Modernism Essay

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Recommended: Tragedy of the common man Arthur Miller

Modernism is a movement that began in the early 1900’s as a way to break from traditional thinking and move forward into a new way of thinking about the ever-evolving world and its impact on society. Professor Mary Klages offers her thoughts on Modernism and the characteristics it holds as well as her thoughts on postmodernism, a movement that later followed Modernism, in her paper titled “Postmodernism.” In Arthur Miller’s essay titled Tragedy and the Common Man, Miller gives his ideas on Tragedy and the tragic hero, elements of modernism that can be found in his play Death of a Salesman. David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross is a play that showcases the characteristics Klages writes in her paper that are found in Postmodernism works. Although both Miller and Mamet’s plays deal with salesmen and the troubles of capitalism brought forth in such a stressful and competitive field, the way each author tells their story sets each work apart and categorizes it into a Modernism or Postmodernism category.
Professor Klages’ in her essay, “Postmodernism” spends quite some time writing about Modernism since it predates Postmodernism. According to Klages, modernism is “the movement in visual arts, music, literature, and drama which rejected the old Victorian standards of how art should be made, consumed, and what it should mean” (Klages, 1). One of the characteristics of Modernism she writes is “an emphasis on impressionism and subjectivity writing” and “a rejection of the distinction between “high” and “low” or popular culture” (Klages, 1-2). The themes of tragedy and tragic hero’s are ones that were limited to higher forms of art but Modernism took that exclusiveness and brought it to lower forms of art as evidenced in Arthur Miller’s Death o...

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... no use in trying to create meaning out of one’s life so these writers offer their stories and plays and let the chips fall where they may.
Modernism and Postmodernism are movements that sought to break free from traditional ways of thinking. Each movement offers its own unique characteristics that separate them from one another. Miller’s essay on tragedy where he gives his ideas on why the common man is just as worthy as being viewed as a tragic hero, help readers identify Willy Loman as a tragic hero. When readers read Miller’s play, they can associate his work as a work of Modernism. Mamet’s play, on the other hand, is a Postmodernism work due to the fact that it has no tragic hero, there is no tragedy present, it is just a play about a couple of salesmen and their everyday lives. There is no meaning to be searched for since Mamet makes no attempt to give one.

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