LITERARY MODERNISM Definition Certain writers, painters, and musicians found new ways of percei in!

rea"ity t#at came to $e defined as modernism%not a period of time $ut a commitment to e&perimentation in tec#ni'ues, freedom in ideas, ori!ina"ity in perceptions, and se"f(e&amination in emotions) In !enera" it manifests a re*ection of traditiona" tec#ni'ues and une&amined a"ues) It often%not in aria$"y% e&presses t#e p"i!#t of t#e indi idua" in a wor"d of mac#inery and commercia"ism) +er#aps t#e !reatest inf"uence on t#e ways writers endea ored to con ey e&perience was t#e stream(of( consciousness or interior mono"o!ue of ,ames ,oyce-s ."ysses /01223) .ti"i4in! one day in Du$"in, ,oyce e&p"ored t#e interior "i es of #is c#aracters $y means of t#e association of ideas and sensory impressions) No e"ist ,o#n Dos +assos adapted ,oyce-s tec#ni'ues to American "ife) 5is Man#attan Transfer /01263 connects #undreds of episodes to con ey a sense of New Yor7 City) T#e stron!est inf"uence on "iterary modernism was t#e new psyc#o"o!y wit# its ana"ysis of t#e operations of t#e unconscious and myt#) Si!mund 8reud e&p"icated t#e id, e!o, and supere!o9 and Car" ,un! identified :t#e co""ecti e unconscious,: Source; 8rederic 5offman, T#e Twenties9 American <ritin! in t#e +ostwar Decade, re ised edition /New Yor7; Co""ier, 01=23) C#aracteristics of Modernism in Literature /"ate 01t# (ear"y 2>t# century3 ? a "ac7 of concern wit# con entiona" mora"ity /<oo"f, ,oyce3 ? modern c#aracters constant"y contradict t#emse" es9 t#ey are !uided $y irrationa" $etraya"s t#rou!# p"ots in w#ic# not#in! ery muc# #appens /<oo"f, 5emin!way3 ? a focus on t#e inner "i es of c#aracters and t#eir fe"t responses to e&perience /<oo"f3 ? a "ac7 of concern wit# c#rono"o!y /not immediate"y e ident in t#ese stories3 ? a dis*ointed, terse, te"e!rap#ic sty"e /5emin!way3 ? a sense of radica" newness, of t#e apoca"yptic and of destruction and deso"ation /5emin!way3 ? a fee"in! of a"ienation /5emin!way3 ? moti es t#at are #inted at rat#er t#an e&p"icit"y e&p"ained /,oyce, <oo"f, 5emin!way3 ? sym$o"ism /e)!) <oo"f@s anima" ima!ery, 5emin!way@s mac#ines3 ? s#oc7in! t#emes /,oyce3 5emin!way A Ice$er! t#eory If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing) AErnest 5emin!way