Context
Also called "The Great War," a large-scale war that created a widespread sense of purposelessness, nihilism, and general disillusionment that ended the idealism of early modernist writers.
What is World War I?
American. Known for breaking the mold with his short and understated sentence style. Frequently addressed war, disillusionment, and fatalism in works such as The Sun Also Rises and Farewell to Arms.
Who was Ernest Hemingway?
american. know for
unconventional
capitalization syntax
punctuation
free form
Who was e e cummings?
Late 19-20th literary and artistic movement against Naturalism and Realism. Focused on expressing emotions and other subjective experiences.
What is Expressionism?
What is Feminism?
English naturalist who developed the theory of evolution by natural selection, which challenged the validity and authority of religious teachings.
Who was Charles Darwin?
Polish. Known for his pessimism and concern with the uncertainties of modern existence and human's epistemological ineptitude. His works include Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness.
Who was Joseph Conrad?
American. Fond of depicting common people in common situations. Works, such as "Nothing Gold Can Stay" and "The Road Not Taken" characterized by "an austere and tragic view of life."
Who was Robert Frost?
Post WWI movement seeking to reconcile reality with the imagination of the unconscious mind. Characterized by unnerving, illogical, and surprising elements. Writers of this movement include James Joyce and H. G. Wells.
What is Surrealism?
His theories of relativity (1916) challenged traditional understanding of time and spatial relations and the reliability of human perception and knowledge.
Who was Albert Einstein?
Discipline that aims to study the subjective human experience, such as emotion, perception, emotion, desire, and consciousness, topics widely explored in Modernist literature.
What is psychology?
American. Known for expounding upon the American South with deep characterization and use of stream-of-consciousness techniques. His works include The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying.
Who was William Faulkner?
American expat. Known for using stream-of-consciousness, free-verse, and irregular rhyme to capture the modern man's inward experiences, such as alienation and mortality. Famous works include “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “The Wasteland.”
Who was T. S. Eliot?
As a reaction against the horrors of WWI, this movement sought to abandon all norms, reason, and meaning and upheld randomness, paradox, negativity, shock, and nihilism in works.
What is Dada?
17-18th century intellectual movement in Europe that deemed rational and scientific approaches to knowledge more reliable than those influenced by tradition and religion.
What is the Enlightenment?
German nihilist philosopher who denied the certainty of truth, insisting that knowledge can only represent the perception of individuals. Believed that freedom from traditions and religion allows for pursuit of happiness.
Who was Friedrich Nietzsche?
English. Known for her stream-of-consciousness style and feminist perspective that challenged societal assumptions about gender, which feature in her works such as Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse.
Who was Virginia Woolf?
English. Began as a novelist who challenged Victorian notions. His poems are characterized by a fatalistic, ironic, and bleak attitude towards the world, seen in works such as "The Darkling Thrush" and "And There Was a Great Calm."
Who was Thomas Hardy?
Late 19-20th literary and artistic movement against Naturalism and Realism. Characterized by heavy usage of symbols and confounding multiple sense experiences.
What is Symbolism?
19th century art movement that insisted blotches and spots of colors capture the changeful nature of reality more profoundly than traditional well-defined, 3-dimensional forms do. Artists of this movement include Manet, Monet, Renoir, and Sisley.
What is Impressionism?
Literary movement that revolts against Romanticism by focusing on the mundane, unideal, unheroic, and flawed and portraying common experiences. Prominent writers of this movement include Balzac, Eliot, Dostoevsky, and Steinbeck.
What is literary realism?
Irish. Known for his use of experimental language, stream-of-consciousness, absurdism, and symbolic parallels. Author of works such as Ulysses and Finnegan Wake. Considered a great influence to other modernist writers.
Who was James Joyce?
American expat. Known for his imagist style. First to define and promote modernism in poetry. His maxim "Make it new" exemplifies the modernist mindset.
Who was Ezra Pound?
"[E]arly 20th-century poetic movement that relied on the resonance of concrete images drawn in precise, colloquial language rather than traditional poetic diction and meter" (Poetry Foundation)
What is Imagism?
19th century neurologist who challenged the Enlightenment belief that the human mind primarily operate by reason but also act strongly by instinct and latent desires.
Who was Sigmund Freud?