World War I and Modernism: Cultural Impact and Literary Themes
World War I and Modernism: 1914-1918
Centered in Europe, World War I involved two opposing alliances: The Allies, based on the Triple Entente of the UK, France, and Russia, and the Central Powers, the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. The war marked the rise of America as a global power. After World War I, the U.S. became the greatest power in the world, despite a tradition of non-involvement in foreign affairs. This shift is reflected in American writings, such as George W.‘s valedictorian speech.
Although defeated twice, Germany remained a powerful and dynamic country in Europe.
Cultural Impact of World War I
Rupert Brooke was a popular and widely read poet in the UK, while Wilfred Owen offered a powerful representation of war poetry. Both died on the war front.
Among the young population, there was a sense of wasted life. German youth who went to war experienced a clash with reality. In 1916, two major battles occurred: Verdun (Germany vs. France) and the Somme (British Army vs. Germany). The Somme became the biggest massacre in British military history.
Mary Borden demonstrated her capabilities, commitment, and sense of moral responsibility through her war service. She became a daring writer of war trauma, using her inheritance to create a mobile hospital unit that shifted along the front lines.
The Forbidden Zone is a collection of impressionist sketches, prose poems, fragments, and stories about her hospital service during World War I. The book is anti-conventional, reflecting Mary’s independence, service ethic, and protest against the brutal results of the war.
Dichotomies: moon vs. death, no place for women, no fertility…
Modernist Literature
American Modernism covered a wide variety of topics, including race relationships, gender roles, and sexuality. It reached its peak in America from the 1920s up to the 1940s.
Factors contributing to the rise of Modernism include the growth of cities, World War I, progress, and alienation.
Features of Modernism include internationalism and the experience of migration (e.g., Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald lived in Paris).
Pre-Modernist vs. Modernist World
- Pre-Modernist World: ordered, hierarchical, stable faith, clear sense of identity.
- Modernist World: chaos, dynamic, futile, unstable, loss of faith, and confused sense of identity.
Dadaism offered an ironical and sarcastic treatment of technology and its harm to human beings, suspending Aristotelian categories. There was a new focus on sensations, incomplete perceptions, and personal impressions, without claiming to represent objective truth. Emphasis shifted from plot to introspective analysis, allusions, suggestions, and dreams.
Temporality, traditionally represented in a linear fashion, changed to capture the fluctuations of the mind. Chronological time was often combined with a subjective representation. Aesthetic values such as clarity, unity of effect, and proportion lost currency in favor of a style that sought to represent the disordered and fragmented quality of modern experience. Juxtapositions, fragmentation, and collage became central artistic devices.
Minimalist designs in poetry are exemplified by Ezra Pound’s “The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet black bough.”
Examples in Literature
“Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway: Man: rational, decided. Woman: emotional, undecided. Abortion is never mentioned explicitly; he is trying to convince her. There is a lack of consideration for her state. He dismisses it as “simple surgery,” trivializing the procedure. The lack of meaning a baby has for the man contrasts with the woman’s desire for maternity. There is pressure of being pregnant before marriage.
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner: Gothic elements include an old mansion, mystery, and dust. Nobody knows what’s happening inside. There is a bad smell, necrophilia, a dead body (Homer), and the controlling Father. The title signifies pity for her, as her father controlled her life. She doesn’t have to pay taxes because Sartoris thought it would be better, as she only owns the house. The Negro man, unnamed, is a servant and the link between the outside and inside, a slave. He doesn’t want to reveal what’s happening. He is a faithful servant, and both reproduce the old social order.
Modernism: the landscape (street) changes, but not the house. Emily is living in the past. She is a victim of the past in the old South. Homer is the man Emily’s father didn’t want for her. The epiphany moment is the grey hair.
The Roaring Twenties
The Roaring Twenties characterize the distinctive cultural edge of the 1920s, principally in American cities, during a period of sustained economic prosperity.
The 1920s era went by such names as the Jazz Age and the Age of Intolerance, and it embodied the beginning of modern America. America had survived a deadly worldwide influenza pandemic. The new decade of the Roaring Twenties would be a time of change for everyone.