Flipped Learning - Unit 2 Trends and Movements

Hello everyone! I'm Priyanshi and welcome to my blog! this blog was the part of the flipped learning which was given by Meghaa ma'am. so, let's talk about all the trends and movements of the modern age.  

 

1. What is Modernism? Explain the characteristics of Modernism.

❐ Modernism: An Overview:

   Modernism is a significant cultural movement that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It marked a radical break with traditional forms of art, literature, music, and social organization, and sought new forms of expression.

❐ Characteristics of Modernism:

1. Break with Tradition:

   Modernism is characterized by a strong and intentional break with tradition. This break includes a strong inclination towards abstraction and away from realism. It believes in learning from the past while breaking away from the constraints of the past.

2. Experimentation and Innovation: 

  Experimentation and innovation are at the heart of Modernism. Artists experimented with new forms of literature, music, dance, visual art, and architecture. They believed that the traditional forms of these disciplines had become outdated and needed to be replaced.

3. Self-Consciousness:

  Modernism also involves a certain degree of self-consciousness. This self-consciousness often led to experiments with form and caused a re-examination of the premises of their art.

4. Rejection of Enlightenment Thinking and God:

  The movement rejected the lingering certainty of Enlightenment thinking, and also rejected the existence of a compassionate, all-powerful Creator God in favor of human progress achieved through scientific discovery.

5. Relativity of Truth:

  Modernists also believed in the relativity of truth and the rejection of absolute truth. This is a reflection of the loss of faith in traditional values and beliefs.

6. Emphasis on Materials and Techniques:

  Modernism emphasizes materials and techniques used in creation. It values the materials for their own qualities and uses them to create new structures and shapes.

7. Re-examination of Existence:

 Finally, Modernism encouraged the re-examination of every aspect of existence, from commerce to philosophy, with the goal of finding that which was ‘holding back’ progress, and replacing it with new, progressive ways to reach the same end.

In conclusion, Modernism was a radical departure from tradition, characterized by a desire for novelty, a deep sense of self-consciousness, and a rejection of established norms and values. It has left a lasting impact on all forms of artistic expression.

2. Explain ‘Stream of Consciousness’:

Stream of Consciousness:

   Stream of consciousness is a narrative technique that attempts to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings passing through the mind of a narrator. This style of writing aims to capture the natural flow of a character’s extended thought process, often incorporating sensory impressions, incomplete ideas, unusual syntax, and rough grammar.

Key Characteristics of Stream of Consciousness:

1. Non-linear Structure: Unlike traditional prose writing, which is highly linear, stream of consciousness often deviates from a logical sequence. It makes use of unusual syntax and grammar, associative leaps, repetition, and plot structure.

2. Syntax and Grammar: Stream of consciousness writing does not usually follow ordinary rules of grammar and syntax. This is because thoughts are often not fully formed, or they change course in the middle and become “run-on sentences,” or they are interrupted by another thought.

3. Association: Stream of consciousness also makes use of associative thought. In this style of writing, writers transition between ideas using loose connections that are often based on a character’s personal experiences and memories.

Historical Context:

  The term “stream of consciousness” originated in psychology before literary critics began using it to describe a narrative style that depicts how people think. The technique is associated with the early 20th-century Modernist movement Some writers attempted to capture the total flow of their characters’ consciousness, rather than limit themselves to rational thoughts.

Famous Examples:

 Famous examples of stream of consciousness in literature include James Joyce’s Ulysses, William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, and Virginia Woolf’s The Waves.

  In conclusion, stream of consciousness is a narrative technique that seeks to portray an individual’s point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character’s thought processes. This technique allows readers to “listen in” on a character’s thoughts, providing a unique perspective and a deeper understanding of the character’s mind.

3.Expressionism:

   Expressionism is a modernist movement that originated in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. It was initially seen in poetry and painting, but later extended to a wide range of the arts, including architecture, literature, theatre, dance, film, and music.

Key Characteristics:

• Expressionism presents the world solely from a subjective perspective.
• It distorts reality radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas.
• Expressionist artists sought to express the meaning of emotional experience rather than physical reality.
• The style is sometimes suggestive of angst.

Historical Context:

• The rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire and the emergence of a constitutional state with a strong current of ethno-nationalism rooted in Turkish identity played a significant role in the development of Expressionism.
• The roots of the German Expressionist school lay in the works of Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and James Ensor, each of whom evolved a highly personal painting style.
• The second and principal wave of Expressionism began about 1905, when a group of German artists led by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner formed a loose association called Die Brücke (“The Bridge”).

Impact:

• Expressionism remained popular during the Weimar Republic, particularly in Berlin.
• After World War II, figurative expressionism influenced artists and styles around the world.
• The term is applied mainly to 20th-century works.
• The Expressionist emphasis on individual and subjective perspective has been characterized as a reaction to positivism and other artistic styles such as Naturalism and Impressionism.

