CULTURAL
CONTEXTS: WORLD LITERATURE and HUMANITIES AND ARTS
Monika
Brown
UNC Pembroke
The
Greek
Golden Age
Medieval Christian Europe
Early
Modern Europe
Baroque
and Enlightenment
in Europe and America
The
Romantic
Age
The Age
of Realism and Reform
The Modern World
The
Greek
Golden Age: Greek Drama & Philosophy in Classical Athens (400s BC)
1. History,
Society, and Changes
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P.B. Shelley (1800s), "We are all Greeks"-laws/government,
arts, buildings, philosophy
popular democracy: participation of free male citizens;
public activities/meetings in town square (agora);
slavery and restricted lives for women; constructive
activity: building, art, training for combat & sports
2. World View, Values, Heroes
humanism:"Man is the
measure of all things"(Protagoras); pride: we are like gods/gods are
ideal men;
pride in Athens as
model for the world; liberal education and philosophy for public life.
Sophists: develop skill to argue any
side;
Socrates,Plato: search
for truth beyond experience by questioning;
Aristotle: search for
truth within experience, by observation & logic
values and heroes:
qualities or behaviors admired and/or suited for literature & art:
-individual freedom and
community responsibility ("reverence" says Pericles);
-development of all capacities, for
"versatility and grace" (Pericles): physical body: combat, gymnastics,
Olympics;
mind
(reason, logic, debate, measure/math), soul (music, worship,
drama--related)
3. Classical Culture, Arts, and
Literature
Purposes of arts: all arts are related (family of muses):
mimesis: imitation of what is best in nature;
portrayal of
ideal human types (e.g. sculpture of youth at peak); permanent
significance (vs. uniqueness)
Greek Classicism:
Characteristics of the Arts
1. simplicity (essentials only) and restraint
(static figures)
2. harmony, proportion, order, balance, elegance (no
exaggeration, violence); conventions, artificial form
Medieval
Christian Europe
(500-1450)
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1. History, Society, and
Changes
Europe & Middle East: after
collapse of the Roman Empire, influences and conflicts come from:
1. Catholic Church (splits into
Roman & Orthodox)
2. Germanic tribes
3. Islamic Arabs
Feudalism in Europe organizes
political and social relations. Each king has
limited power.
Each person has a place in a hierarchy of
relationships and obligations. Powerful landowning nobles turn
over
land to vassals in exchange for loyalty & military
support. Serfs work land for nobles and are taken care of.
The
rise of merchants, artisans, and towns begins to undercut
feudalism.
Women, legally subject to men,
can work or supervise
households/estates.
Christian (Catholic) institutions
have power conflicts with kings; help
people please God & obtain salvation
crusades make attempts to take back the
Holy Land from "infidels" (Islamic Arabs)
cult of saints and pilgrimages: travels
to holy shrines to obtain healing, forgiveness, salvation
monasticism forms new religious orders
of men and women who preach or retreat from public life
universities (Paris, Oxford,
Cambridge) allow churchmen to be educated in their own countries
2. World View, Values, Heroes
Christian (Roman Catholic) world
view:
-the universe (and all that exists) is God’s
plan, ordered in meaningful ways
-Ptolemaic astronomy places the earth at
the center of a universe of spheres
-everything is composed of four elements
(earth, air, fire, water) & subject to astrological&natural
rhythms
St. Augustine’s ideas in The City of God
(see also below, life is a journey)
-spiritual, dualist ideas & values:
matter vs. spirit, soul vs body, material world vs. spiritual world,
Satan vs. God
-the soul is superior to
the body, eternal life matters more than earthly life
-Biblical & human history are imperfect
and transitory but symbolize what is heavenly and eternal
Human life is a journey
(pilgrimage, labyrinth) of moral
preparation for eternal life (heavenly Jerusalem);
-human
behavior has symbolic significance: virtues
bring us closer to god; (deadly) sins lead us away;
human
love may serve God (caritas/charity) or be misused&lead us
away(cupiditas/sensual love=sin).
