Modernism (roughly WWI-WWII):
- slogan = “Make it new!”
- felt that old generation had betrayed them
- need to find universal truth so that WWI never happens again
- new forms of narrative:
- unreliable narrators
- multiple narrators
- minor characters as 1st person narrators-e.g. The Great Gatsby
- nonlinear narrative
- stream of consciousness
- important artists:
- Pablo Picasso: cubism
- superimposition: laid all point of views in one face
- illustrated modernists’ ideal: don’t want to force a truth; want to acknowledge all point of views
- layering effect
- Hemingway: reconstructed emotions
- audience is forced to figure out relationships
- artists were very skeptical of the media
- old generation didn’t accurately reflect reality
- therefore, new generation must break old rules and create new ones
Postmodernism (roughly WWII-present):
- what caused modernism to let go wasn’t solely WWII
- war created new, angry generation
- real influence = TV
- this is also why modernism ends later in
- can instantly switch point of views
- instant access to different point of views
- individual control of point of view
- postmodernism = modernism – universal truth + irony
- cultural erosion: anything can be true
- no new invention of the rules
- all truth is local
- blending of high and low culture-e.g. opera about Elvis
- self-reference: pretense that mediated world exists in the same way that our world exists
- characters from that world can cross over to our world
- character in a book can talk about being in a book
- characters can move from medium to medium
- simulacrum (Jean Beaudrillard):
- mimic something so much that the copy becomes the real thing; the real thing doesn’t exist anymore
- real thing gets replaced
- e.g.: Wild West shows-simulacrum of the Old West-circle of innocent settlers gallop around and around when confronted with Native Americans
- surrealism: movement in the arts between WWI and WWII
- unexpected juxtapositions in ways intended to activate subconscious associations that highlight truths hidden from us when we are trapped in linear, “logical” patterns of thought
- psychological “though processes” rather than logical ones
- attempts to join worlds of dream and fantasy to create “larger” reality
- bizarre
- Freud and Jung
- everyone has the same reaction to things-just may not be able to articulate it exactly
“The Hollow Men” (T.S. Eliot):
- important Biblical allusions/details
- 5 o’clock is the traditional time that Jesus rises from the dead
- multifoliate rose = traditional reference to Christ
- three Kingdoms are a reference to the circles of Hell?
- or does each Kingdom symbolize a different place? Purgatory vs. Hell vs. Heaven?
- the Hollow Men are stuck in Purgatory
- eyes are important-same eyes from the cover of The Great Gatsby?
- Men can’t meet eyes of God, broken jaw, valley of death-all these details added together symbolize erosion of religion?
- other points of discussion:
- reference to Guy Fawkes: failed gunpowder plot
- Hollow Men are stuck; can’t carry out plans
- Kurtz isn’t a hollow man because at least he has the guts to conduct his acts of violence
- repeated mentions of sterility
- again, represents inability to complete things
- shows how sterile modern life has become
- Mistah Kurtz = very specific moment-Why is this important?
- Hollow Men can’t meet the eyes of something-Kurtz? God?
- those who have passed into death aren’t afraid of the eyes
- the Hollow Men are avoiding judgment
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (T.S. Eliot):
- What’s the big question that he won’t share at the beginning?
- It leads to some kind of truth-but what truth?
- this is a question we never actually answered in our discussion…
- repeated mentions of baldness: symbolizes his fear of aging
- many sharp images of sterility
- yellow fog is like a faithful hound
- this links the industrial world directly to him
- emphasizing the staleness of the modern world
- many references to women’s body parts
- peach reference
- poem emphasizes the narrator’s indecision
- comparison to Hamlet: infamous for indecision
Overall Connections:
- The assertion that everyone has the same reaction to things in surrealism reminds me of archetypal and mythological criticism. Essentially, both argue that human beings have the same raw feelings as each other; they just might express those feelings differently.
- It’s really funny how different the “Love Song” reads now than from when I tried to read it in
- “Into the Woods” is a good example of postmodernism; it pulls characters from my different stories into one play: eclectic
- “Bride and Prejudice” reminded me a little bit of the modern version of Romeo and Juliet. I quite enjoyed that movie. :)
- Self-reference reminds me of the moving portraits in Harry Potter. xD
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