The Inter-War Years

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The Inter-War Years
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Major Themes of This Lecture

1. The Age of Anxiety The Loss of Confidence in
   Continuous Human Progress and the Power of Human
   Reason
2. The Search for Post War Stability in the 1920s
3. The Destruction of That Stability- The Great
   Depression

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Attempt At Another Amazing Metaphor
Technological Gadgets to Ease Life
Pre 1914 World
Shorter Work Hours
Society/ The Age of Anxiety
World War I
Reason
Progress
Stream of Consciousness- distopias
Science
Freud
Peace
Einstein
Industry
Existentialism
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Theme 1 The Age of Anxiety

• What was it?
• A break in the centuries-old faith in human
  progress that had started in the Renaissance and
  continued through the Scientific Revolution ,
  Enlightenment, and Industrial Revolution
• Perhaps human reason can solve all of our
  problems
• Umm ok scratch that.

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Why this loss of faith?

• Largely because of the horrors of WWI
• This is what science and reason brought us?
• Evident across many fields philosophy,
  psychology, literature, physics
• Pre World War I optimism for the future
• Post World War I pessimism for the future
• If modern science brought us the slaughter in
  the trenches, what will future progress bring
  us?
• Not totally misguided think about the atom bomb

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Philosophy

• Nietzsche
• Reason and human intellect are weak
• Instead, emotion and passion are the keys to
  human strength
• Human society glorifies the weak (blessed are
  the meek), but should instead glorify the strong
• God is dead
• There is no external meaning there is only the
  meaning that we give to the universe
• Most people are too weak to discover a meaning,
  but some supermen would be able to do it
• Thought democracy was part of the weaknessgives
  all, even the weak, a voice
• Remember, democracy has been on the rise all
  throughout the 19th century
• Very influential in the country of ???

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Philosophy (cont.)

• Schools of Philosophical Thought Inspired by
  Nietzsche and the Age of Anxiety
• Logical empiricism
• Philosophy is just a verbal grinding of gears
  there is no way to determine anything about the
  large questions philosophy tries to answer
• Existentialism
• There is no external meaning. Humans must create
  their own meaning.
• However, humans must act. For example,
  existentialists had to decide how to respond when
  Hitler took over Europe. To fight him or not?
• How did most react?
• Against Hitler
• Why is it obvious that existentialists must be
  atheists?

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• You Tube- Nietzsche interprets Hitler

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Physics

• Pre-Einstein
• Early discoveries of radiation and quanta
• even the atom is not stable
• Einsteins relativity
• All space and time are relative to the observer
  there is no absolute space or time
• The only absolute is???
• matter and energy are forms of each other
• More on this later, no?!
• After Einstein
• Heisenberg uncertainty principle
• If you know exactly where a particle is, you
  cannot know its speed. If you know its exact
  speed, you cannot know exactly where it is.

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If a human were to move near the speed of light,
time would slow down for them, relative to the
observer
VS
Which is more comfortable to believe?
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Freudian Psychology
Freudian View of the Brain
Pre-Freudian View of the Brain
Output
Output
Input
Input
Logic
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• Mr. Hansens Milkshakes brings all the boys to
  the yard. )

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Part of the Freudian Brain

• Id- Primitive Desires ? food, sex, pleasure
• Ego rational brain? Which of the Id desires can
  I get away with without getting in trouble
• Superego- Conscience ? Should I try to get away
  with stuff I want, even if it is wrong?

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Literature

• Literature
• Reflects age of anxiety author is not
  omniscient society is confusing and characters
  are confused
• stream of consciousness (see James Joyces
  Ulysses below)
• "...I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put
  the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls
  used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed
  me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as
  well him as another and then I asked him with my
  eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would
  I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I
  put my arms around him yes and drew him down to
  me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes
  and his heart was going like mad and yes I said
  yes I will Yes. "
• Distopias

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Religion

• Christian Existentialists worked to revitalize
  religion
• if reason is flawed, instead of saying there is
  no meaning, return to an extra-rational god.
• Re-emphasize the non-rational aspects of
  Christianity

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Society/ The Age of Anxiety
Revival of Christianity
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ART

