Modernist+period-+3rd

media type="custom" key="4503350" =**.:Modernist Period:. **= **T. S. Eliot ** 1888-1965 "Any poet, if he is to survive beyond his 25th year, must alter; he must seek new literary influences; he will have a different emotions to express." "Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things." It is necessary for students to study the eras of American literature in order to learn about the roots of the literary pieces they are reading and the various earlier elements that continue to influence modern day works of writing. The variety of literary periods throughout America's history, starting as early as the 1600s, have played an imperative role in shaping the style, form, and language of writing in all succeeding generations by blending the old and new fashions to create a mixture of well loved and enjoyed works. In addition, students will learn to appreciate the struggles, historical events, and cultural contexts which caused transformation in writing and distinct transitions between literary eras. The pieces of writing that students read from various eras will give them first hand insight into situations of the time period and provide understanding of the complexities of life at that time. Click [|here] to be redirected to a blog for you to post your opinions.

History of Modernism Modernism is known for its radical individualism, experimentation, and the use of irony. The Modernist Period of 1900 to1950 is seen as ushering in a new era and the belief that knowledge is not absolute. It broke away from traditional thoughts and culture, which was exhilarating and upsetting in the way that it allowed a wide variety of new possibilities while questioning formally accepted thoughts or beliefs. Most of the works written during this period were usually written in first person, which revealed the author's thoughts and feelings on the subject. This period was more exposing of human feelings and advocating free speech and beliefs.

The American Revolution led to the French Revolution, which in return led to the Revolutions of 1848. These revolutions triggered the desire of new thoughts and new lifestyle that would not confine them. The Enlightenment, which occurred in Europe and America, allowed for new and less restricted thinking. The American Enlightenment, however, was more receptive to the idea of what at that time would be radical thinking. As a result, this inspired social movements (women's suffrage), institution of representative democracy (The United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution), and individualism throughout America. Other important events that helped spurred this period included the two World Wars. Important people that helped illustrate Modernism in images are Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque who were able to show the breakdown of modern culture.

//For more information on modernism in literature [|click here].//

Autobiography of T.S. Eliot // "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." //

* This is not a full autobiography of my life. It starts from my years at Harvard and continues through the rest of my life. For a full biography of my life please visit: []

While I was at Harvard I studied under Irving Babbitt and George Santayana whose ideas wholly helped to shape mine. In winter of 1908, while I was at the Harvard Union Library, I found Arthur Symons' __The Symbolist Movement in Literature__. In this book I read the poetry of Jules Laforgue, who would come to influence my style and help me in my early days as a poet. After graduating from Harvard, I spent my post graduate year in Paris and saw many important people including Pablo Picasso. I returned to Harvard for my doctorate in philosophy. I worked amid George Santayana, William James, and Josiah Royce. During this time my friend Conrad Aiken had shown my manuscripts to Ezra Pound, a person who is not easily impressed. Once seeing my manuscripts Ezra was impressed and he and I would work together for the rest of my days. By the end of my stay at Harvard, my teachers considered me considered me as a colleague.

Upon my return from a fellowship in Germany, which was cut short by the First World War, my friend Scofield Thayer introduced me to Vivien Haigh-Wood, a dancer and a friend of his sister’s. Vivien’s frankness removed my hesitancy that I usually felt around women. I was introduced to Vivien in the early spring of 1915 and by June of that same year Vivien and I were married. When my parents had heard of my impulsive marriage and learned of Vivien’s emotional and physical problems, they were discouraged by my marriage. At first Vivien and I stayed with my friend Bertrand Russell, but then Vivien and Bertrand were starting to become involved and I knew we had to leave. In 1917 I, with the great help of Ezra and his wife Dorothy, was able to publish my first book //Prufrock and Other Observations// which included // [|The Love Story of J. Alferd Prufrock]//.

My father died in 1919, leaving me feeling extremely guilty that I had not been able to fix the feelings my father had about my marriage and flight from America to England. Around the same time my wife Vivien’s emotional and physical state was deteriorating even more which added great stress to my life. Unfortunately my mind could not handle all of this stress and I suffered from a nervous collapse in 1921, upon which I took a three-month repose from work. This much needed repose allowed me to finish writing my extensive poem, //[|The Waste Land]//, which was describing post-World War I Europe and hints at my marriage with Vivien. This one poem is the one that I would eventually become known by. Once again in 1923 Vivien’s emotional state was affecting my life. Vivien nearly died, because of which, I almost had a second nervous breakdown. It did not help that I could not find solace in my parents' religion of Unitarianism, so in June of 1927 I was baptized into the Church of England which made the rest of my poems have a more religious view. Another turning point in my life occurred later that year when I became a British citizen.

