Unit 8: Modernism and the 20th Century

England would soon lose its grasp of its colonized countries

20th Century Modernism: Long Day's Journey into Night - During the Victorian Period England enjoyed great international peace, technically being free of war from 1815 until WWI, a century later. Ideologically however it was an age of great turmoil and social upheaval. It was an age during which the Christian faith was being chipped away in the minds of many by the hammers of Charles Darwin (science), Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx (economics), and Friedrich Nietzsche (philosophy). And to close the lid on encouragement, many found themselves on the couch of  Sigmund Freud at the close of the 19th Century, a reclining position that made it all too easy for modernists to toss the body of the Christian Faith into the coffin of the Zeitgeist, more commonly known as the Spirit of the Age.  The horrors of colonialism, the "war to end all wars," and the rise of the intellectual high priests brought the Victorian Era to a close and the Modern Period to the fore. Open "The Twentieth Century" in your Brit Lit - Historical Eras document. Read it. Take notes. Wallow in depression . . . 

Intro to the 20th Century

• Texts
• Nails
• What were some of the major political movements and wars of the 20th Century, and what were their effects?
• Who were some of the major thinkers and writers of the 20th Century? How did they influence society?
• What sorts of elements make a story "modern"?

• Lit Terms
•  "O, Dah-ling, these stories are so MAH-dahn!" Over the last few days we will be reading the stories below. Please feel free to take notes, jot down questions, record ideas, and ask yourself, "How is this story 'modern'?" How does it display the character traits listed below?
• Modernism - "an early twentieth-century artistic trend marked by the following characteristics: 
• (1) the desire to break away from [or destroy] established traditions, 
• (2) a quest to find fresh ways to view man's position or function in the universe [usually read "atheistic],
• (3) experiments in form and style, particularly with fragmentation--as opposed to the "organic" theories of literary unity appearing in the Romantic and Victorian periods (taken from Dr. Wheeler's Lit Terms)
• To which I would add an obsession with a sick and twisted Cosmic Irony.

The Battle of London's Aftermath

•  Texts

• Graham Greene's (bio) "The Destructors": The Little Rascals, The Sandlot, you know the gangs you tried to start  when you were a kid . . . last year. Well, get ready for something (a gang) that's motivated by nothing (we'll explain later) by reading Greene's unsettling yarn. 
• discuss the story with a neighbor in light of the following 20th century tendencies (take notes in your journal). Please refer to specific textual details to answer the questions:
  1. Modernist desire to break away from (or destroy) established traditions. Is the author critiquing or condoning this tendency?
  2. A quest to find fresh ways to view man's position or function in the universe. Does this story deal with new philosophies? How? Does the author critique or condone the new philosophy? How do you know?
  3. Does the story contain any sick and twisted ironies? (think about how the story ends.) 
  4. How can this story be read against the backdrop of the 20th century's rise of totalitarian regimes (dictatorships)?

• "Eveline" by James Joyce (bio): "Should I stay or should I go?" Though England's punk band sent these sounds over the radio several decades ago, James Joyce's Evelin was asking the question long before. See what she ends up choosing. (we will not read this one this year - 2014–15.)

• "Once upon a Time" by Nadine Gordimer (bio): Ah, a fairy tale unlike any you've read before . . . unless you've read some of the original Brothers Grimm (but even then . . .). 
• Discuss this story in light of the following 20th century trends:
1.  Modernist tendency to critique established traditions. What traditional literary form is being played with here? Specifically, what fairy tale motifs (recurring elements) do you recognize? How does the story deviate from the typical fairy tale?
2. Sick and twisted irony - how does the story use irony to achieve its ends?
3. Man's position or function in the universe - what is the purpose of this "fairy tale"? Is it merely an amoral tale for irony's sake, or is there a moral caution promoting a particular social ethic?

Quo Vadis?

We began the year asking the question "Quo Vadimus?" ("Where are we going?"), implying that we were planning on going somewhere as a class through the literature of one strand of our forefathers, the English peoples. We now ask the question "Quo Vadis?" ("Where are you going?"), implying a dispersion of the senior class to many places on the face of this earth. However, those of you who are connected to Christ and His Church, we still ask the question "Quo Vadimus?" since we are still united through His body, regardless of geographical dispersion. If we could encourage in three indivisible aspects of a healthy life as you disperse it would be these bits of wisdom: find a faithful, imaginatively orthodox church, choose godly friends, and remain in the Word. This is what Lady Wisdom would say as you venture into these highly formative years of your life.

The Touchstone articles below have been intended to encourage you as you consider your impending collegiate future. We want you to be armed with wisdom so you are not led astray by the many smooth words you'll hear in many a lecture hall. As I was thinking about the Spirit of the Age (the World) vs God's Spirit, I remembered a touching yet heart-wrenching episode in the life of Flannery O'Connor, which I believe shows the gravity of what we've been discussing. I hope this following passage speaks warning and wisdom . . . winsomely, as it gets to the heart of the difference between moderns and Christians.

