Alexandra Cervantes
Rebecca Alvarenga
Esther Rodriguez
Erik Chavez
Lazaro R.
George Mendoza
Modernism is a literary andcultural movement whichflourished in the firstdecades of the 20th century.
It is used to refer to Englishliterature in the broad sense.
Modernism can berecognized not only inliterature but also inpainting, music, sculpture,and architecture.
Modernism can be applied tothe content and to the form ofa work, or either in isolation.
It reflects a sense of culturalcrisis that is exciting anddisquieting.
This opens up a new vista ofhuman possibilities but at thesame time puts into questionany ideas.
Modernism is marked byexperimentation, particularlymanipulation of form, and bythe realization that knowledgeis not absolute
Emerged in the middle of thenineteenth century in France,with Charles Baudelaire inliterature and EdouardManet in painting.
The “avant-garde” was whatModernism was called atfirst, and the term remainedto describe movementswhich identify themselves asattempting to overthrowsome aspect of tradition orthe status quo.
By 1930, Modernism hadentered popular culture. Itwas beginning to be lookedto as the source for ides withthe challenges of the day.
It was developing a self-conscious of its ownimportance.
One of the most visiblechanges of this period wasobjects into daily life.(electricity, the telephone,the automobile)
In the 1930’s Modernistwriters became more overtlypolitical, especially in theirinvolvement with left-wingcauses and their oppositionthe rise of Fascism inEurope.
Modernist literature had atendency to lack ofchronological narrative, ormove from one level ofnarrative to another withoutany warning through thewords of a number ofdifferent narrators.
Unlike the literature in the19th century, Modernistnovels left an impression ofenigma and an open-endedness to the work.
Although Ernest Dowson,Arthur Symons and W.B.Yeats, who were influencedby the writing ofBaudelairure, Mallarme, andValery, had made use ofelements of what is calledModernism, it was the workof Henry James that reallyindicated the new directionin literature by the end of the19th century.
Other authors that went inthe same direction wereStephen Crane, JosephConrad, and Fore ModoxFord.
The works of these writerswere new in their structure
Uses images and symbols astypical and frequent literarytechniques.
Uses colloquial languagerather than formal language.
Uses language in a very self-conscious way
Often the intention of writersin the Modern period was tochange the way the readersaw the world and thechange of understanding ofwhat language is and does.