perfect
marriage/friendship=Christ's selfless love of church OR broken
relationship=church rejects Christ
caritas (ideal love) of
woman=adoration of the virgin OR cupiditas (sexual love)=rejection of
virgin & Christ
-religious life
follows a liturgical
year=journey of Christ’s life: Advent(expected), Christmas
(birth),Baptism
(drowning/rebirth), Epiphany
(ministry), Lent (fasting/prayer), Easter (suffering, death, rebirth),
Ascension
- the Christian
hero or heroine
demonstrates and grows in virtues during life's journey (see
above)
- the hero
of chivalry lives by the
code of knightly behavior: he is brave in battle, loyal to his
superiors,
courteous, honorable; protects the
weak and women; courtly lover
also gives ideal devotion to a lady
3. Medieval Culture, Arts, and
Literature
purpose of medieval
arts: “The dull mind rises to truth
through that which is material.” Abbot Suger, 12th cent.
Many(church art,plays) arts offer religious
education&entertainment (dance, troubadours) for wide public;
written literature is for the educated (who are also
its patrons): clergy, nobles, merchants, city leaders;
artistic
achievements of the Christian middle ages
literature: religious drama (Everyman), epics
(Beowulf, Song of Roland, Dante's Divine Comedy)
verse romances (Arthurian), religious plays, framed
tales (Decameron, Canterbury Tales)
heroic epics (pre-1100s) (Beowulf, Roland): heroic
action & dialogue, loose structure, chivalry themes
romances(1100-1500) (Marie, Malory): inner psychology,
crafted structure, pursuit/loss of ideals,symbols
other arts: Romanesque & Gothic churches, Books of
Hours, Bayeux Tapestry, Gregorian Chants
characteristics of medieval
literature and arts
religious and historical/legendary subject matter;
some contemporary subjects (also moral & symbolic)
heroic and spiritual themes: courage, loyalty,
journeys, pursuit of ideals (some psychological analysis)
iconography:
arts reflect the Christian world
view (dualism) and have symbolic
meanings (allegory):
levels:
literal (events), allegorical (Christian life), moral
(behavior/fate), anagogical (end of time)
Hebrew journey, Christ in wilderness----voyage of
life-----sinner to saved--------final union w. Christ
Moses/Red Sea, Jesus Baptism---baptism,
death/rebirth --purification/sins removed--washed in blood of lamb
Passover, Jesus’ last supper----communion,partake of
sacrifice----salvation----heavenly banquet
Early
Modern Europe: Renaissance, Reformation, Global Contact (1400-1650)
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1. History, Society, and
Changes
decline of feudalism&growth of nation-states,
cities,merchants,trade guilds;growth of trade & overseas
empires
printing (Gutenberg 1440s)
increases literacy and communication, especially in middle classes
Protestant Reformation
(Luther’s 95 Theses; 1517) undermines dominance of Catholic
Church religious wars
social impact: 60% of Britich adults are
literate by 1630. Witch hunts occur, partly due to loss of Catholic
rituals.
2. World View and Values
humanism: values & studies Greek&Roman
Classics, values life in this world; individualism, energy, zest for
life,
optimism, self-awareness/cultivation, pride in nation
& own language, political pragmatism (Machiavelli);
ways of knowing: rational criticism &
questions, empirical/scientific study, but also respect for past
authorities
Protestant
Christianity (in northern Europe): Protestant faith values
salvation by faith & personal accountability
(rejects Catholic salvation via saints &
priests). Calvinism/Puritanism believes God judges sinners
harshly &
souls are in danger from worldly pleasures;
powerful in Switzerland and in English Revolution.
