Prepared by Aizhan Turganbayeva

Editor’s note Dear Reader,

The year 1939 was a watershed moment of a decade in many aspects. Our magazine

made a major work in highlighting the monthly updates in the world of literature,

politics, arts, and science. The main purpose was to create a range of images and

ideas which could represent the modernist flow as a separate artistic and historical

movement. In this inaugural issue we tried to demonstrate how the major events on

the year 1939 could be represented by a single literary person. For this issue is

dedicated to Wystan Hugh Auden and his three poems, which are representative of

such events as the death of a major literary figure, W.H. Yeats, the outbreak of the

Word War II, and the death of a prominent scientist Sigmund Freud.

There is another aspect of the year 1939, which deserve to be the part of this issue.

Our friends from the US are developing their film industry and growing faster as a

modern artistic movement. Moreover, Pablo Picasso created number of paintings,

which could be a significant finish for the decade of cubist movement. For this is the

purpose of art and this issue of the magazine “Modernist Times.”

Best wishes,

Hugh Andersen

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Table of contents

World War II………………………………………….4

September 1, 1939 by W. H. Auden ……..…….……5

Sigmund Freud ………………………………….……6

In Memory of Sigmund Freud by W. H. Auden …..7

W.B. Yeats …………………………………………...8

In Memory of W. B. Yeats by W. H. Auden ………..9

Gone with the Wind ………………………………. 10

Pablo Picasso ……………………………………….11

Reference List ………………………………………12

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What can impact our

society more than devastating

military actions aimed to disturb

peace in our world?

It was an early morning

of the 1st September when the German

Nazi troops violated the territorial

boundaries of Poland.

This became a watershed

moment of 1939, when the Second

World War became inevitable.

Minds of ordinary people

continue to be affected by this turning

point in our modern history. Being

here, at the beginning of 1940s it is

unclear what will happen tomorrow and

which outcomes this war might bring.

Our favourite British poet

being far away in the United States

revealed his concern about the war and

innocent people, who are the victims

of authorities’ political games.

Here comes his poem “September 1,

1939” by W.H. Auden with

little explanation of our

magazine.

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1939 in the History WORLD WAR II

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Auden underlines how the outbreak of

the war summarises this time period. He

places personal emotions to the centre of

the occurring events.

I sit in one of the dives

On Fifty-second Street

Uncertain and afraid

As the clever hopes expire

Of a low dishonest decade:

Waves of anger and fear

Circulate over the bright

And darkened lands of the earth,

Obsessing our private lives;

The unmentionable odour of death

Offends the September night.

In this poem one can find the reflection

on the pain of the Word War One, which

continues to be influential among the

modernist artists. Auden places the

reasons for the war as the absurd

decision of the authorities, which put the

individuals into the sufferings.

And what dictators do,

The elderly rubbish they talk

To an apathetic grave;

Analysed all in his book,

The enlightenment driven away,

The habit-forming pain,

Mismanagement and grief:

We must suffer them all again.

Auden is a like a lighthouse, burning for

those who remain unprotected against

the will of the “imperial authorities”.

Defenceless under the night

Our world in stupor lies;

Yet, dotted everywhere,

Ironic points of light

Flash out wherever the Just

Exchange their messages:

May I, composed like them

Of Eros and of dust,

Beleaguered by the same

Negation and despair,

Show an affirming flame.

September 1, 1939

by W. H. Auden

Painting By P. Picasso “Cassagemas in

His Coffin”

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1939 in the History Sigmund Freud passes away

The same September of the year 1939 brought us another

dreadful event. The father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud

died in London after a long disease. This person made an

immense contribution to the modernist thinking as well as

turned psychology into the separate field of science.

Freud questioned the rationale of human behaviour and proved

the complexity of mind in his studies. Thus, he created a field

for the modernist writers for self-conscious images and inner

motives to perceive the reality as they see it.

In Memory of Sigmund Freud

by W. H. Auden

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The poem dedicated to the memory of Sigmund Freud is also personal for

Auden. The death treats everyone equally, although Freud was a very

prominent person for many of us.

Auden is also attached to him because of their exile from the homeland and

impossibility to return back. The death that found Freud during his

expatriation brings the feeling of sadness to what Auden is writing about in

the poem.

When there are so many we shall

have to mourn,

when grief has been made so

public, and exposed

to the critique of a whole epoch

the frailty of our conscience and

anguish,

of whom shall we speak? For

every day they die

among us, those who were doing

us some good,

who knew it was never enough

but

hoped to improve a little by

living.

