Modernism

MODERNISM: International movement which expresses the desire to break with established forms and subjects, exploring the characters psyches through the stream of consciousness technique and the interior monologue.

When? - First decades of the 20th century
Where? - in Europe as well as in America

People living in this period experienced felt that the system of belief and morality which were associated with traditional religion could no longer be valid and that the only sure point of reference that any individual had was himself: it was for him to decide what was right and wrong and to act accordingly.
There was no set of values, either social or personal, to which writers could confidently refer to and be sure they were valid for everyone, consequently they left their characters to speak for themselves, to present their own version of reality, without interviewing.
--> As a consequence novelists disappeared from their own works: moral criticism and humorous observations are completely absent.

Novelists had to mediate between the unquestioned values of the past and the confused present: indeed the new novel doesn't bring about moral convictions or the security of the predecessors and the judgement is left to the reader as well as the discovery of meaning.

In fact the narrator is invisible and the story is self told: it follows an absence of comments or judgements so that the novel results permeated by a sense of uncertainty and ambiguity.

Influences from other fields:
Science: in 1906 Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity said that space and time did not exist as separate absolute phenomena, but changed according the P.O.V. of the observed
Philosophy:
- Bergson argued that it is an illusion to think of time as an independent medium which contains events in a certain sequence since past, present and future coexist in people’s mind.
- Freud in “The Interpretation of Dreams” argued that people’s behaviour depends very largely on the unconscious part of their minds.

FEATURES:
- Awareness that our perception of reality is necessary uncertain, temporary and subject to change: emphasis on subjectivity, on how perception take place, rather than on what perceived.
- The third person omniscent narrator's objectivity, fixed narrative point of view and clear moral positions were rejected in favour of new methods to portray individual consciousness such as the stream of consciousness technique and the interior monologue;
- The narrator turns inside the people's consciences to explore the flux of his mental experience;
- The viewpoint shifted from the external world to the character's mind underling the importance of unconscious life;
- Time becomes subjective and internal since the distinction between past and preset was meaningless in psychological terms and therefore there was no use in building a well-structured plot with a chronological sequence of events;
- The intensity of the isolated "moment"/"image" to provides true insight into the nature of things: Joyce's "epiphany" is the sudden revelation of an interior reality caused by trivial events of everyday life;
- Use of allusive language, multiple associations of words and symbolism;
- Self-conscious overturning of the conventions of bourgeois realism;
- Substitution of the mythical for a realistic method;
- Need to reflect the complexity of modern urban life;
- Rejection of elaborate formal aesthetic theories in favour of spontaneity;
- Facts and storyline are reduced to the minimum;

English Test Correction
Modernism developed in the first decades of the 20th century in Europe as well as in America as a consequence of the desire to overtake the old literary forms exploring the characters psyches through the stream of consciousness technique and the interior monologue.

Thanks to the use of these techniques novelists became invisible avoiding judgements on characters or events, therefore the new novel doesn't show moral convictions and every judgement is left to the reader.

The new novel presents a lot of differences from the Victorian novel which presented a third person omniscient narrator who offered an external point of view and clear moral positions.
In modern literature the point of view turns inside character's mind, underlining the importance of the unconscious, and the "stream of conscious" technique offered the reader direct access to the character's thoughts. Because of this even time becomes subjective and therefore writers stopped structuring their novel with long plots made up with chronological sequences of events.

Another important feature of the modern novel was Joyce's "ephiphany" which is the revelation of an interior reality caused by an event of everyday life.

Modernism also reject the aesthetic elaborate forms in favour of spontaneity, modern literature is also filled with symbolism and allusive language.