In what sense is the modernist literature of the early 20th century experimental? The modernist literature of the early 20th century is experimental because it is cold, inscrutable, and unapproachable. Generally arts and literature reflect the public feelings and situations of the respective time period, or of that which preceded it. So the coldness, although it may seem unapproachable in todays society, was perfectly appropriate for the early and mid 1900s. It was a cold and unapproachable time. It was the beginning of World War I, for one thing. The effects of this massive war and destruction took its toll on the morale of the people as well as the artists.
Times were tense, everyone was on edge, and no one knew who to trust. By the time the war began winding down, not only were the nations of the world at odds with each other, uncertain of who was really an ally and who would turn into the enemy, but each countrys own citizens were at odds with their respective governments. Wilfred Owens work exemplifies the coldness and unapproachable feeling that even the soldiers faced from both their enemies and fellow countrymen. Owen is a good representative of the soldiers view point of behind the scenes in the war because he served for two years as a lieutenant with the Lancashire Fusiliers. His poetry portrays the horrors which many young soldiers faced on the battlefield. In his poems Owen evokes with great passion the pain of watching his friends, companions and enemies alike, be brutally maimed and murdered without a proper burial or so much respect as a moment of silence.
The Essay on Analysing War On Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) is the greatest of the lost poets of World War I. He thought the war was a totally ridiculous activity with disastrous and tragic results. He has mentioned that in poems like Dulce et Decorum Est, Anthem for Doomed Youth and Disabled. In Wilfred Owen's introductory remarks to his poems, he expresses "Above all, I am not concerned with poetry. My subject is war and the pity ...
In one poem entitled Strange Meeting, he writes, And of my weeping something had been left,/Which must die now. I mean truth untold,/the pity of war, the pity war distilled./Now men will go content with what we spoiled,/Or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled(Begley 23-27).
These lines develop the realization that even in the depths of hell and death, these horrors will be unknown and unimportant to most. And those who do take vengeance in this tragedy, will only cause more of such hellish death in war. This country which the boys were sacrificing their lives for did not do much to reward or respect them, either. Owen compares the government and public support of the war to that of hometown fans: the war is a game to them. When, in reality, the soldiers saw horrors which afflicted them far worse than physical injury or even death.
People were eager to glorify the war and its purposes, if not completely ignore the tragedy because it was too hard for them to bear. The war and the atrocities of it are cold and unapproachable enough alone, add to that the lack of sympathy and its a wonder his literature was bearable at all. The horrible discourse of the war and the publics unattached reaction to it, was noticed and fought by other contemporaries of the time, such as the post-War generation, including W.H. Auden. His tense poetry contributed much of the same unapproachable feelings of the time. Due to his long life and extensive traveling excursions, his perspective covered the personal experience of many international political venues including the depression, Nazism, totalitarianism, WWII and the Holocaust, the atomic bomb, and the Cold War. Similar to the fears in Owens work, Auden portrayed a deep concern for the unsympathetic and disconnected attitude of the majority of the public toward the current political situation, as well as the literary world.
As noted in Musee des Beaux Arts, other artists of the time also focused on this feeling. He describes a painting by Pieter Brueghel which depicts the ongoing life, continuance of work in the fields, and a boat with fishing nets still cast, while in the background Icarus falls tragically from the sky. It does portray a cold attitude. While people must have noticed, it did not seem to matter to them. But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone/As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green/Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen (Weizner 117-119).
The Essay on Puritanism To Postmodernism War American Life
The Influence of War in Poetry and Modernism Between the years of 1912 and 1914 the entire temper of the American arts changed. America's cultural coming-of-age occurred and writing in the U. S. became modernized. It seems as though everywhere, in that Year of 1913, barriers went down and People reached each other who had Never been in touch before; there were All sorts of new ways to communicate ...
Again, an example of the cold, unapproachable attitude people felt toward merely ignored political problems and suffering all over the world.
In another poem, September 1, 1939, he describes the common faces need for life to go on. All of the conventions conspire/To make this fort assume/ The furniture of home;/Lest we should see where we are. This way the frightful reality can be masked and safety, at least temporarily, believed (King 49-52).
Audens work is meant for replacing and healing the losses of the war, but it also details the importance of recognizing the problem and grieving. And this attitude carried through to other aspects of life. As Bernard Shaw, world renowned author, represents in Major Barbara, families were also divided on the war, proper etiquette, and changing society standards.
The whole family disagreed with the source of the Undershaft prosperity being weaponry production, however unbeknownst to children and hypocritically of the mother, went on to take pleasure in the material and future security it provided. Older generations portrayed by Lady Britomart, found younger generations to be unrefined and disagreeable. While those same younger generations, characterized in her three children, found their elders to be coldly refined, unapproachable and insensitive. The young were excitedly adapting to new ideas and setting the tone for the era, whereas elders struggled to maintain the customs and standards which it saw no flaws in. Although Lady Britomart wanted her son to take on the responsibilities of the man of the household, she wanted him to do it with her ideals, rather than the more modern values of his generation. He can say what he wants as long as he wants what she thinks is appropriate.
Another example of the unrefined ways of the young, is Lady Britomarts disapproval of nicknames. I will not have Charles called Cholly; the vulgarity of it positively makes me ill (Weizner 212).
The clash in transitional attitudes is cold, inscrutable, and unapproachable, from both sides. So it is only appropriate that the literature of the era symbolizes these feelings. The spiritual effects of war and destruction set countries, soldiers and fellow citizens as well, unapproachably at odds. Seeing as the authors of Modernist literature experienced or witnessed this turmoil to different extents, it should be uncontested that their work portrays the depression and fear set forth by such loss. If a reader can look at this not as a flaw, but as more of a protective coat against the hardship and turmoil that writers of the time were vulnerable to, if he can get through that top layer of ice, he may uncover the significance of it, and delve into a much deeper work than that which the surface ice blurs.
The Term Paper on Generations In The Work Training Generation Boomers
Submitted to Lyle Johnson Director of Training/Human Resource Shelter Insurance Prepared by Management Undergraduate Student University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO 65201 May 7, 2003 PROPOSAL ABSTRACT We are currently in a time period where there are as many as four different generations of workers in the work force. These different generations bring different values and work ethics to the ...
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Bibliography:
Begley, J. Exploration of the modernist literature. London: Pluto Press, 1992. King, O. The modernist writers. New York: Harper Collins, 1991. Weizner, A.
The survey of 20th century literature. New York: Harper Collins, 1998..
