periods

modernism: 1900 - 1950

  • poems written in 2024 may be in modernist style

  • focused on input

postmodernism: 1950 - present day

  • surface, nothing hidden

  • second layer =

  • singularity n clarity

  • significant overlap

  • tropes of everyday life

  • comfortable to showcase ‘stupid’ things of daily life

  • focused on output

  • structuralism, post-structuralism

    • structures formed by previous experiences could be bigoted ie racist, patriarch-minded » sexist, classist, capitalistic, straight, ecologist etc

Realism:

  • dickensian literature

  • 1840s

  • impressionist period:

    • 1880s

    • claude monet

    • art of tangible objects

    • haystack painting:

      • it’s like he’s painting his impression of it/expressing how he sees it

      • haystack = 40%

      • feeling = 60%

      • Romanticises the experiences of the working-class ∴ politically aggressive

      • eventually, the vibe and essence of the art begins to outweigh the photorealism of the art »»» abstract art

  • abstract expressionism:

    • 20th century

    • the erasure of the ego and intention of the delivery of the final piece of the art

    • william blake » hidden behind the ‘nursery rhyme’ of the garden of love

    • time unfolding

“all art aspires towards the condition of music.” walter payter

  • music is 100% vibe/an aesthetic experience

  • the content is the form

  • made over a process of time, heard over time

events affecting first part of the 20th century (modernism):

  • first n second world wars, mass death, meaningless slaughter

  • atomic bomb

  • economic recessions

    • tumult of economic booms

  • innovation, rise of technology

    • photography innovation led to death of photorealistic art

  • spanish flu

  • further scientific discovery

    • subatomic particles

    • ostensibly anti-religion » express of information/computer code/maths

  • increased interest in psychology

    • each

    • sigmund freud

  • sinking of the titanic

    • anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal n fallic

  • suffragettes

    • liberal mindset, social progression

  • civil rights

  • queer equality

    • alan turing

  • socialism established

    • nhs

    • free n equal education

  • holocaust

  • breaking down of class system n role of monarchy

    • move towards more social balance

jazz in the 1900s:

  • art is generally ‘changeable’ » different interpretations,

how do these influences manifest themselves in the literature of the time?

  • wilful obscurity

  • commitment to verisimilitude

    • verisimilitude: honest, realistic

  • everyday working-class imagery

  • interest in complex individualism

  • stream-of-consciousness

    • to do with the continuity of thoughts

    • ulysses, james joyce

  • interest in psychological interiority

mid 20th century societal factors:

  • rise mass consumerism

  • nuclear family

  • mass media

  • homogenous culture

  • obsession with surface over substance

  • not interested in process, only output

  • ennui - boredom