https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac With your group, you will do research to post on the Padlet to help us understand some of the context surrounding the mid-century existentialist thinkers. Your posts should include: - pictures! - important events/figures/facts - a short statement (3-5 sentences) about how you imagine this context influencing existentialist writers and artists. -hyperlinks to your resources en-us 2022-10-31 02:45:01 UTC 2022-11-04 16:46:39 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370339519 Social Reality of Europe
Millions of people were dead, displaced, homeless, and haunted by War PTSD. The exploitation of men and abuse of women prevailed during wartime in Europe. The impact of war on the European population was not as severe as the casualties of war were offset by natural population growth and post-war mass migration. Through making rapid social changes, European countries were able to suppress social uprisings.
Economy in Europe
The economic status of Europe was surprisingly prosperous after WWII. The economy recovered to a pre-war state after about 5 years.
Renowned Thinkers
Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Francine Faure.]]> 2022-11-04 16:06:03 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370339519 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370341984 No one process of decolonization, over 30 states in Asia and Africa successfully gained sovereignty.
Altered composition of the UN, political complexity of the globe
A lot of decolonization processes are violent]]> 2022-11-04 16:07:51 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370341984 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370343556 2022-11-04 16:08:58 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370343556 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370346515 2022-11-04 16:10:59 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370346515 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370348268 2022-11-04 16:12:14 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370348268 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370351088 Many decolonized nations had never previously governed themselves, and had to adapt to become wholly independent. Some decolonized nations, like Taiwan and South Korea, were previously export colonies and were able to make the switch. Other nations, like Libya, were ruled by authoritarian governments. ]]> 2022-11-04 16:14:19 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370351088 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370353414 2022-11-04 16:16:04 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370353414 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370353717 People are beginning to focus on their own welfare --- physical and economical security, and political rights.]]> 2022-11-04 16:16:18 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370353717 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370354341 The reasons for this accelerated decolonization were threefold. First, the two postwar superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, preferred to exert their might by indirect means of penetration—ideological, economic, and military—often supplanting previous colonial rulers; both the United States and the Soviet Union took up positions opposed to colonialism. Second, the mass revolutionary movements of the colonial world fought colonial wars that were expensive and bloody. Third, the war-weary public of western Europe eventually refused any further sacrifices to maintain overseas colonies. Britannica]]> 2022-11-04 16:16:46 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370354341 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370354554 2 World Wars]]> 2022-11-04 16:16:53 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370354554 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370361021 - Civilians were left malnourished and without a home. 400,000 buildings were destroyed, and food rationing continued until 1949
- During this time, 1 in 10 children was unable to survive childbirth and two-thirds of children suffered from Rickets, a distortion of the bones caused by vitamin D deficiency
- France emerged from the war in an economically weak state with 50,000 factories destroyed and Germany appropriating half of their public-sector revenue. Many were left unemployed
- Finally, from 1950-1957, France received aid from the U.S. through the Marshall Plan, a plan which began in 1948 to assist Europe in rebuilding its economy. A total of 13 billion dollars was transferred to Western Europe through multiple financial aid programs, and as a result, France experienced an economic boom ]]> 2022-11-04 16:21:33 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370361021 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370362464 2022-11-04 16:22:38 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370362464 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370363666 2022-11-04 16:23:29 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370363666 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370364524 FRANCE & especially Paris = a preeminent position in the art world

First track on modernity (with newly constructed metro @ Paris)

countless famous impressionists attracted countless artists to Paris --> Led to "birth of modern art"

"By this time, the rules, such as they were understood, were open to anything and everything."
 - Modigliani was painting nudes in the most pornographic way, as claimed by authorities

Then, the burgeoning era was coming to a close, after hitting zenith in 1925. Transforming into profound psychological contours of Surrealism. 

https://www.cobosocial.com/dossiers/how-early-20th-century-paris-became-the-epicenter-of-the-modern-art-world/

]]> 2022-11-04 16:24:08 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370364524 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370365211 Decolonization in Africa and Asia had resulted in new countries but they still faced economic colonialism and exploit
States organized themselves against economic colonialism -> non-aligned movement
UNCTAD tried to improve by imposing new international economic order, still failed as we can see today :(]]> 2022-11-04 16:24:37 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370365211 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370368008 Decolonization put pressure on European nations as former colonies demanded political and economic independence. Decolonization also refers to the process of overthrowing the sense of inferiority many former colonies faced under their colonizers. ]]> 2022-11-04 16:26:36 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370368008 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370371986 In 1870 France had still ranked as the world’s second industrial and trading nation; by 1914 it had fallen to a poor fourth. Much of the liquid capital that might have been used for business expansion at home was being siphoned off into foreign investment; by 1914 almost one-third of such available French capital had been placed abroad—one-fourth of that sum in Russia and only one-tenth in the French colonies. Yet few Frenchmen had serious doubts about the course of economic policy under the Third Republic.]]> 2022-11-04 16:29:23 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370371986 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370375773 The twentieth century opens with France, occupying a preeminent position in the art world, focusing on artistic modernism. Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Georges Braque were a few of the influential figures who utilized bright colors with a Cubist style.

“France, 1900 A.D.–present.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=11&region=euwf (October 2004) ]]> 2022-11-04 16:31:47 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370375773 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370381236 The catastrophic war made a lot of people question religion as they felt their lives, as witnessed in the war, could not be saved by religion and God. Therefore, people began to explore more with their existence and redefine the meaning of life.]]> 2022-11-04 16:35:31 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370381236 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370382138 World War 2 created an environment prone to radicalization and revolution. As a result, WWII also created a lot of radical philosophical thinkers some of which centered their work around the social issues at the time]]> 2022-11-04 16:36:10 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370382138 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370385485 WW2 encapsulated the worst of humanity-- warfare, murder, torture, violence. Some existentialist philosophers may take from their own experience with humanity to become pessimistic about human nature, religion, and morality.]]> 2022-11-04 16:38:37 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370385485 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370391003 As the nuclear bomb have been developed, the new situation have made mankind worry about an issue for the first time: the ending of the world, by the human hand. ]]> 2022-11-04 16:41:48 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370391003 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370393579 "Surrealism aims to revolutionise human experience. It balances a rational vision of life with one that asserts the power of the unconscious and dreams. The movement’s artists find magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny, the disregarded and the unconventional. At the core of their work is the willingness to challenge imposed values and norms, and a search for freedom."

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/surrealism]]> 2022-11-04 16:43:28 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370393579 https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370396205 France had one of the most left-wing governments in Europe, a progressive mix of centrists and socialists. It passed laws guaranteeing freedom of religion, complete separation of church and state, and government fundings of churches were abolished. Religious buildings were nationalized. ]]> 2022-11-04 16:45:24 UTC https://padlet.com/Webbhumanities/u7zw32muadzabiac/wish/2370396205