During the last half of my career and life I tried to attract a larger, varied audience, by writing several dramas. In 1938 I had to have Vivien committed to Northumberland, a mental hospital, for her emotional state had reached a point that I could no longer manage single-handedly. In 1943 I wrote my next major poem, [|Four Quartets], which for some time had taken the place of //The Waste Land// as my most popular poem among my supporters. Post-World War II, I stopped writing poetry and continued to write dramas and literary essays. Vivien died in 1947 and upon her death, I moved in with John Hayward, a critic. The following year in 1948 I received the Nobel Prize for Literature. I later remarried in 1957 to Valerie Fletcher, who made me the most at ease than any other part of my life.

//T.S. Eliot died in London and, according to his wishes, his ashes were laid to rest in the church of St. Michael's in East Coker. In the church there is a commemorative plaque that bears his epitaph: “In my beginning is my end. In my end is my beginning.” which are lines from// Four Quartets//.//

Influential Thinkers and Writers in the Modernist Period ** Ezra Pound (1885-1972) ** __ “Men do not understand books until they have a certain amount of life, or at any rate no man understands a deep book, until he has seen and lived at least part of its contents.” __ Pound was a poet who was an influential exponent in shaping the “modern” movement in American literature. He helped shape numerous poets and novelists such as William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Frost, and T.S. Eliot. He took a Chinese poem and translated it into English. His style reflected a new, adult poetry that discussed current issues in everyday language. He utilized concrete details and images to effectively illustrate moments of experience.

**William Faulkner (1897-1962) ** “Read, read, read. Read everything - trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out the window."  Faulkner wrote about many depressing issues of the day including historical growth and the inferiority of the South compared to the North. He used actual historical drama in each of his novels to contribute to a bigger project which described the hardships of the people in the South. He also discussed the precarious relationships and problems between the Negros and dominant white society.

**Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) ** "Writing is rewriting.” Hemingway was known for his clear and brief writing style. He wrote in short and simple sentences that relied on repetition and rhythm for a lasting effect. This style was one of the most widely imitated during the Modernist time period. The characters in his writing reflected his own values and views in life. To Hemingway, war was synonymous to the world, in that they both are filled with unavoidable confusion, pain, and destruction. In his opinion, in order to survive in this kind of world, one must live with honor and dignity. 



   <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 200%; text-align: center;"> __ "Freedom lies in being bold." __ <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: center;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 126%; text-align: center;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 126%; text-align: left;">Frost used traditional verse forms and metrics and wasn't active in the poetic modernist movements of this era. He wrote in colloquial language and wasn't afraid of writing as actual people spoke. His works were filled with ambiguity and irony. The natural world was two contrasting ideas for him. He desired to be "new" by utilizing old ways, which set him in the place as a transitional figure between the old and the new in poetry. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: center;">
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 200%; text-align: center;">Robert Frost (1874-1963) **<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 180%; text-align: center;">

**<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 200%; text-align: center;">E. E. Cummings (1894-1962) ** “Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Cummings abandoned traditional techniques and experimented with form, punctuation, spelling, and syntax. He also created a highly idiosyncratic means of poetic expression. Later on, he was denounced for not continuing this experimentation and further evolving his unique style. He appealed to young readers because of his simple language, playful tone, and concentration to certain subjects such as war. His moods were either satirical, tender, or whimsical and often used street language and materials from the circus. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: center;">

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 200%; text-align: center;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%; text-align: center;"> ** Thomas Edison (1847-1931) ** “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” Edison was a renowned American inventor who had 1,093 patents, which was considered a world record, and created the first research laboratory in the world. He played a significant role in developing the modern age of electricity. He tested over 6,000 different materials for the filament in his light bulb before finding the right one. He was also the inventor of many creations, though not restricted to, the phonograph, the carbon-button transmitter for the telephone speaker and microphone, the incandescent lamp, a highly efficient generator, the first commercial power system, and key principles for creating motion-pictures. Though he had many failures, he never gave up and continued to work up until his 80's.

** Albert Einstein (1879-1955) ** "Logic will get you from from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." Einstein was a talented scientist who was instrumental in the development of modern physics. While he was studying the nature of light, he discovered that the speed of light is constant regardless of how fast one moves. Although this violated Newton's laws of motion, because of the absence of absolute velocity, he was bold enough to formulate the principle of relatively: "the speed of light is constant in any inertial frame (constantly moving frame)." In Einstein's miracle year of 1905, he published four papers regarding his new found principle and other topics that would adjust the path of physics thereafter.

**The Wright Brothers** “If we worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true really is true, then there would be little hope for advance” Orville and Wilbur Wright were American inventors who achieved the unthinkable when they created the first powered and controlled airplane flight and flew the first airplane. The successful trial in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, was a major breakthrough for them. The brothers were independent thinkers and had a deep trust and confidence in their skills and knowledge. This helped them to continue amidst numerous failures and create an invention that the modern world would seem incomplete without. <span class="wiki_link_ext">[|Footage of First Flight]