Renaissance hero (Renaissance
Man; Castiglione The Courtier):
is multitalented & self-developing in Christian &
humanist virtues: attractive, dignified and honorable,
well educated, good in sports and fighting and
politics,
cultivates art&music; energetic,stoical,
practices "golden mean”; Michelangelo, David: strong, confident,
assertive
3. Renaissance Culture, Arts,
and Literature
purposes of Renaissance arts (Christian & Humanist): to teach,
delight& move, to reflect&beautify human nature;
most artists are educated, noble or
middle class. Patrons of arts are nobles, churches, merchants,
and universities.
artistic achievements
vary with culture:
Italy--visual
arts (Giotto early; Leonardo, Michelangelo, Botticelli); poetry
(Petrarch); polyphonic music
Britain--literature: Shakespeare, Marlowe Dr. Faustus, John Donne,
Milton Paradise Lost; polyphonic music
Spain–drama, novel: Cervantes Don Quixote
Northern Europeans: visual arts (Grunewald, Durer, Breughel)
characteristics
of Renaissance
literature and arts:
themes: human pride,
ambition; time, death & uncertainty of life; love & carpe diem;
pastoral (ideal nature)
content: religious
subjects, classical subjects (including pastoral), portraits/character
studies, idealized love
form: naturalism/realism,
perspective, proportion, engage with spectator, imagination (esp. in
North)
national
language for literature, individualistic artistic styles
classical and original imagery,
metaphors; classical allusions
adapt Classical models:
horizontal/man-centered/earthbound vs. vertical/god-centered of Gothic
Baroque
and Enlightenment in Europe and
America (1600-1750)
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1. History, Society, and
Changes
powerful
nations and imperialism: 100 years of religious
wars end in Peace of Westphalia (1648);
powerful kings built
absolutism;
capitalists and craft guilds looked beyond Europe
for discovery and global commerce
Louis
XIV (1600s): France
was dominant in Europe,
militarily&culturally (royalty spoke French); Louis XIV,
who reigned
for 72 years,
was absolutist ruler in France
("l'etat, c'est moi). He called
himself the "sun king"
and promoted himself and France by encouraging
ceremony, rituals, and arts; built Versailles
palace.
enlightened
despots (1700s):
divine-right kings, promoted culture: Frederick
the Great/Prussia, Maria Theresa/Austria,
Peter&Catherine
Great/Russia; limited monarchies in Britain&Netherlands
promoted trade
2.
World View, Values, Heroes
Protestantism
(Lutheran,
Puritan, etc): individual grace &
responsibility (vs church authority over salvation)
Catholic
Reformation (Counter-reformation):
suppresses Protestant reforms, uses Inquistion; affirms salvation thru
saints&priests;
promotes spiritual passion for God (Teresa of
Avila),
missionary work of Jesuits
Enlightenment
(18th
c): period in European culture when scientific methods were applied to
social
& political life
philosophes Enlightenment
writers who
studied society
scientifically & wrote informative, critical, satirical texts;
hey
valued
reason, science, education, and study of the past as means to improve
human
life and society
--faith
in science and
the scientific revolution
17th-18th
century observations, instruments, math
(Newton)
transform view of universe,
human body, self , human relationship to world& God; potential to
improve
life
--faith
in reason and faith in progress of human society;
some promote reforms or show the limits
of reason
--rational
religions: opposed
to authority of a central church and to religious
rituals and
superstitions
deism:
God
set the universe in motion, like a clock;
natural laws, not God’s providence, determine events
Optimism: creator
is good, evil is needed for good to exist, this is "best of all
possible
worlds"(Leibnitz, Pope)
personal choices:
certainties of the past are replaced by contrasts, tensions, and the
need to
choose for oneself
religious&intellectual choice: between
types of Christianity, between Christian/spiritual &
Classical/rational
political theory choices: between divine-right
monarchy or constitutional government
Enlightenment heroes: live by
reason and moderation: accept social positions & fill them
responsibly, make wise
choices, show moderation &
self-control; control their
energy and
feelings (vs. passion: anger, lust, pride)
puritan or capitalist ethic valued
in Northern Europe:
hard work, moral behavior, religious piety,
particulars of life
3. Baroque and Enlightenment
Culture, Arts, Literature
characteristics
of Baroque and Enlightenment Arts
1.