For about him till the very end were still

those he had studied, the fauna of the night,

and shades that still waited to enter

the bright circle of his recognition

turned elsewhere with their disappointment

as he

was taken away from his life interest

to go back to the earth in London,

an important Jew who died in exile.

Painting By P. Picasso “Guernica”

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In Memory of W. B. Yeats

by W. H. Auden

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Auden places the death of Yeats into

the daily routine of the ordinary

people. At the same time, there is a

specific oddity in this day and it must

bring something different into their

lives, feelings or emotions, like it

affected Auden himself.

But in the importance and noise of

to-morrow

When the brokers are roaring like

beasts on the floor of the Bourse,

And the poor have the sufferings to

which they are fairly accustomed,

And each in the cell of himself is

almost convinced of his freedom,

A few thousand will think of this

day

As one thinks of a day when one did

something slightly unusual.

The same as Sigmund Freud, Yeats,

despite his talents, was an ordinary

man and death treated him equally as

others. The matter of his talent was

nothing, but a gift to write poetry or

bear it as something long-lasting

inside.

You were silly like us; your gift

survived it all:

The parish of rich women,

physical decay,

Yourself. Mad Ireland hurt you

into poetry.

Now Ireland has her madness

and her weather still,

For poetry makes nothing

happen: it survives

The last part of the poem is an attempt

to predict the emerging disaster of the

war in Europe. Auden proceeds by

making the poet to survive within the

falling world and bear his duty to

illuminate the path for others.

Intellectual disgrace

Stares from every human

face,

And the seas of pity lie

Locked and frozen in each

eye.

Follow, poet, follow right

To the bottom of the night,

With your unconstraining

voice

Still persuade us to rejoice;

With the farming of a verse

Make a vineyard of the curse,

Painting By P. Picasso “The Poet”

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1939 in the History of Film

A North American film industry proceeds to flourish and the following film is

the best justification for such claim. During the year 1939 there were number

of the great movies, which already became masterpieces of their time. “Gone

with the Wind” is the brightest example for what should be recorded in the

history of film from the third decade of the 20th

century.

GONE WITH THE WIND

Directed by Viktor Fleming and

starring Thomas Mitchell with

Barbara O'Neil the film “Gone

with the Wind” (1939) is one of

the first coloured movies. It was

adapted from Margaret Mitchel’s

prize winning novel and narrated

us a story from southern part of

the US. In the center of the movie

is the main character Scarlett

O'Hara and her life during the civil

war.

The film is already nominated to

16 Oscar awards. Next ceremony

must reveal how many of them

“Gone with the Wind” could get.

This is a modern adaptation of a

novel which is represented in an

absolutely new way, and this

deserves the attention of our reads

as one of the best movies of the

last year.

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PABLO PICASSO (1939)

Pablo Picasso as one

of the leading artists in

the cubic movement

finishes the decade

with number of

impressive paintings,

which convey his

usual style and at the

same time bring up the

modern motives of a

decade.

The themes, discussed by Picasso are similar to what Auden discusses on in his

previous three works. Thus, the ideas of death and life are dominant in all these

works presented by the artists. For Auden the death was an inevitable consequence

for all human beings and it made everyone equal before the higher powers.

However, for Picasso it seems to

be an essential part of the life,

when the strongest survives by

killing the weakest. Human being

is also a part of this cycle and in

Picasso’s artistic expression there

are also other powers to decide on

his fate. For Auden claimed the

responsibility of authorities over

the death of ordinary man, Picasso

also feels the darkness arising in

the continent and the theme of

death and life becomes central at

the dawn of the Second World

War.

Night Fishing at Antibes

Still Life with Bull’s Skull

Cat Eating a Bird

Reference List

• Royde-Smith, John Graham. "World War II (1939-45)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

• Auden, W. H. "September 1, 1939." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.

• Auden, W. H. "In Memory of Sigmund Freud." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.

• Auden, W. H. "In Memory of W. B. Yeats." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.

• "Freud, Sigmund." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2014.

• "W. B. Yeats." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2014.

• "Gone with the Wind." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2014.

• Picasso, Pablo. The Poet. 1910. N.p.

• Picasso, Pablo. Guernica. 1937. N.p.

• Picasso, Pablo. Cassagemas in His Coffin. 1901. N.p.

• Picasso, Pablo. Night Fishing at Antibes. 1939. N.p.

• Picasso, Pablo. Still Life with Bull’s Skull. 1939. N.p.

• Picasso, Pablo. Cat Eating a Bird. 1939. N.p.

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