Discuss in which ways two modernist writers/film directors/thinkers engage their readers/audience.

Modernism was a cultural change in Western society that took hold between 1890 and 1930 (Childs 18). This movement was a reaction to the many changes of the time, including World War I, which caused turmoil in Europe, where the once stable political and social world was torn apart (Ragusa 137). Throughout this period, emerging modernist writers, film directors and thinkers engaged with their audiences by connecting with them through their social experiences. Thanks to this, they were able to express new ways of thinking. Sigmund Freud was one such modernist thinker, who connected with his post World War I audience through his focus on individualism, which was introduced in his theory of psychoanalysis, and explored further in literature such as The Future of an Illusion (1927). Additionally, Freud used a non-scientific writing style, which is expressed in texts such as The Economic Problem of Masochism (1924). This made his ideas more engaging for his audience. Whilst Freud progressed the modernisation of psychology in Vienna, Luigi Pirandello explored modern theatre in Italy. Pirandello engaged with his audience by connecting to their insecurities concerning reality, which are explored in his play, Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921). He also mirrored their generally pessimistic attitude about life, which is exemplified in Henry IV (1922). By expressing important and prevailing social experiences of the time, Freud and Pirandello effectively engaged their uncertain European audience through their modernist works.

The cultural change towards modernism occurred simultaneously to the scientific grounding of modern disciplines such as psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis (Micale 1). In the late 19th century, Viennese ...

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...m (1924)”. The Ego and the Id and Other Works. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Volume XIX. London: Hogarth Press, 1961: 155-170. Print.

Kolsky, Stephen. "Luigi Pirandello." European Modernism Lecture 9. The University of Melbourne, Melbourne. 15 Apr. 2014. Lecture.

Lang, Birgit. "The Case of Vienna: Between Sexology and Psychoanalysis." European Modernism Lecture 4. The University of Melbourne, Melbourne. 25 Mar. 2014. Lecture.

Micale, Mark, ed. The Mind of Modernism: Medicine, Psychology, and the Cultural Arts in Europe and America, 1880-1940. California: Stanford University Press, 2004. Print.

Pirandello, Luigi. Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays. London: Penguin Books, 1995. Print.

Stone, Jennifer. Pirandello’s Naked Prompt. The Structure of Repetition in Modernism. New York: Logo Editore, 1989. Print.