public functions: adorn
buildings&serve patrons: church, monarchs,
towns, merchants/guilds, families
2. audience-focused: instruct
in social
values, satirize, entertain&emotionally move thru senses& reason
3. grand subjects&spaces: Bible,
saints, Classical myth, AND ordinary
life, nature, towns, objects
4. Classical genres& forms:
epic, pastoral, tragedy, comedy,
satire; visual arts with unity, perspective
Baroque Style
( Caravaggio, Descent from the
Cross; also Rembrandt, Bach music)
1. theatricality and emotion: plots of spectacle &
drama;
characters in moments of crisis or decision, pain
or ecstasy, showing emotions & sensuality;
psychological
depth
& insight into why crisis occurs
2. contrast, complexity,
and ingenuity: energy and formals
design, light and shadow (chiaroscuro),
realist details and
symbolism; elaborate designs and
imagery, inventiveness, humor and play
Enlightenment Styles
1. informative, critical, satiric (Swift, Hogarth)
scientific,
Encyclopedias, history, philosophy
2. realist novels (Defoe, Richardson, Fielding) & paintings focus on ordinary, material
life & details
3. rococo
style
(lighter &
more elaborate than Baroque): Fragonard, Watteau, German churches
4.
neoclassical
style (
Wren, St. Martin in the Fields, London;
also Mozart, Haydn; David, Jefferson)
The Romantic
Age (1770-1840)
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The Romantic Age in Europe and the
U.S. was time of revolutions, upheavals in the political and economic
order and in
values and ways of viewing the world. Romantics resisted
established authority and supported social reforms
and social justice. They distrusted what the Enlightenment
valued (as did Voltaire earlier): reason and moderation,
stable societies and universal humanity rooted in Classical
ideals. The
Romantics embraced what the Enlightenment
overlooked or distrusted: national identity and heritage,
individualism, emotions, imagination, change, spirituality.
Romantic literature and the arts embraced and promoted these new values
and transformed traditional art forms.
1. History, Society, and Changes
political
revolutions: American and French Revolutions, Napoleonic wars,
changed the political order ;
from 1820 to 1848 many European
revolutions let to weakened monarchies, increased nationalism.
economic and social revolutions: middle class
promotes reform; steam power brings industrial revolution,
harsh labor conditions, worker
riots; workplace moves beyond the home, enclosure of public lands;
workers move from country to cities
improved lives: communication, literacy, education, living
conditions
2. World View , Ideas, Values,
and Heroes
individual freedom
(an enlightenment idea), individualism,
and social justice for all
reject conventions, authority,
industrialism, oppression, rationalism, Christianity;
demand rights and social justice
for all: end slave trade, extend education, political rights,
protection
the romantic spirit:
embrace the self, emotions, intuition,
imagination, senses; ecstasy, longing, melancholy
romantic
philosophy: new sources of knowledge, beyond reason:
intuition/revelation (Kant,
Rousseau),
emotion, imagination, experience; dialectical thinking/criticism of
ideas, contradictions (Hegel);
romantic irony:
self-awareness promotes individual growth, yet brings disappointment,
self-doubt, futility
sense of
time, change, & memory: progress brings change & loss; preserve
personal memories
nationalism,
nation building, preserve national history& memory; historicism
(values relative)
the natural world as organic whole: not mechanistic, but
alive, evolving, like a growing plant; picturesque or sublime;
nature as a spiritual and
moral influence (vs cities); some pantheism: belief God is in all
life; leads to evolution
the romantic hero: emotional, imaginative,
reflective; genius/superior; active, striving, open to experience,
irrational
individualist,
defies convention, rebel; risk-taker; complex, contradictory, divided
self; dreamer, brooding
3. Romantic Culture, Arts,
and Literature
Artists expect an expanding public to appreciate their insights,
overcome difficulties, share feelings, question
beliefs; arts are supported by: governments, museums, libraries; mass
prints,
engravings, etchings, lithographs.
