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