In addition to her literary insights, O’Connor was an insightful prophetess, capable of fingering the pulse of a dying western world, effectively diagnosing its religio-philosophic ills. In her day, secular humanism, what she termed “positivism” and therefore “nihilism,” was “the gas you breathe.” To her late tragic friend, Betty Hester (publicly known as “A”), O’Connor declared, “If I hadn’t had the Church to fight [nihilism] with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would be the stinkingest logical positivist you ever saw right now” (CW 949).  In a touching appeal to help heal Hester’s overwhelming past—strewn with witnessing her mother’s suicide and receiving a dishonorable discharge from the Army for a sexual indiscretion— O’Connor wrote, “Where you are wrong is in saying that you ‘are a history of horror’; the meaning of the Redemption is precisely that we do not have to be our history” (qtd. in Enniss). Sadly, even with Hester’s brief communicative detour through the halls of the Catholic Church, it seems nihilism’s noxious gas eventually overwhelmed the oxygen supply of the Church, snuffing out Hester’s life by suicide in 1998. This heart-rending appeal for Hester to live in the light of a mystery larger than the small shadow of her past echoes O’Connor’s appeal to her audience in all her fiction. 


To further prepare for your Final Essay on modernism and to continue those echoes, begin reading this rather helpful piece on what the Faith means in response to Modernism/Postmodernism: "Imaginative Orthodoxy." Mills identifies so many modern/postmodern tenets and critiques of them, which will help you immensely on your final essay.

Modernism (20th Century) - link

Modern Stories 

• "The Destructors"  
• "Once upon a Time"
• "Eveline"  
• "The Open Window"
• "The Rocking-Horse Winner"
• "The Monkey's Paw" or this one, different link     

Quo Vadis? (critiques of modernism)

• On Jane Austen, voting, feminism, and Mr. Wickham - Chesterton
• "Austen's Powers" - on Mr. Darcy and Heathcliff
• (Schwager) "A Geography of Kind" - on subtle beauties  
• (Reno) "Over Our Dead Bodies" - on the glory of man
• "Polonius's Lie"
• "Imaginative Orthodoxy" 

  

Wednesday, 5/8 - Kung Fu Panda (or G. K. Chesterton)

Kung Fu Panda / G. K. Chesterton

• P&P

• Read and discuss both posts from yesterday's blog entry. 

HW: Tidy up your poem for recitation tomorrow

Tuesday, 5/7 - Chesterton on (top of and totally trouncing) Modernism

Modernist thought - barbed with irony

• P&P

• Let's discuss what we know of modernism and then dive into the imagination of a very large chuckle--G. K. Chesterton.

• On Jane Austen, voting, feminism, and Mr. Wickham

• Mr. Darcy vs Heathcliff 

HW: Prepare for poetry recitation on block day 

Monday, 5/6 - Modern Ironies

• P&P

• Finish reading and discussing "The Destructors," "Once upon a Time," and "Eveline."  

• Consider the following questions:

1. How is irony at the heart of each story?
2. Why would modern authors tend towards the ironic, and what sort of taste does this irony leave you with?  

HW: 

1. Poetry recitation this block day - Hopkins' "God's Grandeur"

Tuesday, 4/30 - Fiddling while Rome burns?

• P&P

• While I check your J13, please take a minute and complete this survey concerning your commencement exercises. When you finish, please make sure your Nails, Lit Terms, Vocab, and Usage are all updated. If they are, please work on your resume or Hopkins poem.

• Discuss J13

• Over the next two days we will be reading the stories below. Please feel free to take notes, jot down questions, record ideas, and ask yourself, "How is this story 'modern'?"

The Battle of London's aftermath

• The Little Rascals, The Sandlot, you know the gangs you tried to start or joined when you were a kid . . . last year. Well, get ready for something (a gang) that's motivated by nothing (we'll explain later) by reading Graham Greene's (bio) "The Destructors" 

• "Should I stay or should I go?" Though England's punk band sent these sounds over the radio several decades ago, James Joyce's Evelin was asking the question long before. See what she ends up choosing as you read "Eveline" by James Joyce (bio)

• Ah, a fairy tale unlike any you've read before . . . unless you've read some of the original Brothers Grimm. Consider the moral of "Once upon a Time" by Nadine Gordimer (bio)

 HW:  

1. CWP Q4 - Resume (block) 
1. Please turn in a hard copy on the due date and also submit a soft copy to turnitin.com 

Monday, 4/29 - That's "Paw," not "Pa"

A scary story by W. W. Jacobs

• P&P

• Today is an extended chapel schedule due to the academic awards ceremony, which means slightly shortened periods. Since you have a rather extended journal due tomorrow and your CWP Q4 Resume due this coming block, work on J13 on your own in class . . . quietly . . . unless you must scream. Enjoy!

HW: 

Academic Awards Schedule

1. J13 - Pair-o-normal stories (Tues)
2. CWP Q4 (Block) - Resume