Eng 239.5 Week 2

eng 239 week 2

Modernism

Reception

Aesthetics

History

Click the + signs to learn more about the history, aesthetics, and reception of modernism

What is modernism?

How to read modernist works?

Of course, every work of literature is unique. That said, we can identify shared elements, especially when work comes from a distinct movement like modernism. And these elements can help us get a handle on specific works Modernist works are often fragmentary-- small, discrete pieces that stand by themselves or that are suspended against other, similar fragments. Look at these specific fragments and imagine for yourself the context they belong in, if you have only the fragment-- what comes before or after this fragment? If it were a painting or a tile on the wall, what would be to the left and right of it? Imagine it's unusual features not as impossible eruptions against sense, but design elements that can be reproduced infinitely, like something on an assembly line. If you're looking at a longer piece made of smaller fragments, what is the relationship between the parts? What elements are repeated across sections? Which elements are specific to each fragment, and why?

How to read modernist works?

Of course, every work of literature is unique. That said, we can identify shared elements, especially when work comes from a distinct movement like modernism. And these elements can help us get a handle on specific works Modernist works are often fragmentary-- small, discrete pieces that stand by themselves or that are suspended against other, similar fragments. Look at these specific fragments and imagine for yourself the context they belong in, if you have only the fragment-- what comes before or after this fragment? If it were a painting or a tile on the wall, what would be to the left and right of it? Imagine it's unusual features not as impossible eruptions against sense, but design elements that can be reproduced infinitely, like something on an assembly line. If you're looking at a longer piece made of smaller fragments, what is the relationship between the parts? What elements are repeated across sections? Which elements are specific to each fragment, and why?

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Look at how the writer portrays "common people" in the poem. Are they salt of the earth everyday regular people like you'd see in the regional writers? Or are they, to take a contemporary term, "sheeple." In other words, how does the writer feel about us, his or her readers? How should we respond to writers who seem to think we're not smart enough to understand them? Are you going to rise to the challenge, or does the writer want you to give up because you don't have anything to add, anyway?

Pay attention to what specific things in the world modernists refer to. In literary studies, we call these allusions, and the modernists love them. What do they refer to (you can usually tell a lot by reading the footnotes in our book): Greek myth, contemporary politics, cartoons, other writers or artists? How are these references used in the poem? Do they inspire us, like the flag on the 4th of July, or do they keep us at a distance, appreciating but not moved? This can tell us a lot about how the writer is presenting the world to us.

How to read modernist works?

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Have fun with them. Just because the writers are often glum and off-putting, we don't need to be intimidated by them. Their bark is worse than their bite-- and most of them have been dead for 50+ years. They can't hurt us. But what they can do is entertain and challenge us. Their innovations have, in many ways, been picked up and adapted by popular culture today. But we can still find new, weird elements-- a word here, an image there-- that is striking and frsh and speaks in the voice of someone who saw things happening that they didn't understand, but that they very much wanted to capture. Try to find that spirit of struggle to comprehend and let it guide you toward appreciaton.

How to read modernist works?