Modernism and World War I

A presentation by Alex Morton

Modernism

• Movement started in 1900• Modernism marks a distinctive separation from optimistic

Victorian morality.• Rejects optimism of the nineteenth century and

presented a deeply pessimistic picture of a disillusioned culture. This level of despair often causes apathy and moral contingency.

• Can also be referred to as the radical shift in art and literature styles post- WWI era.

• One of the most influential periods for literature, art and science.

Modernism As a Movement

• Although modernism is known best for its literary works, it also dramatically changed the sciences, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, painting, music, sculpture, and architecture.

• Modernism was created on a feeling of lost community and civilization. It personified a series of paradoxes and contradictions. The movement often referred to society as “the lost generation.”

Influential Writers

From left to right: Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Frost, Virginia Woolf, W.B. Yeats.

W.B Yeats

• Born 1865, Ireland.• Strongly advocated a democratic government after WWI.• Served as an Irish Senator.• Died 1939, France.

T.S. Eliot

• Born 1888, St. Louis, Missouri.• Wrote “The Waste Land” which is considered one of the most important pieces of the

twentieth century.• Died 1965, London, England.

Ernest Hemingway

• Born 1899, Oak Park, Illinois.• Wrote “A Farewell to Arms” which was another important novel of the twentieth

century.• Died 1961, Ketchum, Idaho.

World War I• Began July, 1914.• Started by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.• Introduced modern weaponry such as machine guns, tanks and chemical

weapons.• One of the bloodiest wars in history with over 8,528,831 killed,

21,189,154 wounded, and total casualties reaching upward of 37,466,904. • War included two separate sides known as the Central Powers and the

Allied Powers. The Central Powers included Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. The Allied Powers included The USA, Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and Japan.

• Ended November, 1918.• Treaty of Versailles signed in 1919 which mapped out new European

borders and placed harsh sanctions and reparation payments on Germany.

Modern Literature and WWI

• World War I changed the content and form of English literary texts.

• Many authors and poets in this time were seriously concerned about aestheticism and the nature of civilization, in which the war was supposed help maintain.

• Fears of cultural and civil degradation were major themes of literary pieces of this time.

Works Cited:

• Poets.org.vicwmedia.php/prmMID/5664

• Pbs.org/greatwar/resources/casdeath_pop.html

• www2.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0255.html

• http://personal.georgiasouthern.edu/~jpellegr/teaching/modernism.htm

• http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i