modernism

Made by Angela Berritta, Emanuela Cinquemani and Costanza Tocco VH

modernism

Summary

WHAT IS MODERNISM?

MODERNISM IN THE: LICTERATURE, ART, PHILOSOPHY

THE CHANGE OF MODERNISM

modernism

Modernism is a cultural, artistic, and social movement that started in the late 1800s and grew during the early 1900s. It was a response to the big changes happening in the world at the time. Modernism rejected old traditions and focused on creating new ways to express reality.

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Modernism came about during a time of major change in society. It is a period marked by industrialization and urbanization. In addition, scientific discoveries and technological innovations, such as electricity and the automobile, bring a new vision of the world.The publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) changed the way people thought about life and humanity. At the same time, there were big debates about religion.

MAIN THEME

Crisis of Identity and disorientationPeople in the modern world were often unsure of who they were. With the breakdown of traditional values and beliefs, many individuals found themselves struggling to understand their own identities.

AlienationMany Modernist works show people feeling isolated or disconnected from society. In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, the main character Gregor Samsa wakes up to find he has turned into an insect, and he becomes more and more alienated from his family and the world around him.

IMPORTANT THINKER AND INFLUENCE OF FILOSOPHY

SIGMUND FREUD

CARL JUNG

Friedrich Nietzsche

Henri Bergson

Finally Henri Bergson was a French philosopher that introduced the idea of subjective duration. He said that time isn’t just something measurable, but something people experience differently. This idea helped Modernist artists focus on personal experiences and feelings, rather than fixed, objective truths.

MODERNISM IN LITTERATURE

Modernist literature, emerging in the early 20th century, broke from traditional narrative forms, with authors like James Joyce and Franz Kafka

James Joyce is one of the most significant writers of Modernism, known for his use of stream of consciousness. His most famous work, Ulysses (1922), tells the story of a day in the life of Leopold Bloom, an ordinary man in Dublin. Joyce experiments with narrative structure and uses stream of consciousness to explore the thoughts and emotions of the characters, without following a linear narrative, offering a fragmented and intense view of reality. Joyce's use of stream of consciousness is not merely a stylistic device but a reflection on the condition of the modern individual, trapped between the desire to communicate and the impossibility of doing so directly.

The Theatre of the Absurd emerged after World War II, a movement primarily associated with playwrights like Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, and Harold Pinter. It reflects a world where life seems illogical, and communication is broken down, focusing on the absurdity of human existence. Although Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1953) is the quintessential example of this genre, the influence of Absurdism can also be seen in Brecht's work, where the human condition is often presented as fragmented or irrational.

Samuel Beckett

THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD

LUIGI PIRANDELLO AND BERTOLT BRECHT

Abstractionism

Futurism

Cubism

Expressionism

modernism in visual art

Modernism in visual arts is a movement that reached its peak development between the late 19th century and early 20th century. It was characterized by a radical break from traditional artistic conventions, seeking to express reality in new and experimental ways. Among the main movements that defined Modernism are Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, and Abstractionism, each offering a unique view of the contemporary world.

MODERNISM IN SCIENCE

The Modernist revolution in science mirrored the changes in art and literature, marking a profound shift in how we understand the world. At the heart of this transformation were groundbreaking theories such as Einstein's Theory of Relativity and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, both of which challenged traditional views of objective reality.

THE CHANGE OF MODERNISM

At the beginning of the 20th century, modernism was a movement filled with optimism and confidence in progress. Artists, writers, and architects believed that science, technology, and innovation could change society for a better future. This modernity was reflected in movements like Futurism that approved industry and the machine, and Cubism, which broke traditional artistic perspectives to explore new forms of representation.

THE DIFFICULT SITUATION OF SOCIETY

This was the context in which Surrealism emerged, led by figures like Salvador Dalí. Surrealists explored the irrational part of the human mind inspired by Freud. Dalí’s paintings, with his melting clocks and strange landscapes, captured this new vision of reality characterized by trauma, anxiety.

The outbreak of World War I in 1914 was a turning point. The enthusiasm for progress quickly turned into horror for the creation of new technologies like machine guns and poison gas. Millions of young men died in the trenches, leaving entire nations traumatized. This trauma had a profound impact on modernist artists and writers in fact they started exploring themes of alienation and absurdity.

A POLITICAL DIMENSION OF MODERNISM

During the 1920s and 1930s, modernism had a political dimension. With war, the economic crises and the totalitarian regimes,a lot of artists and writers were interested in social and political problems. Literature was a way to criticize society.

