SYNTHESIS OF MODERNISM (I)

[Lesson of the 12.11.2009]

Modernism is a cultural movement organized into two periods: the first one (1890-1914) is characterized by the faith in progress and humans skills, and the second one (1914-1930), as a consequence of the I Word War, is represented by the destruction of every human certainly.

The I Wold War shocked a whole generation: the idea of war changed and also the function of science and technology. At first, science helped people to simplify their life but during the war, It consented to destroy humankind.

After the world war, France and Britain were not the world powers as they were at the end of the conflict: they were substituted by U.S.A and Russia.

Europe was going through a period of economical crisis. People were jobless and they expected the State to help them, but it isn't so.

The second period of Modernism underlined the contradiction of the Liberal system:

• people was jobless;
• capitalism had to be substituted by socialism, as Marx suggested in his work published in G. Britain;
• people revolted themselves to capitalism in the Bolshevik revolution.

Literature was the translation of the general crisis into works.

In the early 20 years of Modernism there was a sure point of reference: God.

Man thought to have a position in the world, justified by religious believes, but in the second period of modernism, there was no God, no point of reference.

The result was that in novels, a point of view of the author/narrator lacked.

There was not an omniscient narrator that provided to inform the reader of pieces of information and provided to give judgements on characters and story.

Also the idea of space and time changed: considering A. Einstein theory of relativity, they are not two different entities and they changes according with the point of view of the observer.

Moreover time is perceive simultaneously: in people's mind, in the present, there is the coexistence of past and future.

The consequence is that the real time of a novel is only one day long, but it tells also about the future and the past of the character because the author is inside his mind.