  In summary, Expressionism is an art movement that emphasizes subjective feeling and personal, spontaneous self-expression. It is a style in which the artist seeks to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse within a person.

4. Absurdism:

    Absurdism is a philosophical perspective that holds that the efforts of humanity to find meaning or rational explanation in the universe ultimately fail (and, hence, are absurd) because no such meaning exists, at least to human beings. It is based on the belief that the universe is irrational and meaningless and that the search for order brings the individual into conflict with the universe.

Key Characteristics:

• Absurdism states that trying to find meaning leads people into a conflict with the world.
• This conflict can be between rational man and an irrational universe, between intention and outcome, or between subjective assessment and objective worth.
• Absurdism claims that the world as a whole is absurd.

Historical Context:

• Absurdism is a philosophical theory that emerged in the 20th century.
• It is often associated with existentialist philosophy and the works of Albert Camus, a French-Algerian philosopher and author.

Impact:

• Absurdism has had a significant impact on a wide range of fields, including literature, drama, and philosophy.
• It has influenced many writers and playwrights, who have explored themes of absurdity in their works.

Responses to Absurdism:

• Various possible responses to deal with absurdism and its impact have been suggested.
• The three responses discussed in the traditional absurdist literature are suicide, religious belief in a higher purpose, and rebellion against the absurd.
• Of these, rebellion is usually presented as the recommended response since, unlike the other two responses, it does not escape the absurd and instead recognizes it for what it is.

5. Surrealism:

    Surrealism is an art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I. It is characterized by the principles, ideals, or practice of producing fantastic or incongruous imagery or effects in art, literature, film, or theater by means of unnatural or irrational juxtapositions and combinations.

Here are some key aspects of Surrealism:

1. Origins: Surrealism grew principally out of the earlier Dada movement, which before World War I produced works of anti-art that deliberately defied reason.

2. Emphasis: Unlike Dadaism, Surrealism’s emphasis was not on negation but on positive expression. It was a reaction against what its members saw as the destruction wrought by the “rationalism” that had guided European culture and politics in the past and that had culminated in the horrors of World War I.

3. Goal: The goal of Surrealism was to reunite conscious and unconscious realms of experience so completely that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in “an absolute reality, a surreality”.

4. Influence of Freud: Drawing heavily on theories adapted from Sigmund Freud, the major spokesman of the movement, André Breton, saw the unconscious as the wellspring of the imagination.

5. Artistic Expression: In the poetry of Breton, Paul Éluard, Pierre Reverdy, and others, Surrealism manifested itself in a juxtaposition of words that was startling because it was determined not by logical but by psychological—that is, unconscious—thought processes. However, Surrealism’s major achievements were in the field of painting.

6. Influence on Other Art Forms: Surrealism produced works of painting, writing, theatre, filmmaking, photography, and other media.

7. Political Association: At the time, the movement was associated with political causes such as communism and anarchism.

   The term “Surrealism” originated with Guillaume Apollinaire in 1917. However, the Surrealist movement was not officially established until after October 1924, when the Surrealist Manifesto published by French poet and critic André Breton succeeded in claiming the term for his group.

6.Postmodernism:

  Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourse that emerged in the late 20th century as a reaction against the intellectual assumptions and values of the modern period in the history of Western philosophy. It is characterized by:

1. Broad Skepticism: Postmodernism is skeptical towards elements of the Enlightenment worldview. It questions the “grand narratives” of modernism.

2. Subjectivism or Relativism: It rejects the certainty of knowledge and stable meaning. Postmodernists dismiss the idea of an objective natural reality, viewing reality as a conceptual construct, an artifact of scientific practice and language.

3. Suspicion of Reason: There is a general suspicion of reason. Postmodernists deny that the descriptive and explanatory statements of scientists and historians can, in principle, be objectively true or false.

4. Role of Ideology: Postmodernism acknowledges the acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining political and economic power.

5. Reaction to Modernism: Postmodernism is largely a reaction against modernism, which believes in progress and innovation. It does not designate any one style of art or culture.

6. Influence on Architecture: The shift from modernism to postmodernism is seen most dramatically in the world of architecture.

Postmodernism is often associated with pluralism and an abandonment of conventional ideas of originality and authorship in favor of a pastiche of “dead” styles. It’s best understood as a questioning of the ideas and values associated with a form of modernism.

7. Modernism:

Modernism is a philosophical, religious, and art movement that emerged from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is characterized by:

1. Break with the Past: Modernism marked a break with the past and the concurrent search for new forms of expression.

2. Embracing Change: Modernism embraced the changes brought about by the newly emerging industrial world, including urbanization, new technologies, and war.