Shelley: “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators
of the
world.”
expressive purpose arts
express the individual artist's imagination, emotion, and
experience of life
Wordsworth: “Poetry is the
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings . . .emotion recollected in
tranquility.”
C.D.Friedrich"the painter
should not paint merely what he sees before him, but also what he sees
within him"
romantic aesthetics:
rejection of classical beauty, ideal harmony, conventional
forms, "academic" rules, elevated style;
embrace sublime (Burke) awe-inspiring,
grand, mysterious and picturesque (Gilpin, 1790s): reality
beautified (for surprise, pleasure)
romantic subjects and themes
the natural
world: realities and details transformed by the artist's vision,
imagination, emotions, symbols
the romantic
hero (see above) e.g. Faust, Frankenstein, Prometheus; the
Byronic hero-intelligent,
arrogant, flawed, exiled
artist as hero: the artist has
access to the transcendent, unique yet typical, religious visionary
(idealism, neoplatonism)
romantic
journey or quest: life experiences bring personal growth,
transformation (initiation, Bildungsroman)
romantic themes: history,
myth, revolution, social victims; nature, simple, primitive life,
folklore, medieval, exotic;
the gothic, mystery,
evil, death, supernatural; dreams, inner life, erotic, visions,
madness
organic form (vs conventions): form naturally arises from subjects;
genres are blended; "unity in multeity," originality
reality is modified to reveal subjectivity,
emotions, moods, atmosphere, mystery, wonder, vitality,
energy
in visual arts,
through movement, depth, blurring of outlines; music: energy,
contrasts, emotions
language of poems is natural; images are taken
from nature; allusions to national traditions (also classical)
literal meaning and surface reveal symbolism and suggest of
deeper meanings (sometimes vague or complex)
The
Age of Realism and Reform
(1848-1890)
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1. Historical
and Social Environment (see also NAWL intro E. 1071-83)
political change: In
Europe, revolutions and national unification, monarchies allow more
representative government,
men's right to vote expands. In U.S. Civil War
ends slavery, expands vote, West movement, vs. Native Americans.
Social/economic changes: Western middle class men increase in
power, economic and political and cultural.
Quality of life improves by
technology, hygiene, reforms. Western imperialism and
colonization disrupts Asia & Africa.
2. World View and Values and
Heroes
the scientific world view: discoveries
about geology, evolution (Darwin 1859), & role of heredity &
environment;
critical study of the Bible; crisis of faith but also hope
that science and technology improve quality of life
middle class values
triumph: status consciousness and aspiration; individualism,
success, hard work, delayed
ratification; materialism, possessions;
practical; sentimental; duty to family/society; restraining
desire&sex;
sympathy for/fear of lower classes; liberalism
& reform as public values: use government to reduce suffering;
free
public education; free speech/press; extend both rights & duties to
wider groups; democratic/socialist ideals
social critique and reform
(Marx & Engels Communist Manifesto 1848, Flaubert, Dickens):
writers criticize
middle class arrogance & materialism, and urge
improved conditions & rights for the poor, the powerless, women
middle class hero embodies
middle class values: self-made man, hard-working, aspiring to rise and
make money,
--practical, successful but responsible, accepts and makes the best of
life
--angel in the house as ideal woman: chastity, married love,
cares for family, accepts constraints,“separate spheres”
--idealist or romantic individual in conflict with society:
disappointed by life, frustrated by social codes, resists &
criticizes middle/lower class (narrow, dull etc); related are:
Bildungsroman hero by experience seeks an identity
and role in
life; the hero of spiritual autobiography has crisis of faith,
conversion
3. Realist Culture, Arts,
and Literature:
mid-19th century culture:
wide publics mean diverse culture. Middle class
and governments reject fine arts, or support
sentimental& heroic
painting & sculpture, Neo-Gothic or neo-Roman architecture. Realism
shapes novels & poems
(Dickens, Tolstoy, Flaubert), painting
(Courbet, Millet), photography. Music is Romantic: Bizet, Wagner,
Verdi.
