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Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries Related terms are modern; modernist; contemporary; postmodernModernism was a revolt against the conservative values of realism[2][3][4] Arguably the most paradigmatic motive (motif) of Modernism is the rejection of tradition and its reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision and parody in new forms[5][6][7] Modernism rejected the lingering certainty of Enlightenment thinking and also rejected the existence of a compassionate, all-powerful Creator God[8][9] in favor of the abstract, unconventional, largely uncertain ethic brought on by modernity, initiated around the turn of century by rapidly changing technology and further catalyzed by the horrific consequences of World War I on the cultural psyche of artists[10]In general, the term Modernism encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social, and political conditions of an emerging fully industrialized world The poet Ezra Pound's 1934 injunction to "Make it new" was paradigmatic of the movement's approach towards the obsolete Another paradigmatic exhortation was articulated by philosopher and composer Theodor Adorno, who, in the 1940s, challenged conventional surface coherence and appearance of harmony typical of the rationality of Enlightenment thinking[11] A salient characteristic of Modernism is self-consciousness This self-consciousness often led to experiments with form and work that draws attention to the processes and materials used (and to the further tendency of abstraction)[12]The modernist movement, at the beginning of the 20th century, marked the first time that the term "avant-garde", with which the movement was labeled until the word "Modernism" prevailed, was used for the arts (rather than in its original military and political context)[13] Surrealism gained fame among the public as being the most extreme form of Modernism, or "the avant-garde of Modernism"[14]Some commentators approach Modernism as an overall socially progressive trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve and reshape their environment with the aid of practical experimentation, scientific knowledge or technology[15]From this perspective, Modernism encouraged the re-examination of every aspect of existence, from commerce to philosophy, with the goal of finding that which was 'holding back' progress, and replacing it with new ways of reaching the same end Others focus on Modernism as an aesthetic introspection This facilitates consideration of specific reactions to the use of technology in the First World War, and anti-technological and nihilistic aspects of the works of diverse thinkers and artists spanning the period from Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900) to Samuel Beckett (19061989)[16]The first half of the 19th century for Europe was marked by a number of wars and revolutions, which contributed to an aesthetic "turning away" from the realities of political and social fragmentation, and so facilitated a trend towards Romanticism[citation needed] Romanticism had been a revolt against the values of the Industrial Revolution and bourgeois conservative values,[2][3][4] putting emphasis on individual subjective experience, the sublime, the supremacy of "Nature" as a subject for art, revolutionary or radical extensions of expression, and individual libertyBy mid-century, however, a synthesis of the ideas of Romanticism with stable governing forms had emerged,[citation needed] partly in reaction to the failed Romantic and democratic Revolutions of 1848 It was exemplified by Otto von Bismarck's Realpolitik and by "practical" philosophical ideas such as positivism[citation needed] This stabilizing synthesis, the Realist political and aesthetic ideology, was called by various namesin Great Britain it is designated the "Victorian era" and was rooted in the idea that reality dominates over subjective impressions Central to this synthesis were common assumptions and institutional frames of reference, including the religious norms found in Christianity, scientific norms found in classical physics and doctrines that asserted that the depiction of external reality from an objective standpoint was not only possible but desirable Cultural critics and historians label this set of doctrines realism, though this term is not universal In philosophy, the rationalist, materialist and positivist movements established a primacy of reason and systemAgainst the current ran a series of ideas, some of them direct continuations of Romantic schools of thought Notable were the agrarian and revivalist movements in plastic arts and poetry (eg the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the philosopher John Ruskin) Rationalism also drew responses from the anti-rationalists in philosophy In particular, Hegel's dialectic view of civilization and history drew responses from Friedrich Nietzsche and Siren Kierkegaard, who were major influences on existentialism All of these separate reactions together began to be seen as offering a challenge to any comfortable ideas of certainty derived by civilization, history, or pure reason[citation needed]From the 1870s onward, the ideas that history and civilization were inherently progressive and that progress was always good came under increasing attack Writers Wagner and Ibsen had been reviled for their own critiques of contemporary civilization and for their warnings that accelerating "progress" would lead to the creation of individuals detached from social values and