Modernity 101

Changes over course of 19th centuryIndustrial Era in western civilization was characterized by changesIt happened a lot in US and also in ItalyBrought about generalized prosperity, after an era of feudal society e.g. Middle class => More democracy e.g. Mass media (Printing press) e.g. Metropolitanism e.g. Mass migration e.g. Growing capitalism Writers & artists reacted to modernity in 2 ways Embracers (e.g. Futurists) Critics (Some feared a loss of humanity through modernization - industrialized/mechanized/serialized production) Beaudelaire was ambivalent - Modernity is the transient, the fleeting, the contingent; it is one half of art, the other being the eternal and immutable- Core, perpetual presence in society; but beauty of nature is eternal- Classical ideas of unchanging beauty vs flux and movement of life in the present Also can be seen in some of de Chiricho's paintingsOthers (Like Emersson) believed that when the new comes, something is rendered obsoleteTherefore. The point of all this is quite simply: How do you deal with modernityModernity is the aforementioned change of societyModernism is the social movement: expression of the crisis experienced by writers when confronting the purpose of literary discourse in a chaotic world that had diluted language to serve the needs of mass culture and debased it to a vehicle for mass advertising, business, science and bureaucracy. Confident faith in reason and empirical reality had been shattered, but no framework of collective belief had been reconstituted

Take Art for instanceBefore the revolution, Art was either public (commissioned by an institution e.g. the church) or privately commissioned by aristocratsWhen modernity came along art became a commodity. Art for the people, or for the rich to look at and buy. AKA Easel painting. Buyers were more selective about what they bought This led to artists having to be more selective in their projects, They painted more for commercial purposes than for personal reasons They thus lost the freedom to do/paint what they wanted There was then more poverty among artists They believed they were the original interpreters of modernity and modern life The artist claims: • To be the true interpreter of modernity, the real modern man who experiences and expresses the extreme feelings and sensations of modern life;• To be at the same time vulnerable and dangerous, as he perceives him/herself as hypersensitive and willing to explore greater intensity of sensations. As a consequence, he/she refuses the artist’s traditional role as an arbiter of moral truths - Artists used to be spokespeople for others (middle class, upper class, landlords)Art became heteronymous - Art for art's sake, for itself, autonomous