“The truth of infinite value [about the arts]... is
realism--the doctrine that all truth and beauty are to be attained by a
humble and faithful study of nature,
and not by substituting vague forms, bred by imagination on the
mists of feeling,
in place of definite, substantial reality. The
thorough acceptance of this doctrine would remold our life.”
--British
novelist George Eliot, 1854
mimetic purpose:
The function of realism (versus Romantic self-expression) is to give
viewers/readers information
and insight into real
experience, like history or biography. Thus subject matter is
more important than formal art.
(naturalism, late 19th c, exposes
lowest life).
realist subjects and themes:
*ordinary individuals (esp. rural) in contemporary society;
naturalism-low, city
*individual psychology.& experiences, especially middle class
& workers; good & bad traits shown, ordinary
life taken
seriously and related to history
artistic form serves subjects,
truth to life, accessibility to a wide
public
1.accessible forms: novels, stories, dramatic monologues, genre scenes,
towns.
2. objectivity (like reporter), but also sympathy with suffering,
criticism of middle class;
omniscient narrators, often intrusive narrators
[naturalism: scientific analysis of
characters/situations]
3. minute particulars, often incorporating accurate representation of
actual places and events
4. symbolism that suggests social/historical & universal
themes [naturalism: heredity & environment]
after 1865: impressionist painting (Monet, Renoir):
fleeting
sensations in nature, effect of color, light, soft
symbolism & aestheticism (Baudelaire, Wilde) exceptional,
myth, dreams, subjectivity, art for art's sake
The Modern
World
(1890-2000s)
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1. Historical and Social
Environment: The modern experience of life.
Poet Paul Valery (1920s) "The affairs of men remain a terrible
uncertainty. We think of what has disappeared,
we are almost destroyed by what has been destroyed; we do not know what
will be born."
-worldwide conflicts, anarchy, suffering, exile World War I
(trench&chemical war); Depression;fascist/communist
police states; World War II, Holocaust, atom bomb, Cold War,
regional conflicts/civil wars, drugs, violent crime;
-end of colonialism brings cultural conflicts but also international
cooperation, global economy
--life & work are complex: urbanization, modernization bring
benefits&problems in environment, health, communic'n;
--weakening of Western middle class institutions (family, job,
community) & values by advances&conflicts from lower
classes, women, minorities, labor, new nations; changing
relationships bring freedom, responsibility, flexibility
2. Ideas, World View,
Values
novelist Virginia Woolf: "[In 1910] human character
changed. All
human relations shifted. . . between masters and
servants, husbands and
wives, parents and children [bringing] ... change in religion, conduct,
politics and literature.”
