As promised, I have recorded a short lecture about Literary Modernism, our next unit. Hopefully, this will give you a fuller picture of what is going on in intellectual history in the early 20th century and how that might affect the kind of artistic work being created.
Please watch the video using this LINK as well as the Passcode: ?Ste%H1r
Once you have watched the video, please make a comment on this post, sharing one observation that made an impression on you from the lecture or one thought that you have in response to it. Please share your comments by Wednesday, April 28th.
During the video, one idea that stood out to me was “Patriotism”. It is interesting to think of the switch people made beginning with the loyalty and passion to one’s country to lossing belief in this idea and question if it is worth it. I believe that this switch mostly grew with the impact World War I and its extreme amount of losses as they saw many people died specially those who went and fought for their country.
An idea that made an impression on me was Freud’s introduction to the idea of human consciousness. The idea of having layers of conscious, subconscious and unconscious thoughts and desires within our minds might have changed the whole perspectives of human beings viewed everything. His theory of oedipus complex is also interesting to view because he dived deep into the topic. Overall, it seems that the literary modernism introduced and changed the idea of perception and truth.
Although I’m not surprised, I am still amazed by the connection between the actual life of the authors and their works. When you mentioned that Literary Modernism rejects the idea that a story needs a plot, it struck a chord in me. Since there was a lot of unrest and lost of faith in the beginning of the 20th century, there was no doubt that the authors themselves would mimic those elements in their stories. How can an author write a story with a defined meaning when they themselves have lost that in their actual life.
One thing that give me impression is the professor ask a question, “You and your friends and you are a man, you and your friends went off to war and over half of you did not come home” This make me feel a lot. If this is happened to any of the family right now, I think this would not be accepted. I think this is a really thoughtful part.
Something i took from the video was the reaction of young people to World War I, and how the war was a catalyst that propelled particularly young people to question the beliefs and values that previous generations held. I would find it interesting to know in a more specific context what this looked like, or perhaps an individual soldier’s response to the war while coming of age.
The thought that had a impression on me is being patriotic for the country. People fought for the country they love in World War I. Their thought was to fight for the country and show their patriotisms for their country. Also, lot of people have lost their life fighting in World War I.