Modernism

Modernism is an art form which began in Europe  in the late 1800s and found its footing in America around the end of World War I.  With change comes uncertainty, and with the growth of industrialism, technology, and global conflict, people began to question their societal norms and previously determined way people were supposed to think and live.  Often considered the "Lost Generation", those returning from WWI (and their families) were disenchanted with the government, having witnessed or been affected by 40 million wounded or killed soldiers and civilians.  In response to a society reeling from the war, previous ideologies about living virtuously and "in control" and the American Dream, artists produced pieces that rejected standard ethics and behavior.

(Source: CHS Eagles English, YouTube)

Political and Social Changes 

  • 1914: WW I begins (Archduke Ferdinand assassinated)
  • 1917: Russian Revolution breaks out; U. S. enters WW I
  • 1918: Armistice declared in WW I (stopping the fighting)
  • 1920: 19th Amendment to Constitution gives women right to vote; 18th amendment prohibiting manufacture, sale, and importation of alcoholic drinks goes into effect (Prohibition)
  • 1925: Scopes Tennessee Evolution trial (debating whether schools can teach evolution).
  • 1927: Charles Lindbergh flies solo across the Atlantic
  • 1929: Stock Market crashes, beginning the Great Depression
  • 1933: Prohibition Repealed
  • 1936: Spanish Civil War begins
  • 1939: Hitler invades Czechoslovakia and Poland (starts WW II)
  • 1941: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor (beginning U.S. involvement in WW II)
  • 1945: Germany and Japan surrender; WW II over.

Characteristics and Themes

This was a time marked by breaks from traditional ways of viewing the world. In a world following WWI, nothing seemed certain and this sense of unpredictability resulted in artists searching for new ways to understand truth.  The idea that there was a higher being in control was cynically denied and there became an occupation with self and inwardness and an acceptance that life could be altered at any moment for any reason.

Characteristics of Modernism

  • Promoted Experimentation and Individualism
  • A Breaking with Traditional Modes of Form 
  • Attack on the notions of hierarchy/class/race
  • Preoccupation with Inner Self and Consciousness
  • Disillusionment and Loss of Innocence and Faith
  • Rejection of the Ideal Hero and Replaced with the Realistic Flawed Hero
  • "Unreliable" Narrator in Many Novels
  • Rejects linear time "plot" for stream-of-consciousness

Common Themes

  • Violence and Alienation
  • Unavoidable Change
  • Death
  • Rejection of History
  • Race Relations

American Modernist Novelists