Modernism Themes
The main themes in Modernism include technology, Freud, and the "unreal city."
- Technology: The modernist writers, almost as a rule, feared the new technology and left it out of their writing.
- Freud: Modernist novelists perhaps had no more important influence than the Viennese psychologist Sigmund Freud.
- The "Unreal City": Modernist writers took up the city increasingly the center of human affairs, as one of their core subjects.
Technology
From 1860, when the modernist era is generally believed to have begun, until 1940, the world and humanity's understanding of it underwent profound transformations. In 1860, the concept of traveling at a mile per minute was mere fantasy, as was the idea of human flight. Photography was a novel invention; moving pictures, especially those with sound, were just dreams. While sending electrical signals through wires was imaginable, the idea of transmitting voices seemed absurd. The thought of sending voices wirelessly was utterly unimaginable.
By 1940, the world had dramatically changed. Machines allowed individuals to watch moving, talking pictures; travel at speeds over one hundred miles per hour; fly through the air; transmit voices and images without wires; and engage in real-time conversations across the Atlantic Ocean. Human dependence on machines had increased significantly. Today, it's hard to envision a world without powered machines, but in 1860, many Americans lived their whole lives without ever encountering one. By the 1940s, machines had made communication, travel, and even destruction much swifter and efficient than anyone in 1860 could have imagined.
Modernist writers were almost universally cautious of new technology and often omitted it from their works. Joyce set his masterpiece Ulysses in 1904, before motorcars became widespread. Eliot and Pound skillfully navigated historical periods but rarely mentioned the technological advancements that had permeated urban life by 1920. Instead, they looked back to classical, medieval, or Renaissance periods, fearing that reliance on machines would obscure their minds and diminish their understanding of what it truly means to be human. The only modernist writer who fully embraced technology was the Italian futurist Filippo Marinetti. A native of Milan, Marinetti traveled to London to perform spoken-word pieces that celebrated machines. His verses glorified airplanes, cars, factories, and machine guns. Enthralled by the clean efficiency of machines, Marinetti ultimately supported the horrific violence of World War I and, by the mid-1920s, became a supporter of Mussolini.
Freud
Modernist novelists were deeply influenced by the Viennese psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. While he did not establish the field, Freud is considered the father of psychoanalysis. His theories introduced a tripartite model of the psyche: the id (symbolizing primitive impulses), the ego (representing the sense of self), and the superego (comprising moral lessons and behavioral norms we acquire). Freud suggested that human behavior and "neuroses" stem from causes unknown to the individual, often rooted in childhood experiences or the repression of basic urges. Psychoanalysis operates on the premise that an analyst can detect specific thoughts and reactions in a patient that uncover the underlying issue.
Writers like Woolf and Joyce embraced this concept as a foundation for their fiction. They opposed "realist" authors, who aimed to merely document the world’s plain facts. Modernists contended that this was unattainable; the narrator's psyche is always influenced by unknown forces, rendering it incapable of portraying reality without bias or distortion. Instead, they believed in capturing thoughts, allowing readers to perceive aspects of the narrator that the narrator themselves might not realize. Joyce’s first novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, traces the thoughts of Stephen Dedalus from his early days as a "nicens little boy" to his college years. In her short story “The Mark on the Wall,” Virginia Woolf illustrates a moment where a woman notices a mark on the wall. The narrative follows her mind as she contemplates all possible explanations for the mark and explores the subconscious connections her mind makes with seemingly unrelated topics. Modernist writers believed that techniques like the "interior monologue" or stream-of-consciousness granted readers access to a character’s subconscious.
The Unreal City
In “The Waste Land,” Eliot depicts London as an...
(This entire section contains 266 words.)
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“Unreal City,” where the spirits of the deceased traverse the bridges. Modernism was the first literary movement to embrace urban life as a unique experience, fundamentally distinct from other ways of living. The French symbolist poet Charles Baudelaire was fascinated by the “flaneur”—a person who roams the city aimlessly as a lifestyle. The city's anonymity, darkness, mechanization, and immense power both captivated and repelled the modernists. Interestingly, many modernist writers originated from suburban or small-town areas but were drawn to major urban centers like London, Paris, St. Petersburg, and New York. In these cities, they connected, formed movements, socialized, debated, and eventually went their separate ways.
London initially served as the nucleus of Anglo-American Modernism, but its inherently commercial character eventually drove many writers away. By the 1920s, Paris had become a sanctuary for one of the most significant assemblies of artists in history. As the 1930s loomed and war threatened Europe, the artistic energy shifted westward to New York. Regardless of the location, urban life consistently remained a central theme in modernist literature.
Though James Joyce frequently relocated between Paris, Trieste, and Zurich during his "exile," his writings were always deeply rooted in the vibrant urban life of Dublin. Hart Crane's epic poem "The Bridge" celebrated the Brooklyn Bridge, an engineering marvel symbolizing New York City's significance in American urban culture. T.S. Eliot’s somber poems highlighted the isolation and purposelessness often experienced by city dwellers. The city, with its fusion of technology, dense populations, and anonymity, emerged as a defining element of Modernism.
Alienation
Alienation describes the sensation of feeling disconnected or out of place within one's surroundings. It can also imply a sense of being separated from something. If the city symbolizes the essence of Modernism, then alienation emerges as its central theme. Modernist literature almost always addresses some aspect of alienation.
Modernism often depicts the alienation of a perceptive individual from their surroundings. The stream-of-consciousness narrative style is especially effective for this, as it allows readers to explore a character's inner thoughts and feelings while observing external events. Stephen Dedalus, the protagonist and alter ego of Joyce, feels isolated from his family, friends, religion, and nation due to his commitment to art and his belief that no one can truly understand or accept him. Virginia Woolf’s female protagonists experience a dual alienation because, as women, they are barred from participating in political, educational, and economic spheres. T.S. Eliot’s narrators, particularly Prufrock in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," confront a fragmented world that contrasts with the apparent composure of others. For Ezra Pound, it is the world itself that has been estranged by greed from its rightful historical heritage.
The Presence of the Past
In the aftermath of collapsing certainties from previous eras, modernist writers viewed the contemporary world as directionless, devoid of both focus and assurance. While these past certainties were oppressive and based on questionable values, they at least offered some societal foundation. The modernist movement sought to dismantle these foundations, a mission completed by the shock of World War I, which exposed humanity's darkest potential. Modernist authors often felt as if they were witnessing the end of history. Consequently, their poems and novels frequently interweave extensive historical timelines. Allusion—concise references to people, places, objects, or even languages and literatures—became a signature modernist method for integrating history. Motivated by deep discomfort with the modern world, these writers consistently referenced the past.
However, this doesn't mean that modernists were uncritical admirers of history. In his poem "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley," Ezra Pound mourned that the massive bloodshed of World War I ultimately served to protect "an old [b——] gone in the teeth . . . a botched civilization . . . two gross of broken statues . . . [and] a few thousand battered books." Joyce’s character, Stephen Dedalus, describes history as "a nightmare from which I am trying to awake," depicting Irishmen who cling to past glories as buffoons and fools. Yet, both authors' works are filled with historical references. Indeed, nearly every major modernist writer structured their narratives around the influence of the past. For instance, Pound characterized his work, The Cantos, as "a poem including history," with a list of allusions numbering over ten thousand.