DEEP CULTURAL CRISIS

LACK OF VALUES

NO MORE FAITH IN SCIENCE AND PROGRESS

RELIGION (NO CONFORT)

STABILITY AND PROSPERITY ONLY FOR TH PRIVILEGED

NEW CONCPTS OF MAN AND THE UNIVERSE

CONSCIENCES HAUNTED BY ATROCITIES OF WAR

INCREASING FEELING OF FRUSTRATION

NEW VIEWS OF SPACE AND TIME

SLOW DISSOLUTIONS OF THE EMPIRE

 S. FREUD (1856-1939):
news ideas influenced artists and writers and poets
= human psyche is influenced by irrational forces which man knows nothing about
and it was disturbing
= effects on family relationships

HUMAN PSYCHE influenced by the SUBCONSCIOUS (irrational forces)

MODEL OF MAN’S PSYCHE: ID (impusive part of our psyche, responds to instincts)
EGO (the decision making component of our personality)
SUPEREGO (incorporates the values and moral of society)

PSYCHOANALYSIS =

(treatment to give voice to the patient’s thoughts, dreams through association of ideas)
 MODERNISM
PICASSO AND REYNOLDS
At the beginning of the 20th (twentieth) century many artists, writers and musicians saw themselves as the
leaders of a new artistic age.

Modernism is the terms that describes a wide variety of innovative movements in Europe and in America in
art, literature and music.

In art it was characterized by a volcanic explosion of experimental techniques that incorporated everything
from primitive art to classical forms with a passionate use of colour and geometric simplicity. This all led to
CUBISM, ABSTRACT ART, VORTICISM AND FUTURISM.

In music Schoenberg invented a serial system of compositions (the atonal system) with dissonance and

In fiction it refers to those writers and novelists who experimented with new forms and tried to explore
mental processes that develop in human mind through the Interior monologue technique.

In poetry slang was used and less adherence to punctuation gave a totally free flow to the poem

Modernism applied to literature the theories of two philosophers:

W. James Henry Bergson

stated that consciousness was a stream of saw time as a flowing continuity (a flux) and not as
thoughts, the mind records experience in a a sequence of separate points moving
continuum of past, present and future. chronological forwards.

But novels and character analysis and presentation were also influenced by new views of the universe and
man

S. Freud A. Einstein F. Nietsche

(new concept of our Theory of relativity Rejection of absolute
psyche) Time and space are moral values and
subjective dimensions Christian morality

Modernist writers
Unlike the psychological novel (that dealt with the rational communication)
the INTERIOR MONOLOGUE TECHNIQUE is concerned with the area which is beyond communication

Modernists abandoned plot, time because they were arbitrary structures

They considered consciousness as a series of conscious and unconscious levels interfering one with the
other.

There are two levels of consciousness:

The speech level The pre-speech level

Which can be communicated both orally and in Which has no communicative basis:
writing It is not rationally controlled or logically ordered

TRADITIONAL NOVEL MODERNISM

Omniscient narrator Disappearance of omniscient narrator

External characterization Internal and external narration

For thoughts flowing freely only

Chronological presentation of a story
(sequence of events in a well-made plot)
Internal perspective
(analysis of the mind of the character)
An impression, a sensation, brings to the
surface emotions of the past.
Use of a new prose to analyse the mind of the
characters, to convey the complexities and the
fragmentations of thoughts, the free
associations.

the psychological novel (dealt with the rational the INTERIOR MONOLOGUE TECHNIQUE is
communication) concerned with the area which is beyond
communication
= verbal expression of a psychic phenomenon)

The stream of consciousness or the continuous flow

of thoughts and sensations that characterise human
mind.

A character in a series of testing circumstances

to reveal the whole human truth about him

The characters are hero-like (adventures) The characters are not heroes but empty
people.
The writers are concerned with their fate and The writers are concerned with the moment
future they are living
At the beginning of the 20th (twentieth) century many artists, writers and musicians saw themselves as the
leaders of a new artistic age.

Modernism is the terms that describes a wide variety of innovative movements in Europe and in America in
art, literature and music.

In art it was characterized by a volcanic explosion of experimental techniques that incorporated everything
from primitive art to classical forms with a passionate use of colour and geometric simplicity. This all led to
CUBISM, ABSTRACT ART, VORTICISM AND FUTURISM.

In music Schoenberg invented a serial system of compositions (the atonal system) with dissonance and

In fiction it refers to those writers and novelists who experimented with new forms and tried to explore
mental processes that develop in human mind through the Interior monologue technique.

In poetry slang was used and less adherence to punctuation gave a totally free flow to the poem

Modernism applied to literature the theories of two philosophers:

W. James Henry Bergson

stated that consciousness was a stream of saw time as a flowing continuity (a flux) and not as
thoughts, the mind records experience in a a sequence of separate points moving
continuum of past, present and future. chronological forwards.

But novels and character analysis and presentation were also influenced by new views of the universe and
man

S. Freud A. Einstein F. Nietsche

(new concept of our Theory of relativity Rejection of absolute
psyche) Time and space are moral values and
subjective dimensions Christian morality

Modernist writers: V. Woolf, J. Joyce, TS Elliot, G. Orwell, J. Conrad, WH Auden

Unlike the psychological novel (that dealt with the rational communication)
the INTERIOR MONOLOGUE TECHNIQUE is concerned with the area which is beyond communication

Modernists abandoned plot, time because they were arbitrary structures

They considered consciousness as a series of conscious and unconscious levels interfering one with the
other.

There are two levels of consciousness:

The speech level The pre-speech level

Which can be communicated both orally and in Which has no communicative basis:
writing It is not rationally controlled or logically ordered
TRADITIONAL NOVEL MODERNISM
Omniscient narrator Disappearance of omniscient narrator

External characterization Internal (to the character’s mind) and external

narration

For thoughts flowing freely only Internal perspective

(analysis of the mind of the character)

Chronological presentation of a story Use of a new prose to analyse the mind of the
(sequence of events in a well-made plot) characters, to convey the complexities and the
fragmentations of thoughts, the free
associations.

the psychological novel (dealt with the rational the INTERIOR MONOLOGUE TECHNIQUE is
communication) concerned with the area which is beyond
communication
= verbal expression of a psychic phenomenon)

The stream of consciousness or the continuous flow

of thoughts and sensations that characterise human
mind.

A character in a series of testing circumstances

to reveal the whole human truth about him

The characters are hero-like (adventures) The characters are not heroes but empty
people.
The writers are concerned with their fate and The writers are concerned with the moment
future they are living