American modernism美国现实主义文学概要1.ppt

* American Modernist Literature (1914-1945) ☆ Modernism Broadly speaking, it refers to modern thoughts, characters, or actions. More specifically, it encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the traditional forms were becoming outdated in the new conditions of an emerging fully industrialized world. ☆ rejected the Enlightenment thinking and also that of the existence of a compassionate, all-powerful Creator ☆ the stress on self-consciousness ☆ the assessment of the past as different to the modern age; the recognition that the world was becoming more complex; the old final authorities (God, government, science, and reason) were subject to intense critical scrutiny; ☆ Some views modernism in the 20th century as modernism and post-modernism while others think they’re the same genre. Ⅰ. Backgrounds ☆ WWI ☆ Urbanization ☆ Industrialization ☆ Immigration ☆ Technological Evolution ☆ Growth of Modern Science ☆ Influence of Austrian Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) ☆ Influence of German Karl Marx (1818-1883) ☆ from country to city ☆ from farm to factory ☆ introduction to “mass” culture (pop culture) ☆ split between science and the literary tradition (“science vs. letters”) Ⅱ. features 1. a strong and conscious break with tradition the previously sustaining structures of human life, whether social, political, religious, or artistic, had been either destroyed or shown up as falsehoods or fantasies. Therefore, art had to be renovated. 2. a sense of alienation, loss, and despair the search for meaning 3. modern writing techniques; “make it new” ☆ Collapsed plots ☆ Fragmentary techniques ☆ Shifts in perspective, voice, and tone ☆ Stream-of-consciousness point of view ☆ Associative techniques ☆ Stream of Consciousness ★a phrase coined by William James in his Principles of Psychology (1890) to describe the flow of thoughts. ★used in a literary context to describe the