-scientific knowledge reveals complexity and uncertainty about world
and reality: complex natural laws discovered
(quantum theory, energy,
light, time, relativity-Einstein, DNA) but reason/science limits
(Heisenberg uncertainty)
complex view of human nature:
self, reason, individuality, and identity
are complex and involve conflicts
-each mind creates its reality; consciousness blends
memory/present, real/fantasy, senses/intuition (Bergson)
-human behavior and motivation is
conditioned (Pavlov); or unconscious, irrational, and in a state of
conflict
(Freud-psychoanalysis of desire,
repression, sublimation; Jung-myths&archetypes); or nerve
impulses(brain)
-language shapes and distorts perception
(Wittgenstein, structuralism, Saussure);
-each person's race, gender, class & related
power, myths & social ideologies influence
perception&experiences;
-the primitive & savage underlie Western
“civilization” and find expression in individuals and in history
doubts & pessimism;
alienation, anxiety, despair;& loss of
certainty in religion, culture, society, relationships
disillusion w. Western middle-class values,
social order, Christianity, belief in progress; pessimism abt
humanity
--Nietsche: "god is dead,"Apollo culture also has
Dionysus(ecstasy/death); no certain meaning, morals
–Western culture
brings total war, Holocaust, totalitarian oppression
alienation: life is absurd;; anxiety
that each must find own meaning and identity; despair when the
search fails
quests for meaning, values,
heroes fragmentation, multiplicity, pluralism, and conflict
(-isms)
-political/economic capitalism, Communism, Fascism;
- philosophical existentialism, postmodernism, pluralism
-social/cultural nationalism, ethnic identity,
cultural myths and traditions
-religious/mythic:fundamentalism, cults, new age;
leap of faith(Kjerkegaard); collective myth(Jung),private myth
- modern hero/rebel:
vs oppression, conventions, moral codes (Nietsche superman);
promotes
freedom, diversity; artist as hero
-existentialist hero as
creator of meaning: by actions, politics, art, heritage, myth,
fantasy,decision, honesty,love
-modern anti-hero:
victim, outsider; oppressed, alienated, faces absurd; identity
conflict/complex, relationships fail
- postmodern anti-hero:
lacks self-knowledge, resists identity, embraces
diversity/play, vs oppression
3. Modern Culture, Arts,
Literature novelist
Franz Kafka"The terror of art [is] that the dream reveals the
reality.”
a. modern culture and achievements: arts become international,
influences cross cultures; popular culture & some
artists adapt romanticism, realism, naturalism (e.g.
socialist realism,
docudrama, sentimental art, folk art);
after 1960, mass entertainment for mass public & youth
counterculture: sex, violence, postmodernism (diverse)
b. modernism in arts and literature:
“cult of the new”, surprising, difficult, shocking
1. purpose of arts is innovation and expression: "Make
it new" (Pound): arts are "avant
garde," look ahead, transform
their time and themselves; arts are privileged
& elitist; arts
reject& displace materialism, middle class values, conventional art;
arts challenge, surprise, shock audience: we
make
connections, ask questions, construct meaning, learn, question
2. content and themes: express or
resist modern
experiences and world view OR abstraction-form/medium
as content
-sexuality/taboos, oppression & suffering,
crises in human relationships; alienation, isolation, artist as
outsider,
-individual psychology, dreams, myths
(journey/initiation, death/rebirth); culture/generation conflicts &
revivals
-content of art
abstracts from experience OR is nonobjective/nonrepresentational
3. form is the cult of the new:
formal experimentation and
originality is least as important as content;
arts embrace: complexity, ambiguity, irony,
multiplicity, uniqueness, pre-modern and non-western features
arts reject: social realism, artistic unity,
traditional forms and genres, abstractions,
connections/explanations
new modes: complexity, psych analysis,
myth, minimalism, absurd, mixed modes (surrealism, magic realism)
new structure: suited to modern world:
disunity/instability, non-chronogical, time shifts, fragmented,
unresolved
modern characterization: inconsistencies and
irrationality OK; stream of consciousness or direct speech only
c. postmodernism in culture,
arts and literature:
-context: post-industrial
capitalism, globalization/mixing of cultures, races, images,
capital, products, information explosion
media age: hyper-reality--media images seem more
powerful than the "real"; images and texts
with no prior "original".
"As seen on TV" and "as seen on
MTV" are more powerful than unmediated experience
-content:
absurd, pop culture, experiments with media, "medium is the message"
postmodern anti-hero:
lacks self-knowledge; has fragmented/divided self, unstable identity;
embraces
diversity/play, vs oppression
-purpose:
suspicion and rejection of western "master narratives" local
narratives, ironic deconstruction of master narratives:
counter-myths of origin; play, self-awareness,
self-reflective
-formal
features: hi/low culture blur,
mixed media and genres,
loose/process/unstable plots