Modernism context

• Virginia Woolf claimed that human nature underwent a fundamental change 'on or about December 1910'. Modern writers desired to break with the past and reject literary traditions that seemed outdated, in order to suit an era or technological breakthroughs and global violence.
• 18th century Enlightenment - based on the belief that there was a scientific, rational reason for existence in the universe created by God.

  • certain absolute truths
  • reliable language
  • secure set of rules
• Late 18th - early 19th century Romanticism - emphasis on emotional and imaginative spontaneity and the importance of self-expression.

  • almost religious response to nature
  • capacity for wonder through a sense of the sublime
• 19th century Victorian era - realism appealed to the contemporary appetite for complex narrative which explored and answered issues of an evolving society
• Factors that led to Modernism

  • values and norms that shaped the Western world were challenged
  • religious certainty diminished and faith broke down after the horrors of the First World War from 1914-1918
  • increased political activism due to class divisions, extreme poverty, and social unrest
  • economic collapse increased the gap between the 'haves' and 'have-nots'
  • decreased respect for authority
• Modernism reflects a sense of cultural crisis which was both exciting and disquieting. Marked by experimentation, manipulation of form, and the realisation that knowledge is not absolute, it opened a whole new vista of human possibilities.
• Modernist themes

  • breakdown of social norms and cultural certainties
  • Dislocation of meaning and sense
  • Exploration of a despairing individual dealing with an unmanageable future
  • Disillusionment
  • Rejection of history and chronology
  • Product of the metropolis of cities and urbanscapes
  • Stream of consciousness
• 'Make it new'