Unit 14 F.Scott Fitzgerald

★.The differences between realism and modernism
Realism Function of Literature Educate People and Criticize Social Evils Modernism Expression of "Self"
The Jazz Age （爵士乐时代）
• It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire . ---- F. Scott Fitzgerald • The term “ the Jazz Age” is put forward by F. Scott Fitzgerald in his essay “ Echoes of the Jazz Age” in 1931.
Subject
Public, Exterior World
Private, Interior World
Conception of Time &Space
Clock Time, Geographic space
Psychological Time &Space
Forms and Techniques
•
• • •
Байду номын сангаас
Roaring 20s – comfort Dollar Decade – rich Jazz Age – Jazz music
The Jazz Age（爵士乐时代）
• In the 1920s, America became absorbed in making money. The whole society frantically pursued individual "success" and personal enjoyment. • F. Scott Fitzgerald was a most representative novelist of the 1920s. He was both a leading participant in the typically frivolous（轻浮 的）, carefree, moneymaking life of the decade and, at the same time, a detached observer of it.
Ⅰ.Shifts in the Modern Nation
• • • • • • • From country to city From farm to factory From native born to new citizen From outside / reality to inside / psychology Introduction to “mass” culture (pop culture) Continual movement Split between science and the literary tradition (“science vs. letters”)
the1920s他们是新的一代长大以后发现所有的神祇已经死去所有的战争已经打完所有对人美的信念已经动摇
AMERICAN MODERNISM （美国现代主义）
1918-1945
Ⅰ. Causes of the Modernist Temper
• • • • • • • •
• • • •
WWI Urbanization & Immigration: multi-ethnicity & multiculturalism Technological Evolution & expansion: materialism & consumerism Growth of Modern Science Passage of 19th Amendment (1920): female right to vote Influence of Austrian Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Influence of German Karl Marx (1818-1883) Friedrich Nietzsche（尼采）: “God is dead” → decline of religious belief 1918 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia Southern migration to eastern cities: Harlem Renaissance（哈莱姆 文艺复兴） Stock-market crash (1929) & the Depression of the 1930s The Jazz Age
Hero, Plot
Anti-hero, Anti-plot
Tone
Optimistic
Pessimistic
The 1920s Introduction
• The 1920s is a flowering period of American literature. It is considered “the second renaissance” of American literature. The nicknames for this period:
Ⅰ. Key Descriptors
• • • • • • • • • • • • decentered pessimistic Disaffected(不满的） a “literature in crisis” loss & despair violence & alienation race relations: historical discontinuity Decadence（堕落） & decay（衰退） rejection of history unavoidable change React against manipulative commercialism / consumerism
Ⅱ.Modernism
2).The movements that followed-including Impressionism(印象主义）, Post-Impressionism, Cubism（立体主 义）, Futurism（未来主义）, Expressionism（表现主义）, Constructivism, De Stijl (荷兰抽象画 派), and Abstract Expressionism are generally defined as Modernism.
• 1. Yong men and women in the 1920s had a sense of reckless （不顾后果的）confidence about money and life. They were lacking in responsibility and felt excused from seeking the common good. • 2. They could plunge themselves into personal adventures and engage themselves in casual sex and heavy drinking. They spent money extravagantly（挥 霍无度的）. All that they kept in mind was to seek fun. They could throw themselves at parties, singing and dancing till early in the morning. • 3. But beneath their masks of relaxation, there was only sterility and meaninglessness, in fact the age was an era of decayed social and moral values and empty pursuit of pleasure.
Ⅱ. ★Modernism
5)Among American writers, the bestknown Modernists are T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and so on.
Ⅱ. ★Modernism
3) Modernism in literature is not easily summarized, but the key elements are experimentation, anti-realism, individualism and a stress on the cerebral(大脑的 )rather than emotive aspects.
★Modernism: Techniques
―making it new‖ — radical use of a kind of
formlessness Collapsed plots Fragmentary (碎片的）techniques Shifts in perspective, voice, and tone Stream-of-consciousness point of view Associative techniques
Ⅱ. ★Modernism
4). The work of Modernist writers is characterized by showing the disenchantment(破灭）, dislocation（混乱）, and alienation （异化） of men in the world, and by the emphasis on experimentation and formalism and objectivism which are, in most cases, a reaction to the cataclysm (大变动） known as the Modern Age.
The Jazz Age （爵士乐时代）
• Literary historians also refer it to “ the roaring twenties”（喧嚣的20 年代）, which was a decade of “ roaring ”excitement , “ roaring” confusion and “ roaring” changes. It was marked by political ignorance and wild pursuit of material wealth. • It lasted from 1919 to 1929 . The jazz music as the symbol of youth rebellion. The young listened to Jazz music , showing their breaking away from traditions.
Ⅱ.Modernism 1). Modernism is a cultural movement that generally includes the progressive art of architecture, design, literature, music, dance, painting and other visual arts(视觉艺术） which emerged in the beginning of the 20th century , particularly in the years following World War I. It was a movement of artists and designers who rebelled against late 19th century academic and historic tradition, and embraced the new economic, social and political aspects of the emerging modern world.