What is Modernism

Describing Modernism
What We Know
Well, as far as I can tell, no one really knows what Modernism is. There is no specific definitive description for Modernism, mainly because the practice was very different in each area of interest and also because the artists who built and defined Modern did so as a means of exclusion (Levenson 1). Therein lies an essentially problematic definition for Post-Modernism, but that is a blog for another time.

The Basics
Modernism occurs in many different countries between 1890 and 1939, which is the beginning of World War II. (For our purposes, I will limit myself to Europe and the United States.) It penetrates various aspects of study, performance, and art, each in a unique way. In general, Modernism describes the reaction to traditional forms, ideas, and styles in art (philosophy, film, literature, paintings, pottery, décor, etc.) and architecture. Even Modernist literature—poetry, novel, and drama—is not altogether identical, with respect to technique, purpose, effect, etc. Nevertheless, there are some overarching congruencies.

Themes
Unlike l’art pour l’art and the Decadence Movement, Modernism is a reaction against all oppressive forces. For Modernists, the tyrant wears many masks—that of the “the Editor, the Lady, the Public, the Banker, the Democrat” (Levenson 2) and Modernists writers use creativity to inflict riotous violence upon these oppressors.

Strategies
In order to transform restrictive political, social, domestic, and religious foundations, Modernist writers commonly use a few particular strategies in their writing: fragmentation, “mythic paradigms,” subverting traditional standards of beauty, and “radical linguistic experiment” (Levenson 3). Fragmenting aspects of literature and pictorial art deals with establishing oppositions within the art.

Modernists also focus on technique for both the piece of art and everything associated with that particular piece of art. They ask, “How does this part represent the whole?” For example, what does the cover illustration say about the book? How do the stage curtains propel or hinder the message of a play?

Irony is also heavily relied upon in Modernist literature. Text such as Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler attest to the ampleness of irony in the literature and the intention of uncovering and exaggerating some widely accepted but actually ridiculous contemporary occurrence.

Subjects
Modernist writers often write with the goal of “social modernization” or social reform in mind, so central subjects in Modern literature are commonly industry, war, women’s rights, Irish equality, imperialism, labor conditions, relativism, and fakery (Levenson 4). In their work, one will also find heavy political angst, a sense of alienation, debase morality, nihilism and cynical questioning of religion, morals, government, certain individuals, the self, and humanity.

Mood
Radical

Intent
Modernist writers intended to “startle and disturb the public” (Levenson 3) in order to invoke a crisis. They wanted to move other artists to adopt their belief system, move the public to strong discontentment with current affairs, and to cause a reevaluation of social, political, domestic, and religious conditions.


Who’s Who of Modern Artists
Literature
Samuel Beckett
James Joyce
Andre Gide
Franz Kafka
Gertrude Stein

Visual Art
Pablo Picasso
Henri Matisse
Paul Klee
Edvard Munch
Jacob Epstein

Philosophy/Science
Albert Einstein
Sigmund Freud
Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen
Guglielmo Marconi

Music
Gustave Mahler
Arnold Schonberg
Frederic Francois Chopin
Giacomo Puccini

Performance Art
Igor Stravinsky

Film
Edwin S. Porter
Cecil B. de Mille
D.W. Griffith
Robert Weine
Charles Chaplin



A Brief Timeline

I. OLD AND MIDDLE ENGLISH
a. Ovid
b. Chaucer
c. Renaissance
d. Shakespeare
II. NEOCLASSICAL
a. Restoration and the 18th Century
b. Milton
c. Johnson
III. ROMANTIC
a. Blake
b. Keats
IV. VICTORIAN
a. Bronte
b. Whitman
V. MODERN
a. Contemporary Literature
b. Harlem Renaissance
c. Avant-Garde
d. Wilde
e. Chekhov
f. Woolf
g. Eliot
VI. POST-MODERN