ModernismHerrick on ModernismThree Key ConceptsGeneral DefinitionsHistory & the Influence of Modern ScienceA Working DefinitionSlide 7In contrast, ModernistsSlide 9Modern PhilosophyLiterary CharacteristicsGeneral CritiqueSlide 13Slide 14Slide 15Slide 16ModernismAn OverviewHerrick on ModernismCharacteristicsquestioning received truths of Christian traditionelevating rationality over other sources of truthseeking solutions to social problems by means of scientific methodviewing the universe as governed by inviolable physical lawsThree Key Concepts1. Modernism is generally used as a way of referring to an aesthetic approach dominant in European and American art and literature in the Twentieth Century. The principles of formalism and the autonomy of art are key features of modernism.2. The "project of Modernity" can be thought of as the development of science, philosophy and art, each according to its own inner logic. This links the concept of modernity to the concept of modernism as it was articulated by Greenberg.3. The concept of the avant-garde is that of a loosely organized oppositional force and challenge to the dominant artistic culture. The avant-garde is often thought of as part of the "inner logic of modernism" - the built in source of contradiction or critique that moves art forward. (Note that this assumes a model of progress as part of the inner development of the arts and culture.)General DefinitionsModernisma term typically associated with the twentieth-century reaction against realism and romanticism within the arts. More generally,it is often used to refer to a twentieth-century belief in the virtuesof science, technology and the planned management of social change.Modernity refers to a period extending from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries (in the case of Europe) to the mid to late twentieth century characterized by the growth and strengthening of a specific set of social practices and ways of doing things. It is often associated with capitalism and notions such as progress.History & the Influence of Modern Science1. Modern European society emerged from the 18th Century with an Enlightenment optimism based on the apparent success of science & technology in explaining various natural phenomena in rational& mechanical terms and in utilizing aspects of "Nature" for the purposes of "Man".2. This modern, Enlightenment approach retains, for the most part, vestiges of a Christian world view which assumesa separation of "Man" and "nature", mind and body, and thusthe possibility of understanding human experience as, in some sense, distinct from natural events.3. The experience of human beings on earth becomes the basis for a grand teleological concept of History [Hegel]. On this account, the history of "Man" becomes the story of how human beings came to increase their freedom from the natural world and the material constraints associated with it by the exercise of their innate capacity to think logically in the pursuit of truth and knowledge.A Working DefinitionModernism is a cultural movement which rebelled against Victorian moresemphasis on nationalism & cultural absolutism. placing humans over and outside of nature. belief in a single way of looking at the world, and in absolute and clear-cut dichotomies between right and wrong, good and bad, and hero and villain. seeing the world as being governed by God's will, and that each person and thing in this world had a specific use.A Working DefinitionModernism is a cultural movement which rebelled against Victorian moresseeing the world as neatly divided between "civilized" and "savage" peoples. According to Victorians, the "civilized" were those from industrialized nations, cash-based economies, Protestant Christian traditions, and patriarchal societies; the "savage" were those from agrarian or hunter-gatherer tribes, barter-based economies, "pagan" or "totemistic" traditions, and matriarchal (or at least "unmanly" societies).In contrast, Modernistsrebelled against Victorian idealsemphasized humanism over nationalism, and argued for cultural relativism. emphasized the ways in which humans were part of and responsible to nature. argued for multiple ways of looking at the world, and blurred the Victorian dichotomies by presenting antiheroes, uncategorizable personsIn contrast, Modernistschallenged the idea that God played an active role in the world, which led them to challenge the Victorian assumption that there was meaning and purpose behind world events.Instead, Modernists argued that no thing or person was born for a specific use; instead, they found or made their own meaning in the world. Challenging the Victorian dichotomy between "civilized" and "savage," Modernists reversed the values associated with each kind of culture. Modernists presented the Victorian "civilized" as greedy and warmongering (instead of being industrialized nations and cash-based economies), as hypocrites (rather than Christians), and as enemies of freedom and self-realization (instead of good patriarchs).Modern PhilosophyModern philosophy liberates itself (to a large extent) from the Aristotelian world view. In doing so it shifts its emphasis (via the French philosopher Rene Descartes) toward the notion of an a priori conscious ego--a thinker or cogito--that observes the world and historical events from a position of rationality, detachment and objectivity.Rationalism: We, as thinkers, are linked to pure rationality--a transcendental order. We are rational beings because the universe is rational. The universe is rationally ordered because God is rational. Thus, by objectively--empirically and scientifically--studying the order concealed in Nature we are studying the ways of God the Mathematician.This "objectivity", together with an increasing value placed on the individual, puts the human being ("Man") at the center of History and knowledge.With this freedom and centrality comes a strong measure of responsibility and the duty to protect and increase the autonomy of every rational human being. [Kant]Literary Characteristics"a general term applied retrospectively to the wide range of experimental & avant-garde trends in the literature (and other arts) of the early 20th century.... Modernist literature is characterized chiefly by a rejection of 19th century traditions and of their consensus between author and reader: conventions of realism ... or traditional meter. Modernist writers tended to see themselves as an avant-garde