These two examples show how modernism was characterized by the key principles of the surrealism and dadaism movements. Modernism aimed to break the bounds of inherited tradition calling for new definitions by breaking the boundaries of tradition, new practices by rejecting aesthetics and new forms with its lack of meaning.4 Ultimately this lead to the breaking down of barriers and traditions within art allowing no one to define what art truly is. Modernism broke the boundaries of traditional art by challenging art’s definition, being characterized by movements such as Dadaism and Surrealism. Dadaism was a ‘sentimental resistance to the times’5 putting forward a new art from which new ideals were created. Duchamp through this created his ready-made piece which depicts a urinal repositioning it to look like his title of fountain adding the ‘R.Mutt 1917’ tag.
‘Defence Relationships: American Perspectives’. The Special Relationship. Ed. William Rogers Louis and Hedley Bull. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986.
Print. Dyson, A.E.”General Editor’s Comments,” Look Back in Anger: A Casebook, ed. John Russell Taylor. 1968; rpt. London: Macmillan, 1995.
London: Cassell, 1965. Print. Lockspeiser, Edward. Debussy. London: J.M.
Mahood, M. M. "Milton's Heroes," in Alan Rudrum, ed., Milton: Modern Judgements, London: Macmillan, 1968, 262-63. Milton, John. Paradise Lost in The Portable Milton. Editor Douglas Bush, New York: Viking Press, 1977. Patrides, C.A.
During the twentieth century a new term came to be used in classifying literature and it was called modernism. Modernism is not easily summoned up with one or two characteristics because, two writers could have varying styles and still be modernist. T.S. Elliot and William Carlos Williams are a perfect example of the varying styles in modernism. The reason these two may have differed from each other so strongly could be related to their different backgrounds.
Modernism and New Criticism The ways in which we define the importance of texts is constantly changing. We can look back and see critical theories used, such as Historical Criticism, Reader-Response Criticism and Psychoanalytic Criticism. Each of these theories offers a different way to interpret a text. However, when looking back over the texts of a specific era, shouldn’t the type of criticism we used for a book be based on that time period? Defining the Modernist Era of literature seems almost impossible, since the definition of modernism often seems to constitute anything from being “new and common” to “new and uncommon” (Barzun).
Compton's by Britannica. SIRS Discoverer. Web. 31 Oct. 2011. "Zoos."
Inadmissible Evidence. 1965; rpt. London: Faber & Faber, 1982. Print. ---.
Facts On File, Inc. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. Devantier, Alecia T., and Carol A. Turkington. "Zookeeper."