Postwar Uncertainty

Postwar Uncertainty Chap 15: 1

Impact of World War I • Shattered Enlightenment belief in progress & reason • People began to question traditional beliefs • Scientific discoveries challenged the way we looked at the world • Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud usher in a new Scientific Revolution which causes people to see the world in more uncertain terms

Albert Einstein • His theory of relativity states that measurements of space and time are not absolute but are determined by the relative position of the observer. • His theory raised questions about absolute laws of Newtonian science which compared the universe to a machine operating according to absolute laws. • Led to uncertainty

Freud • Freud’s ideas were as rev’y as Einsteins • He believed much of human behavior is irrational • The irrat’l part of the brain is called the subconscious which consists of pleasure –seeking drives which we repress. • Tension between learned social values & repressed drives can cause mental illness

Sigmund Freud • Challenged faith in reason • Suggested that the unconscious mind drives human behavior • In civilized society, learned values such as morality & reason cause people to repress powerful urges

Impact of WWI on Literature • Brutality of the war also caused people to question accepted ideas about reason & progress • T.S. Eliot wrote the Wasteland in which he writes“Western society had lost its spiritual values.” • Described postwar world as a barren “wasteland” drained of hope and faith

Hemingway – The Sun Also Rises • Wrote about the meaningless wanderings of young people who lacked deep convictions • “I did not care what it was all about. All I wanted to know was how to live in its.”

All Quiet on the Western Front • All Quiet on the Western Front was popular 1920s novel • Exposed the horrors of modern warfare • Expressed a powerful disgust with war • Hemingway’s Farewell to Arms

Franz Kafka • Eeris novels in which people find themselves in threatening situations which they can neither understand nor escape. • The Trial • The Castle

Stream of Consciousness • Technique which presents random thoughts and feelings without any logic or order • In Finnegans Wake, novelist James Joyce explored the inner mind of a hero who remains sound asleep throughout the novel. • “Broke with normal sentence structure and vocabulary to mirror workings of the inner mind”

Existentialism • Jean-Paul Sartre • Believed there was no “universal meaning to life” • Each person creates his or her own meaning through choices made and actions taken • Influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche who wrote in the 1880s that ideas such as democracy, reason and progress had stifled people’s creativity. • Urged a return to heroic values of pride, assertiveness and strength. • His ideas gain attention in ’20s in Germany & Italy

Transformation of Art • Artists rebel against “realistic” styles of painting • They wanted to depict the inner world of emotion and imaginations rather than show realistic representations of objects • Expressionist painters like Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky used bold colors and exaggerated or distorted forms

Kandinsky

Paul Klee

Cubism

Surrealism

Music • Igor Stravinsky – used irregular rhythms and dissonances or harsh combinations of sounds • Arnold Schoenberg rejected traditional harmonies and musical scales • Jazz – lively, often freeform style of music developed by African-Americans

Society Challenges Convention • WWI disrupted traditional social patterns • New ideas and ways of life led to a new kind of individual freedom during the 1920s • Women’s roles changed as result of their role during the war – gained right to vote • Women abandoned restrictive clothing, hairstyles, lifestyles for greater freedom • Sought new careers

Technological Advances • New drugs, medical treatments, technological advances were developed during the war • Autos • Airplanes • Radio • Movies • Advances in communications and transportation increase global interdependence • When Depression hits all will be affected

Postwar Uncertainty