• Realism Was Killed by the _____??? (a technology)
• Impressionism Replaced Realism
• Impressionists seek to give the subjective,
  emotional, personal view of something (a way to
  be realer than the camera)
• Post-Impressionists (aka Expressionists)
• Expressionists begin to use abstract shape to
  convey emotions
• sometimes called les fauves (the beasts) by their
  critics, for the oddness of their images
• Types of expressionism
• Cubism (Picasso)
• Dadaism (down with convention and tradition-
  nihilist)
• Surrealism (linked to Freudian exploration of the
  dream world and unconscious mind)

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Impressionist
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Look At the Rest of the Art Pieces In an Attempt
to Feel the Anguish and Search For Meaning
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Edvard Munch The Scream (1893)
Expressionism

• Using bright colors to express a particular
  emotion.

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Franz Marc Animal Destinies (1913)
Expressionism
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Wassily Kandinsky On White II (1923)
Expressionism
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Picasso ? Studio with Plaster Head 1925
Cubism
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Georges Braque ? Still Life LeJeur 1929
Cubism
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Dadaism
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Salvador Dali Soft Construction with Boiled
Beans (Premonition of Civil War), 1936
Surrealism
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Radios and Movies

• Appealed to mass audiences, unlike highbrow art
• Could be used for indoctrination/ propaganda

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End of Part I
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Hansen Name __________________AP Euro The
Age of Anxiety (Interwar Years Theme 1)

• What Was It?
• A break in the centuries-old faith in
  ________________ that had started in the
  Renaissance and continued through the
  _____________________ , Enlightenment, and
  Industrial Revolution
• Perhaps human reason can ____________________
  _____________________________________
• Umm ok ________________.
• Why this loss of faith?
• Largely because of ____________________________
• This is what _____________________ brought us?
• Evident across many fields philosophy,
  psychology, literature, physics
• Pre World War I _________ for the future
• Post World War I ___________ for the future
• If modern science brought us the slaughter in
  the trenches, what will __________________________
  ____________________________?
• Not totally misguided think about the __________
• Philosophy
• Nietzsche
• Reason and human intellect ______________
• Instead, _________________________ are the keys
  to human strength
• Human society glorifies the weak (blessed are
  the meek), but should i_________________________
  ___________________
• God is ___________
• There is no _____________________ there is only
  the meaning that _______________ to the universe

• Schools of Philosophical Thought Inspired by
  Nietzsche and the Age of Anxiety
• Logical empiricism
• Philosophy is just a _______________
  ____________________________ there is no way to
  determine anything about the _____________________
  ___ philosophy tries to answer
• Existentialism
• There is no external meaning. Humans must
  _____________________________.
• However, humans must _____. For example,
  existentialists had to decide how to respond when
  ____________________ _________________________.
  To fight him or not?
• How did most react?
• _______________________
• Why is it obvious that existentialists must be
  atheists? __________________________
• Physics
• Pre-Einstein
• Early discoveries of _________________
  ________________________________
• even _________________ is not stable
• Einsteins ______________
• All _______________________ are relative to the
  observer there is no ____________ space or time
• The only absolute is___________________
• _____________________ are forms of each other
• More on this later, no?!
• After Einstein

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• Freudian Psychology
• Parts of the Freudian Brain
• ______________ - Primitive Desires ? food, sex,
  pleasure
• _________________ rational brain? Which of the
  Id desires can I get away with without getting in
  trouble
• __________________- Conscience ? Should I try to
  get away with stuff I want, even if it is wrong?
• Literature
• Reflects age of anxiety author is
  _____________________ society is
  _________________and _________________ are
  confused
• stream of _____________________
• Dystopias
• Religion
• _________________________________ worked to
  revitalize religion
• if reason is flawed, instead of saying there is
  no meaning, ________________________________
  ____________________________________.
• Re-emphasize the _________________ aspects of
  Christianity
• Art
• Realism Was Killed by the ______________??? (a
  technology)
• ___________________ Replaced Realism
• Impressionists seek to give the subjective,
  emotional, _____________ of something (a way to
  be _________________than the camera)
• Post-Impressionists (aka _________________________
  ___)
• Expressionists begin to use abstract shape to
  convey _______________

• Radio and Movies
• Appealed to ____________________, unlike highbrow
  art
• Could be used for ______________________________
  _____________________________________________