Sunday, February 3, 2013

Should it really be called Modernism?


I find it interesting that this literary movement is called Modernism, as most modernist writers seemed to desire a rehashing of old cultural themes and motifs. The Modernists did not really favor modernization nor the new problems it brought to society. For example, World War I seemed to just bring chaos and havoc to countries world wide, along with death and other horrible atrocities that accompany war. The Modernist tried to aliens and fragment the parts of society they opposed, which is seen in Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decourm Est". In this poem Owen attacks the common misconception of the heroism in connection with waging war and how it's not as heroic as the "old men" say it is, as the only reason they want war is for their own economic and pitiful benefits. 

1 comment:

TSHAH said...

Honestly, modernism as a concept does not really make much sense to me. I seems to me that modernist wanted to take the "best" parts of past and present culture and unify it together to create a type of society that would escape the increasing alienation and decay that people saw in the early 20th century. Modernist wanted to hold onto certain aspects of the past, yet they simultaneously wanted to break tradition and redefine it. Apart from holding onto the past, modernism also presented society with a few groundbreaking movements such as expanding the rights of women. Does anyone else see the disconnection between the ideas of modernist?