New political movements
  including socialist, suffrage, labor and
  municipal reform parties formed, with their own
  progressive ideas.

• The Wright brothers attempted and succeeded at
  their first flight in 1903, and Albert Einstein
  developed his theory of relativity in 1905.

4
1910 - 1919

• The Titanic sinks in 1912, but the main focus of
  this decade was WWI. The United States
  officially entered in 1917, and the war ended in
  1919. This forced people to make sacrifices in
  their lives, and for women to step up and join
  the work force. Our economy increased because of
  war production, and greatly boosted our army.
• Prohibition officially began in 1919, as a
  prelude to the roaring 20s.

5
1920 1929

• The Roaring 20s was a time of great prosperity
  and rebellion. The Jazz Age, Harlem Renaissance,
  Flappers, bootlegging, speakeasies, and high
  spirits ruled the decade.
• Organized crime, with Al Capone at its head,
  began to rise.
• Women won the right to vote with the passing of
  the 19th Amendment in 1920.
• More economic freedoms and ideas got more
  Americans to invest in the stock market, buy on
  margin, and use credit, which led to the Great
  Depression of 1929.

6
1930 - 1939

• The major concern of the 1930s was surviving the
  Great Depression. It affected every American,
  because thousands were left without jobs, without
  money, and without a place to call home. Once
  prosperous cities were turned into shanty-towns
  (called Hoovervilles after President Hoover).
  This also affected the world economy, causing
  depressions across the globe. Anxiety and
  suicide rates rose.
• The 21st Amendment was passed in 1933, and made
  alcohol legal once again.

7
1940 - 1949

• Japan attacks Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. With
  the beginning of the War the Great Depression has
  officially ended, while it does not mean the end
  of financial suffering for many families, it does
  create many jobs for men and women alike.
  Communist threat reaches the US, and the end of
  the decade signals the beginning of the Red
  Scare. Conservative family ideals return to the
  home, in contrast to the radical movements of the
  earlier decades.

8
Literature

• The main themes behind Modernist literature was a
  break away from the traditional New England
  Puritan ideals.
• After WWI, two new intellectual trends, Marxism
  (Karl Marx) and psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud)
  became popular, and they increased pressure on
  the traditional beliefs and values.
• One result of the fascination with the psyche was
  called stream of consciousness. This literary
  technique, used by William Faulkner among others,
  was supposed to imitate the moment-by-moment flow
  of a characters perceptions and memories, and
  abandon chronology.

9
More Literature

• Modernist poetry was heavily influenced by
  developments in Europe, and in the same way
  painters Picasso and Matisse were painting new
  ways to represent reality, so were poets. T.S.
  Eliot and Ezra Pound utilized Imagism and
  Symbolism to test new ways of seeing and
  thinking.
• Other poets including Robert Frost and Edgar Lee
  Masters used traditional verse forms to show
  different characters of Americans.
• Langston Hughes is one of the most well known
  poets that helped advance the Harlem Renaissance.
  This poetry based its rhythms on spirituals and
  jazz, and used street talk as opposed to formal
  speech.

10
Elements of Modernism

• Emphasis on bold experimentation in style and
  form, reflecting the fragmentation of society
• Rejection of traditional themes and subjects
• Sense of disillusionment and loss of faith in the
  American Dream
• Rejection of the ideal of a hero as infallible,
  in favor of a hero who is flawed and
  disillusioned but shows grace under pressure
• Interest in the inner workings of the human mind,
  sometimes expressed through new narrative
  techniques such as stream of consciousness