Although one might think that modernism begins in the early twentieth century, its roots can be traced back to the nineteenth, in which the beginnings of modernism can be seen in all art forms, including poetry and music. Modernism in a literary sense also gave way to other literary movements, such as Pound's Imagism, which in turn inspired many writers, artists and thinkers. In this way, modernism is a general term rather than a specific one. It has its roots in other literary movements, one of the most prominent being futurism, an Italian notion which had a significant impact on English culture in the 1910s, offering an alliance of all different art forms in an attempt to look forwards to an increasingly industrialised world.

Texts used:

Rabaté, Jean-Michel. A Handbook of Modernism Studies (Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2013), pp. 1-13. 

Ayers, David. Modernism: A Short Introduction. (John Wiley & Sons, 2007.) pp. x-xii

 

Hammond, Meghan Marie. Empathy and the Psychology Of Literary Modernism. Edinburgh Scholarship Online, 2014. 

 

Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A glossary of literary terms. Cengage Learning, 2014.

 

Rabaté, Jean-Michel. A Handbook of Modernism Studies. John Wiley & Sons, 2015.

Example: Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Modernist texts shift away from a fast-moving plot in favour of a deep character study, and Heart of Darkness does this very well. Further to this, it adheres to many other elements of modernist texts, such as the discussion of new or forbidden subjects and the way in which themes and meanings are conveyed implicitly and through untraditional symbols (for example, the way one normally associates light and dark with meaning have been reversed in Heart of Darkness). As for the psychological perspective, the story is told from the lens of someone who searches for meaning in their life and is partly autobiographical. We could then apply Freud's theory of mending through storytelling, which suggests that going back into one's past and into their unconscious allows them to discover the reasons behind human nature and behaviour.

 

So, Modernism was a cultural and social movement that grappled with the developments and experiences of the modern world. In this way, ecological modernism tried to understand and explore modernity’s relationship with nature. It does this, however, mostly through the focus on the relationship the individual has to their (often rapidly changing in the context of modernity) environment or surroundings which did not necessarily have to be predominantly rural or dealing with non-human nature. Perhaps a better term or definition, then, would be environmental modernism. Modernism’s exploration of ecology was not inherently focused on non-human nature nor humanity’s relationship with this explicitly; it has been argued that modernists observed and acknowledged nature but failed to understand the full and sometimes negative effects of modernization on non-human nature. Modernist works often presented a positive image of nature in the modern world, with a focus on industrialisation, toxicity and the theme of regeneration through pollution (reminding us of the distance between the present and modernist thinking). While these themes had not previously been deemed aesthetically pleasing, they were characteristic of ecological modernist work, demonstrating how modernism revaluated what natural ‘beauty’ involves. This suggests modernity’s celebration, acceptance and exploration of the new. 

 

Schuster, Joshua. “Introduction”. The Ecology of Modernism: American Environments and Avant-Garde Poetics. University of Alabama Press. 2015. Pp.1-21 https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/warw/detail.action?docID=2130651

Kalaidjian, Andrew. “Introduction.” Exhausted Ecologies: Modernism and Environmental Recovery, Cambridge University Press. 2021. Pp.1-36 https://0-doi-org.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/10.1017/9781108775212

 

Solomon, Melissa.  Duke University. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2005. 3231793.

By Sharon O'Brien. "My Willa Cather: How Writing Her Story Shaped My Own: My Willa Cather." New York Times (1923-), Feb 20, 1994, pp. 3. ProQuest, http://0-search.proquest.com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/historical-newspapers/my-willa-cather-how-writing-her-story-shaped-own/docview/109306028/se-2?accountid=14888.

HODARA, SUSAN. "Exploring Gender as Disguise and Identity: Mapplethorpe and Warhol on the Performative Aspects of Sexuality and Expression." New York Times (1923-), Dec 27, 2015, pp. 1. ProQuest, http://0-search.proquest.com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/historical-newspapers/exploring-gender-as-disguise-identity/docview/2074977178/se-2?accountid=14888.