A key figure of this period was George Orwell, whose works such as 1984 and Animal Farm showed the dangers of authoritarianism and propaganda. In architecture, modernism showed rationalism, functionality and simplicity.

THE CRISIS OF MODERNISM

Between the Two World Wars modernism lived a crisis. Some believed that the movement had failed, while others thought that it needed to change. This period took to Postmodernism, a new way of thinking that refused the past believes and showed ambiguity and irony. It wanted to find rational solutions to social problems.

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UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE

Werner Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle (1927) states it is not possible to measure simultaneously and with extreme precision the properties that the state of an elementary particle evokes.

Cubism, developed primarily by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, challenged traditional ways of representing reality. This movement fragmented the figure and object into geometric forms, showing multiple viewpoints simultaneously and breaking away from linear perspective. A prime example of this new vision of the world is Picasso's famous painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), which marked the beginning of a visual revolution, breaking with traditional figurative art.

Expressionism focuses on the subjective expression of emotions and the distorted representation of reality. Artists like Edvard Munch, with his iconic painting The Scream (1893), depicted anguish and loneliness, conveying intense feelings through bold colors and distorted shapes. Similarly, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, a member of the German group Die Brücke, sought to represent the inner turmoil of the individual, using jagged lines and vibrant colors to highlight the existential discomfort of modern life.

Finally, Abstractionism represented a complete departure from visible reality. Artists like Wassily Kandinsky developed a visual language that expressed emotions and ideas through lines, colors, and geometric shapes.

Similarly, Piet Mondrian created rigorous compositions based on horizontal and vertical lines and the use of primary colors, as seen in Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue (1930), aiming for universal harmony and ideal balance.

For example the Bauhaus movement, founded in Germany, wanted to combine art and industry to create elements for modern living. However, as political tensions grew in Europe, many modernist architects and artists left Europe for fascist regimes.

Luigi Pirandello, an Italian playwright, also embraced experimentation in theatre, particularly through his exploration of self-identity, illusion, and reality. Pirandello's most famous play, Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921), challenges the conventions of traditional theatre by presenting a play within a play. The characters in the play appear on stage seeking an author to complete their story, questioning the boundaries between fiction and reality, and the nature of identity itself. Pirandello’s work often explored the idea of the "mask", where individuals wear different facades in different situations, revealing the complex and fluid nature of human identity.

Franz Kafka, another pillar of Modernism, gave voice to themes of absurdity and alienation, which describe the condition of the modern individual. His works are known for their surreal atmosphere and portrayal of Kafkaesque worlds, where individuals find themselves trapped in incomprehensible and oppressive .

FRANZ KAFKA

Franz Kafka, another pillar of Modernism, gave voice to themes of absurdity and alienation, which describe the condition of the modern individual. His works are known for their surreal atmosphere and portrayal of Kafkaesque worlds, where individuals find themselves trapped in incomprehensible and oppressive situations. The most striking aspect of Kafka’s work is his ability to explore the human condition in the absurd, where the individual is constantly confronted with the incomprehensibility of existence and an internal struggle to find meaning in a world that offers no answers. His works do not provide solutions but leave the reader with a deep sense of unease, typical of the existential climate of the 20th century.

Futurism, founded by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and supported by artists like Umberto Boccioni, celebrated speed, modernity, and technology. In contrast to past traditions, Futurism embraced the energy of modern life, the automobile, the machine, and war as symbols of progress. Boccioni's works, such as the sculpture Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913), sought to capture movement and dynamism by distorting forms.

Einstein's Theory of Relativity (1905 and 1915) proposed that space and time are not absolute but relative, dependent on the observer's motion. Introduced a new framework where the speed of light is constant, and time and space bend under the influence of gravity.

Bertolt Brecht was a German playwright and director known for his Epic Theatre, which sought to provoke thought and critical reflection in the audience rather than simply entertain. Brecht's work, including plays like The Threepenny Opera (1928) and Mother Courage and Her Children (1939), aimed to distance the audience emotionally from the performance through techniques such as the alienation effect (Verfremdungseffekt). This technique encouraged the audience to reflect critically on the social and political messages in the play rather than becoming absorbed in the story. Brecht's work emphasized the importance of theatre as a tool for social and political change, challenging traditional theatrical conventions by breaking the fourth wall and disrupting the illusion of reality.

However, modernism also reflected the crisis of bourgeois society. Many intellectuals saw traditional values as restrictive, and they wanted to express human experience. Literature, music, and visual arts experimented, rejecting the past in favor of a radical change.