The Modern Period: 1900-1950

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The Modern Period1900-1950
Nighthawks, Edward Hopper, 1942.

• Make it new!
• - Ezra Pound

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The American Dream

• Three basic principles
• America is a new Eden, a promised land of
  beauty, unlimited resources, and endless
  opportunities.
• The American birthright is one of ever-expanding
  opportunity.
• Progress is a good thing, and we can
  optimistically expect life to keep getting better
  and better.
• The independent, self-reliant individual will
  triumph.
• Everything is possible for the person who places
  trust in his or her own powers and potential.

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THE AMERICAN DREAM, CONT.

• In your notes, write for five minutes,
  connecting these three basic principles of The
  American Dream to the concepts we wrote about
  for our bellringer.
• Begin!
• Now, lets share.

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Characteristics of Modernism

• Sense of disappointment and loss of faith in the
  American dream
• Rejection of traditional themes and subjects
• Rejection of the idea of a hero as perfect in
  favor of a hero who is flawed and disillusioned
  but shows grace under pressure

Nude Descending Staircase No.2, Marcel Duchamp,
1912.
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Characteristics of Modernism, cont.

• Interest in the inner workings of the human mind.
• Sometimes expressed through new narrative
  techniques such as stream of consciousness
• Emphasis on bold experimentation in style and
  form
• Examples

T.S. Eliot Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams
Used traditional forms to write about non-traditional themes. Used non-traditional forms to write about traditional and non-traditional themes.
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Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci, 1503.
The Blue Boy, Thomas Gainsborough, 1770.
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Rejection of Traditional Forms What is art?

• In 1917, Marcel Duchamp submitted the piece to
  the left (under the name R. Mutt) to an
  exhibition of art which proclaimed it would
  exhibit all artwork submitted.
• However, after a lengthy debate among the board
  members about whether or not the piece was art,
  they decided not to show the piece.

Fountain, Marcel Duchamp, 1917.
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Rejection of Traditional Forms What is art?

• Controversy arose from this decision.
• One publication wrote, Whether Mr Mutt made the
  fountain with his own hands or not has no
  importance. He CHOSE it. He took an article of
  life, placed it so that its useful significance
  disappeared under the new title and point of view
  created a new thought for that object (The
  Blind Man).

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Part One World War I The Jazz Age

• I had a world, and it slipped away from me. The
  War blew up more than the bodies of menIt blew
  ideas away
• - Sherwood Anderson

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Part OneWorld War I (1914-1918)
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Part OneWorld War I (1914-1918)
Dead Wounded Missing Total
USA 58,480 189,955 14,290 262,725
Britain 658,700 2,032,150 359,150 3,050,000
France 1,359,000 4,200,000 361,650 5,920,650
Germany 1,600,000 4,065,000 103,000 5,768,000
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Part OneWorld War I (1914-1918)

• America emerges as a world power.
• However, there was an increasing sense of
  disillusionment creeping into American fiction.
• This generation is called The Lost Generation

Soldiers with Tank.
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Part OneThe Lost Generation

• The "Lost Generation" defines a sense of moral
  loss or aimlessness apparent in literary figures
  during the 1920s.
• World War I seemed to have destroyed the idea
  that if you acted virtuously, good things would
  happen.

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Part OneThe Jazz Age (The High Points)

• It had
• Jazz!
• Prohibition!
• Womens suffrage!
• Short dresses!
• Short hair (on women!)
• Drinking! (So much for Prohibition!)
• Organized crime!
• In short, people just trying to have a good time.

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Wait a minute, Mr. Lowman.

• Some of you may be asking, Didnt you tell us
  the Modern Period is depressing?
• It is, although you may be fooled by the veneer
  of happy prosperity during the 1920s.
• People were engaging in this frivolity in order
  to ignore the problems in society.
• Now, on with the PowerPoint.

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The Flapper

• Flappers were quite scandalous.
• They
• smoked cigarettes
• went to Jazz clubs (at night!)
• bobbed their hair
• rode bicycles
• drove cars
• drank.
• In other words, they didnt know their place as
  women.
• (according to society)

Louise Brooks
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The Flapper, cont.
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F. Scott Fitzgerald

• B. 1896
• Full name Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald
• Left Princeton to enlist in the US Army during
  World War I however, the war ended shortly after
  his enlistment.
• Married Zelda Sayre in 1920.

F. Scott Fitzgerald
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F. Scott Fitzgerald, cont.

• Published four novels in his lifetime
• This Side of Paradise (1920)
• The Beautiful and Damned (1922)
• The Great Gatsby (1925)
• Tender Is the Night (1934)
• The Last Tycoon (published posthumously, 1942)

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F. Scott Fitzgerald, cont.

• Fitzgerald is viewed as being the voice of his
  age.
• His works are evocative of the emotional turmoil
  and struggle of the post-WWI period.
• D. 1940

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Carl van Vechten, 1937.
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Works Consulted

• http//www.firstworldwar.com/features/casualties.h
  tm