A Good Read, Elaine Showalter & Romesh Gunesekera, 00:30 07/02/2017, BBC Radio 4 Extra, 30 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/002012CA?bcast=123475972 (Accessed 05 Nov 2021)

Irene finds herself angry at Claire's desire "not only to have her cake and eat it, but to nibble on the cake of others," irritated at the irony of Claire's apparent lack of loyalty to her black roots; ironic due to her own nearly identical situation. Therefore the topic of femininity becomes complex as Irene almost turns Claire into an enemy in her mind, refusing to accept the way that she displays her race or identifies with it. The reader would expect the two women to bond over their experiences, especially when considering the obscurity and difficulty of their respective situations, but this isn't the case. Femininity, often associated with female friendship and 'sisterhood' - defined by Marriam-Webster as "the solidarity of women based on shared conditions, experiences, or concerns," therefore becomes significantly more difficult to define.

 

 

2)     short quote from a theorist which you draw on to define your key word critically

 

 

“The desire to "be a woman," that is, a desire to live up to the norms of femininity in a particular symbolic order. Femininity is posited as desirable and as something that "women" should approximate; wanting to "be a woman" is coded as positive. The forced identification with blackness, however, is not linked with a desire to live up to norms of blackness. Rather, black identified subjects, in order to sustain a nonmarginal existence, are compelled and encouraged to privilege and thus "desire-to-be white," that is, to live up to attributes associated with whiteness.” 

ROTTENBERG, CATHERINE. “‘Passing’: Race, Identification, and Desire.” Criticism, vol. 45, no. 4, Wayne State University Press, 2003, pp. 435–52, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23126398.

 

&

 

3)     a short passage from Passing you feel speaks to the link you’re making

 

“Her lips, painted a brilliant geranium red, were sweet and sensitive and a little obstinate. A tempting mouth. The face across the forehead and cheeks was a trifle too wide, but the ivory skin had a peculiar soft luster. And the eyes were magnificent! Dark, sometimes absolutely black, always luminous, and set in long, black lashes. Arresting eyes, slow and mesmeric, and with, for all their warmth, something withdrawn and secret about them. Ah! Surely! They were Negro eyes! Mysterious and concealing. And set in that ivory face under that bright hair, there was about them something exotic. Yes, Clare Kendry’s loveliness was absolute, beyond challenge, thanks to those eyes which her grandmother and later her mother and father had given her.” (225)

Larsen, Nella. Quicksand & Passing, Profile Books, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/warw/detail.action?docID=1743541

 

4)     1 example from the ‘At least three’ section of your assessment document – so a video/audio/image, an excerpt from another piece of writing by Larsen, or media from the text’s historical period. Remember, this must help you articulate an aspect of your argument.

 

Thinking In Colour, 16:00 10/05/2021, BBC Radio 4, 30 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/18392E17?bcast=134438415 (Accessed 18 Nov 2021)

 

"Well, what of it? If sex isn’t a joke, what is it? And what is a joke? …The sooner and the more he learns about sex, the better for him. And most certainly if he learns that it’s a grand joke, the greatest in the world. It’ll keep him from lots of disappointments later on." - Part 2, Chapter 1

Kaplan, D. H., and S. R. Holloway. 1998 . Segregation in Cities. Washington, DC: Association of American Geographers.

Passage from Passing:
"Dorothy was there. We got talking. In less than five minutes. I knew she was ‘fay.’ Not from anything she did or said or anything in her appearance. Just— just something. A thing that couldn’t be registered.” 

“Yes, I understand ‘pass’ all the time.” what you mean. Yet lots of people 'pass' all the time"

“Not on our side, Hugh. It’s easy for a Negro to ‘pass’ for white. But I don’t think it would be so simple for a white person to ‘pass’ for coloured.”

“Never thought of that.” 

“No, you wouldn’t. Why should you?”

Larsen, Nella. Quicksand & Passing, Profile Books, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/warw/detail.action?docID=1743541.

Another Text (Quicksand):
"Negro society, she had learned, was as complicated and as rigid in its ramifications as the highest strata of white society. If you couldn’t prove your ancestry and connections, you were tolerated, but you didn’t 'belong.' You could be queer, or even attractive, or bad, or brilliant, or even love beauty and such nonsense if you were a Rankin, or a Leslie, or a Scoville; in other words, if you had a family. But if you were just plain Helga Crane, of whom nobody had ever heard, it was presumptuous of you to be anything but inconspicuous and conformable.

Larsen, Nella. Quicksand & Passing, Profile Books, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/warw/detail.action?docID=1743541.