Modernism

Characteristics of Modernism

• A strong break with all things traditional, including religious, political and social structure.  During the war period (1920-1950 roughly), many writers/artists in the civilized world as a whole became very skeptical of whatever institutions had brought the world to the brink of ruin. If you’ve ever seen a picture of the bombed out London or Germany, you can see why their world looked like a wasteland. So the literature of the period reflects this distrust of traditional mores, religion, etc.
• A belief that the world is what we think it is. Since there seemed to be no one at the helm of the world gone crazy, then who’s to say that anyone knows more than an individual person what is real?
• There is no such thing as absolute truth. All things are relative. Again, if religion fails us, the government fails us, and society fails us, then what do we believe?
• A feeling of alienation, loss, and despair. So, of course, there is despair. What is more terrible than believing that we are all out in the world or universe alone, with no real boundaries or rules and no one to believe in?
• Belief in the individual and the strength of the individual. Thus, the individual and his/her own thoughts become the only reality that can be relied on.
• The world is random and disordered.  The political structure of Europe had brought Hitler to power, after all. So, in response, they believed that any artistic work or fiction that imposed an unrealistic structure or even structure at all was pretentious and untrustworthy. Some of the artistic works and poems appear to be fragments.
• Interest in the subconscious mind, psychology. If reality lies in the mind and individual, then the operations on the mind, whether subconscious or conscious, maybe our best way to find a context for reality.