Homework due next Monday: vocabulary 10 and 11.
Rubric for Prezi presentations: The following are scored on a 1-5 continuum, 1 being not shown to 5 for in depth.
Poses the thesis question:
Organizes the prezi to support the thesis using literary elements
Supporting text
Supporting images (5 points for metaphors; highest of 4 for
literal
Analysis statements in each section (this can be oral)
Conclusion that reaffirms the original thesis. (can be oral)
Demonstrates knowledge of text
Use of Prezi technology
Oral presentation skills: eye contact, voice projection,
professionalism.
I am not in class tomorrow. We'll pick up with the presentations on Friday.
For Thursday's class you have some introductory background reading on Modernism. Please complete the reading and turn in the accompanying questions by the end of class on Thursday. See a copy of the material below.
Modernism; introductory material
Although generally called
a movement, it is more valid to see modernism as an international body of
literature characterized by a new self-consciousness about modernity and by
radical formal experimentation. Several literary movements and styles, notably
Imagism and Vorticism, were fostered within modernism, which flourished from
around 1890 until 1940.
Generally, modernists were driven by the belief that the assurances once provided by religion, politics, or society no longer sufficed. This belief intensified after World War I, when it seemed to many that history itself was coming to an end and that modern life was horrific, chaotic, and ultimately futile. Some modernists, notably T. S. Eliot, expressed a deep sense of loss and despair. However, others responded with a fresh sense of both the freedom and the responsibilities of the artist in a new age. Ezra Pound in particular envisaged the possibility of a new society to which artists would contribute meaningfully. Many modernists shared an ambitious, aspirational belief in the role and place of the artist in contemporary life, believing that art had replaced religion in providing coherence, guidance, and insight into the human condition. For some writers this meant a fresh sense of the possibilities of ancient myths, and a revaluation of the contemporary meanings of myth was typical of high modernism. Others, especially Gertrude Stein, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, and Ernest Hemingway, were less convinced by the relevance of myth, believing that the creation of meaning and coherence was the task of the writer, performed in opposition to false and damaging external impositions of order. This overall sense of the serious responsibility of the artist helps to account for the large projects in which many modernists engaged, for instance the long poem or the epic.
The modernist period also saw a radical experimentation in literary form and expression. In part this developed in response to new insights provided by recently established disciplines such as psychology. This was certainly true of the stream-of-consciousness technique, and in many respects modernist prose narrative begins with the complex later novels of Henry James. Experimentation was also partly a response to the new forms of expression that were developing in painting, sculpture, and music; another of modernism's characterizing features was the intense interaction between literature and the other arts. A further reason for modernist experimentation lay in technological innovations, such as the telephone and the cinema, which were changing the forms and the very meaning of communication. New forms were needed, as was the reinvigoration of established forms. Pound's famous exhortation "Make it new" is rightly considered one of modernism's mottoes, but as well as demanding novelty he was urging writers to apply new energy to established forms. A considerable amount of Pound's earlier poetry was written in antiquated forms as part of his attempt to revitalize and update tradition. At the same time, most modernists believed that literature should challenge and unsettle readers, and much modernist work may be demanding and difficult, alluding to a wide range of learning.
American modernism was broadly of two kinds. One was cosmopolitan, and created by expatriate writers, especially Pound, H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) (1886-1961), Stein, and Eliot. Based in urban centers such as London and Paris, these writers sought to internationalize literature, often making powerful connections between their work and a broad range of past literature. Generally, they had little belief in the usefulness (or existence) of an American literary tradition. There was also a group of non-expatriate American modernists, even though several of them did spend time abroad. Stevens, Frost, Williams, Marianne Moore (1887-1972), F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner and Hemingway developed a modernist literature that was connected to American traditions, and the heavy concentration on region and place in the work of Stevens, Frost, Faulkner, and Williams marked them as radically different from Pound, Stein, and Eliot. What all the modernists shared was a belief in literature's importance in the modern world, and the need for it to be continually vital.
Modernism: accompanying questions to introductory
material.
1. What is the time frame for Modernism?
___________________________________
2. What three traditions we seen by Modernists
as no longer providing assurance for how one should live life?
______________________________________________________________________
3. What did some Modernists believe could bring
insight into modern life?
_______________________________________________________________________
4.
In
terms of literature, name three areas in which writers looked to find coherence
and meaning in life.
5. What radical literary technique was inspired
by the interest in psychology?
___________________________________________________________________
6. Summarize the two types of American
Modernism, including a representative of each.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
7. On the back of this sheet, discuss some of
the social and historical reasons for literary Modernism. Make it a solid
paragraph with an thesis statement, examples and an analysis statement.
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