Age of Anxiety

1920s to 1950sPost WWI

Music

“Unentrinnbar” from Four Pieces for Mixed Choirby Viennese composer Arnold ShoenbergCharacteristics of Music included:1. abandon traditional harmony and tonality2. 12 tone music common in 1920’s3. uses abstract or mathematical tone row4. no patterns detected by average person but can be heard by trained person

Reasons for Anxiety

Brutality of WWIImpersonal attitude of warfareIndustrialization created impersonal atmospherePessimism for the futureLack of belief in reason, progress and rights of individuals

Writers of the Times

Frenchman- Paul Valery; poetGerman- Friedrich Nietzsche; philosopherFrenchman- Henri Bergson; philosopherFrenchman-Georges Sorel; socialistFrenchman- Jean-Paul Sartre; philosopherFrenchman- Albert Camus; philosopher

Paul Valery

Poet“Crisis of the Mind”“Almost all the affairs of men remain in a terrible state”Reflects the uncertainty of the political, economic, and social scenes post WWI

Friedrich Nietzsche

Philosopher turned insaneClaimed Christianity embodied “slave morality” to glorify weakness, envy and mediocrity“God is Dead!”(death of God leaves people disoriented)

Friedrich Nietzsche

Superman” can free himself from hum-drum thinking of the masses (Germans liked this part)

Questioned all values; saw morality – reason, democracy, progress and respectability as worn out and suffocating self-realization and excellence

Henri Bergson

Dissatisfaction with established ideas

Immediate experience and intuition as important as science for understanding reality

Philosophy sought to combine mystical experience with enlightenment rationalism in explanation of the world(reality)

Georges Sorel

Tried to give socialism a mystical (religious) aura rather than a rational scientific truth Rejected democracy(rule by the masses)Believed in the success of the worker’s revolution BUT…Believed that the masses of a new socialist society would need the leadership of a small revolutionary elite(Lenin felt the same way)

EXISTENTIALISM

This is the true voice of anxiety!!

Most were atheist(how can one believe in a God that allowed the carnage of WWI to occur?)

Search for values in a world of terror

Recognize that people, in order to define their existence, must make choices to ACT(unless they kill themselves then they have no choices)

Choices define existence

Jean-Paul Sartre

Human beings simply exist; “they appear on the scene” /attempt to define their purpose

With no God to help, honest people experience despair

“Man is condemned to be free”(compare to Rousseau)

Believe one gives meaning to life through actions

If one acts courageously and consistent, one can overcome life’s absurdities

Albert Camus

Defined existentialism for the massesDefined existence by choosing to fight Hitler in WWIIBecame a freedom fighter in the French resistance/chose not to accept tyrannyNobel prize for Literature 1957 (The Plague-1947)Argued that people hold on to life with no meaning– therefore “absurd”.

Scientists of the Time

Freud- the unconscious

Einstein- relativity; fluidity of time

Rutherford- split the atom/precursor to the atomic bomb

Planck- quantum physics

Curies- radiation

Attitude of Literature early 20th Century

General climate of pessimism, relativeness and alienationWriters adopt a limited often confusing viewpoint of the individualFocus on the complexity and irrationality of human mind where memories and desires are forever scrambled

Authors/Literature

Virginia Woolfe: literary group the Bloomsbury; dealt with women’s issues; Jacob’s RoomWilliam Faulkner-The Sound and the FuryJames Joyce- UlyssesT.S. Elliot- The Wasteland George Orwell- 1984Kafka-The Trial and The Castle

Architecture= functionalism

Functionalism- buildings must be useful; serve the purpose for which they were built

Bauhaus- German school combined art as well as architecture; attracted talent worldwide

Chicago House- Louis H Sullivan; created skyscrapers to sustain urban growth

Frank Lloyd Wright- most famous functionalist ; Falling Waters (in western PA)

Bauhaus-Dessau, Germany

Frank Lloyd Wright-functionalism/Falling Waters

Art

Most was a reaction to the French Impressionists of the mid-1800’s such as Monet and Renoir.

New style emerged as post-impressionism or expressionism

Portray unseen worlds of inner emotion (influence of Freud)

Create an image that needs interpretation—not the normal image/look beyond the obvious

Art- Fin de Siecle

The Fauves-the wild beasts- group of painters led by Matisse –painting so extreme given nickname

Cubism- Picasso; complex geometric shapes

Dadaism- means hobbyhorse in French; attacks conventional techniques-delights in outrageous

Surrealism-painted fantastic world of wild dreams

Vincent Van Gogh-Potato Eaters

Matisse-Red Room

Gaugin-The vision after the Sermon

Picasso- Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

Picasso- Girl with Mandolin/cubism

Picasso-cubism/Guernica

Duchamps-Nude descending staircase

Duchamps- Fountain/Dadaism

Dali- Surrealism/Persistance of Memory

Dali- Soft Construction of Boiled Beans

Munch- The Scream