Download Modernism 1900

Modernism 1900 - 1950
“I had a world, and it slipped away
from me. The War blew up more than
bodies of men… It blew ideas away –”
Sherwood Anderson in a letter
To his son, 1929
Before the Great War (1914) Einstein formulates his theory of
relativity – 1905
Sigmund Freud lectures on
Psychoanalysis – 1909
The Titanic sinks after striking
an iceberg - 1912
World War I begins –1914
The Great War – a Bloodbath and a
Destroyer of Innocence
The machine gun was
invented in 1914.
More than 500,000
soldiers were killed in
10 months alone.
Though fought under the
banners of democratic
righteousness and
humanity, WWI was
a bloodbath.
Historical Events That Led to
Destruction of an “Ideal”
• 1929
The U.S. stock market crashes, leading
to the Great Depression.
• 1933
Adolf Hitler comes to power in
Germany
• 1933
Three years of severe drought create
the Great Dust Bowl across three states, and
America’s farmers and the people struggle.
The Great Dust Bowl
As If Those Years Were not Enough:
• U.S. is attacked at Pearl Harbor in 1941.
• Allies move against German forces on D-Day –
1944
• U.S. explodes an atom bomb over Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, Japan. Japan surrenders –
1945.
• Korean War begins in 1950.
America Rapidly Lost Her Innocence
• Idealism was turning to cynicism.
America’s sense of connection to her past seemed to
be deteriorating.
American writers were beginning to question the
authority of the past and tradition.
• A disillusionment with tradition that seemed
spiritually empty called for bold
experimentation and a wholesale rejection of
traditional themes and styles.
Writers of the Modern Period
• Placed an emphasis on bold experimentation in style
and form, reflecting the fragmentation of society.
• Rejected traditional themes and subjects.
• Had a deep sense of disillusionment and loss of faith
in the American dream.
• Rejected the traditional ideal of a hero in favor of a
hero who is flawed and disillusioned but shows “grace
under pressure.”
• Emphasized the inner workings of the human mind by
using new and unusual narrative techniques to “tell a
story”