Characteristics of Modernism
- Ranged from the earlier twentieth century to roughly 1965.
- Marked by sudden and unexpected breaks with the way of viewing and interacting with the world.
- Experimentation and individualism became virtues.
- Began as a reaction against the Victorian culture.
- The beginning of the distinction between "high" art and "low" art.
- "Rejection of 19th-century traditions and their consensus between author and reader."
- Re-evaluation of the assumptions and aesthetic values of modernist predecessors.
What Brought it About.
Modernism was set in motion through a series of cultural shocks, including:
- The Great War, which ravaged Europe from 1914 through 1918 (WWI)
- Shifts in the natural sciences, social sciences, ideological sciences, and liberal arts
- The Industrial Revolution
- Evolved from the Romantic rejection of Enlightenment positivism and faith in reason