isolated from their fellow men Arguments arose that the values of the artist and those of society were not merely different, but that Society was antithetical to Progress, and could not move forward in its present form Philosophers called into question the previous optimism The work of Schopenhauer was labelled "pessimistic" for its idea of the "negation of the will", an idea that would be both rejected and incorporated by later thinkers such as NietzscheTwo of the most significant thinkers of the period were, in biology, Charles Darwin, and in political science, Karl Marx Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection undermined the religious certainty of the general public, and the sense of human uniqueness of the intelligentsia The notion that human beings were driven by the same impulses as "lower animals" proved to be difficult to reconcile with the idea of an ennobling spirituality Karl Marx argued there were fundamental contradictions within the capitalist systemand that the workers were anything but free Both thinkers would spawn defenders and schools of thought that would become decisive in establishing Modernism[citation needed] This is not to say that all modernists or modernist movements rejected either religion or all aspects of Enlightenment thought, rather that Modernism can be viewed as a questioning of the axioms of the previous age[citation needed]Historians have suggested various dates as starting points for Modernism William Everdell has argued that Modernism began with Richard Dedekind's division of the real number line in 1872 and Boltzmann's statistical thermodynamics in 1874 Clement Greenberg called Immanuel Kant "the first real Modernist",[17] but also wrote, "What can be safely called Modernism emerged in the middle of the last centuryand rather locally, in France, with Baudelaire in literature and Manet in painting, and perhaps with Flaubert, too, in prose fiction (It was a while later, and not so locally, that Modernism appeared in music and architecture)"[18] The modernist movement, at the beginning of the 20th century, marked the first time that the term "avant-garde", with which the movement was called until the word "Modernism" prevailed, was being used for the arts instead that in its original military and political context;[13] the term remained to describe movements which identify themselves as attempting to overthrow some aspect of tradition or the status quo[citation needed] Surrealism gained the fame among the public of being the most extreme form of Modernism, or "the avant-garde of Modernism"[14]Separately, in the arts and letters, two ideas originating in France would have particular impact The first was impressionism, a school of painting that initially focused on work done, not in studios, but outdoors (en plein air) Impressionist paintings demonstrated that human beings do not see objects, but instead see light itself The school gathered adherents despite internal divisions among its leading practitioners, and became increasingly influential Initially rejected from the most important commercial show of the time, the government-sponsored Paris Salon, the Impressionists organized yearly group exhibitions in commercial venues during the 1870s and 1880s, timing them to coincide with the official Salon A significant event of 1863 was the Salon des Refusis, created by Emperor Napoleon160;III to display all of the paintings rejected by the Paris Salon While most were in standard styles, but by inferior artists, the work of Manet attracted tremendous attention, and opened commercial doors to the movementThe second school was symbolism, marked by a belief that language is expressly symbolic in its nature and a portrayal of patriotism, and that poetry and writing should follow connections that the sheer sound and texture of the words create The poet Stiphane Mallarmi would be of particular importance to what would occur afterwardsAt the same time social, political, and economic forces were at work that would become the basis to argue for a radically different kind of art and thinking Chief among these was steam-powered industrialization, which produced buildings that combined art and engineering in new industrial materials such as cast iron to produce railroad bridges and glass-and-iron train shedsor the Brooklyn Bridge (1883) and the Eiffel Tower (1889), which broke all previous limitations on how tall man-made objects could beand at the same time offered a radically different environment in urban lifeThe miseries of industrial urbanism and the possibilities created by scientific examination of subjects brought changes that would shake a European civilization which had, until then, regarded itself as having a continuous and progressive line of development from the Renaissance With the telegraph's harnessing of a new power, offering instant communication at a distance, and Standard Time, synchronizing clocks and railroad timetables, the experience of time itself was altered

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Many modern disciplines (for example, physics, economics, and arts such as ballet and architecture) denote their pre-20th century forms as "classical" This distinction indicates the scope of the changes that occurred across a wide range of scientific and cultural pursuits during the periodIn the 1880s a strand of thinking began to assert that it was necessary to push aside previous norms entirely, instead of merely revising past knowledge in light of current techniques


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