3. Experimentation: It fostered a period of experimentation in literature, music, dance, visual art, and architecture. Artists attempted to depart from traditional forms of art, which they considered outdated or obsolete.

4. Rejection of Realism: Modernism explicitly rejected the ideology of realism. It made use of the works of the past by the employment of reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision, and parody.

5. Self-Consciousness: A notable characteristic of modernism is self-consciousness concerning artistic and social traditions, which often led to experimentation with form.

6. Influence on Literature: In literature, modernism is associated with the period after World War I. The enormity of the war had undermined humankind’s faith in the foundations of Western society and culture, and postwar Modernist literature reflected a sense of disillusionment and fragmentation.

Modernism encouraged the re-examination of every aspect of existence, from commerce to philosophy, with the goal of finding that which was holding back progress and replacing it with new ways of reaching the same end.

8. Dada Movement:

The Dada Movement was an artistic and literary movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland, in 1916. It was a reaction to World War I and the nationalism that many thought had led to the war.

Key Features

• The movement was marked by its mockery of materialistic and nationalistic attitudes.
• Dada was the direct antecedent to the Conceptual Art movement.
• The focus of the artists was not on crafting aesthetically pleasing objects but on making works that often upended bourgeois sensibilities.
• The Dadaists used absurdity as an offensive weapon against the ruling elite, whom they saw as contributing to the war.
• Dada artists are known for their use of ready-mades - everyday objects that could be bought and presented as art with little manipulation by the artist.

Influence and Spread

• Dada’s aesthetic proved a powerful influence on artists in many cities, including Berlin, Hanover, Paris, New York, and Cologne, all of which generated their own groups.
• The movement dissipated with the establishment of Surrealism.

Notable Artists

• Francis Picabia
• Marcel Duchamp
• Man Ray
• Hannah Höch

The Dada Movement questioned every aspect of society and culture, and its ideas have become the cornerstones of various categories of modern and contemporary art.

9. What is comedy of Menace?

   The term “Comedy of Menace” was first coined by David Campton and later associated with plays written by Nigel Dennis, N. F. Simpson, and Harold Pinter. It refers to a unique theatrical genre where elements of humor, absurdity, and a pervasive sense of threat or menace are combined. The characters often engage in seemingly ordinary situations that gradually reveal underlying tensions, power struggles, and a sense of impending danger.

Key characteristics of Comedy of Menace include:

• Subtextual conflict: The true conflict and threat lie beneath the surface of seemingly ordinary conversations and interactions.
• Absurdity and humor: The plays often include humorous dialogue and absurd situations that heighten the tension and create a sense of unease.
• Power struggles: There is often a power dynamic at play, with characters vying for control or dominance over one another.
• Language and pauses: The use of pauses, silences, and ambiguous or elliptical dialogue is a distinct feature, creating a sense of uncertainty and menace.
• Psychological depth: The plays delve into the characters’ psychological states, exploring their anxieties, fears, and desires.

Examples of Comedy of Menace include Harold Pinter’s “The Birthday Party”, “The Homecoming”, and “The Dumb Waiter”, and Martin McDonagh’s "The Beauty Queen of Leenane".

10. Avant Grade Movement:

Avant-Garde Movement

The Avant-Garde movement, a French term translating to “advance guard,” is known for pushing boundaries, innovating techniques or aesthetics, and challenging norms with radical or bizarre ideas. It’s often experimental and can be provocative, sometimes facing criticism upon release for challenging the status quo.

Characteristics of Avant-Garde:

• Applies to art, writing, film, and the artists behind them.
• Often reviled upon initial release.
• These ideas/works may seem tame in retrospect.

Key Aspects:

1. Reality Depiction: The movement aimed to render reality in a newly precise way. For instance, Gustave Courbet depicted harsh working lives, the Impressionists captured the effects of light on the retina at the moment of perception, and the Constructivists depicted the invisible scientific forces at work under the surface of visible reality.
2. Social or Political Program: Avant-garde art is often linked to a radical social or political program, where transgressive art becomes the vehicle for transgressive social and political activity.
3. Anti-Art: The birth of the avant-garde was also the birth of the idea of “anti-art”: that art could stake its value partly on undermining, subverting, or mocking pre-existing notions of artistic value.
4. Movement Association: Avant-garde art has traditionally been associated with a particular movement, from Realism to Impressionism to Expressionism to Cubism and so on.

The Avant-Garde movement represented a fusion of various artistic disciplines, including visual art, literature, music, theater, and dance, resulting in groundbreaking pieces that transcended traditional boundaries. It’s closely tied to a battle against censorship, such as the restrictions imposed by the Hays Code in the early days of Hollywood. The movement continues to influence contemporary art, pushing the limits of conventional aesthetics and functionality in various design disciplines.

Thank you!