“The Setting” – Modernist Literature

“The Setting” – Modernist Literature

The first half of twentieth century is time of growing industrialization , degradation in faith and evolution of scientific theory.

The Modern age was a time of

“progress and regress”

“Fast forward and backward”

It was fast forward because of growing industrialization, the living of society became better. It provided faster mobility.

The invention and discoveries in scientific theories and industrialization caused mechanization of human that caused degradation in faith in God.

The new age caused confrontation betwenn youth and old age. The values and morals of the victorians were thrown into the dustbin. The youth didn’t like the mindset of the victorians.

Victorians	Modernists
1.)Hypocritical	1.)Realistic
2.)Emotional	2.)Rational
3.)Literature – Simple	3.)All broken
4.)religion	4.)Science
5.)Bible	5.)Origin of species
6.)old morality	6.)new morality
7.)believer	7.) Agnostic
8.)Submission to religion without question	8.) Faith in Darwin
9.)Never broke the tradition	9.) No respect for tradition

“The Modern Age” (1901-1950) – A.C. Ward- “The Setting”

“Modernism” generally refers to the collective trend in the early twentieth century.

In the study of literature few things are most interesting than to consider periodic changes of outlook which sway the human mind and spirit, and to observe those fluctuation of value which cause truths and certainties of one generation to appear as superstitious and baseless conevntions in the eyes of the generation following.(A.C.Ward)

From 1901 to 1925 English literature was directed by mental attitudes opposite to victorian mindset.

Everything was held upon to question

G.B.Shaw gave three watch words:-

v Question!

v Test!

v Examine!

This caused people question every religious dogma.

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