文档介绍：英美文学Part IX 20th century literature
Part eight 20th century English literature
Modernism
Social conditions Ways of expressions Starting point Theoretical bases
Major themes Modernist writers’ concern
Writing features
Social conditions: Modernism rose out of skepticism and disillusion of capitalism. The appalling shock of the 1st World War severely destroyed people’s faith in the Victorian values; and the rise of the irrational philosophy and new science greatly incited writers to make new explorations on human natures and the human relationships.
Starting point: The French symbolism, appearing in the late 19th century, heralded modernism
Ways of expressions: After the 1st World War, all kinds of literary trends of modernism appeared: expressionism, surrealism, futurism, Dadaism, imagism and stream of consciousness. After the 2nd World War, a variety of modernism, or postmodernism, like existentialist literature, theatre of the absurd, new novels, and black humor, rose with the spur of the existentialist idea that “the world was absurd, and the human life was an agony.‖
Dadaism:以故意的无理性、无政府主义、犬儒主义和否定美的法则与社会团体为依据的绘画理论与实践)
Theoretical bases: Modernism takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical base.
Major themes: The major themes of the modernist literature are the distorted, alienated and ill relationships between man and nature