Modernism: A Cultural History - Essay Example

Introduction Modernism is a term used to refer to a radical change in aesthetic and cultural sensibilities in the art of literature in reference to the post- world war one period (Armstrong 2005). Modernism marks the end of bourgeois morality, rebuffing nineteenth-century optimism, something that results in an evident apathy and moral relativism (Armstrong 2005). Indeed, modernism was a rebellion against realism. It is argued that modernism is the rejection of tradition and its inequities. In another dimension, modernism encompasses of actions of those that felt that the traditional forms of art, literature, social organization and real life were becoming obsolete and that they were not going in line with new social economic and political situations of an emerging industrialized world (Armstrong 2005). ‘The whole of anything is never told’ The assertion by Henry James that ‘the whole of anything is never told’ could be both true and false. The novel is about dreams that do not come true (James and Luckhurst 2009). This can be argued to be intercession on wishes, hopes, success and failure on what life would do to a strong and imaginative woman of the nineteenth century who supposedly has almost everything and almost every person to presume that all her wishes and hopes would be realized (James and Luckhurst 2009). In other words, the whole story is about hopes and disappointments in life. In fact, the novel is an outline of the big cosmopolitan world of European culture and history which is composed of big ambitions, riches, class and above all, what such a life would do to people of such a culture (James and Luckhurst 2009). One thing that interested James is the idea of imagination as an instrument of thought. According to James, it is through the working of his characters’ imagination or lack of it that he was able to define their destinies (James and Luckhurst 2009). However, the meaning of imagination according to James is a very large subject which is evident by the way the word has been used and scattered all over his work. However, according to James, the definition of imagination could be narrowed to mean among other things, what turns observed experience into understanding (James and Luckhurst 2009). Given that James is a realist, imagination should be a product of other primary factors such as real knowledge and real experience which in the case of the novel, lacks from the woman character. Nonetheless, the imagination according to James is much more applicable in real life and should be intense and active normally accompanied by knowledge (Matthiessen and Kenneth, Murdock 1947). The woman character in the story is seen to lack knowledge and instead mistakes beauty for truth. Due to lack of knowledge, she fails to see the real picture of the man she falls in love with (James and Luckhurst 2009). Amazingly, the man she falls in love displays his disregard for money, something she takes as evidence that the man has no greed for money while in the real sense, the man’s disregard for money is actually nothing but greed. In fact, according to the woman character in the story, human wishes without knowledge acts as a barrier towards getting the real picture of the situation (James and Luckhurst 2009). The wishes act as a shadow as they make individuals create a picture of wishes towards other individuals and situations as a quench of justifying their wishes to be true. It is very real that even when wishes covers the truth in real life situations, especially when people ironically present the art of living in a different perspective, people are unable to discover the masking of such individuals even when something warns them. In the case of the woman in the story, the man she falls in love with presents himself with ironic elegant about the art of living though he has such a look of plentitude and fulfillment, something the woman is enchanted about though in her enchantment, something warns her but she goes unheeded (James and Luckhurst 2009). Isabel (the woman in the story) was yet to cross her imagination and transit from unworldliness to knowledge. However, her crossing was always occasioned by her failure of imagination which forms the bases of the novel. Nevertheless, James is interested in the failed imaginations of all his characters (Matthiessen and Kenneth, Murdock 1947). For example, think of Ralph Touchett. He is a major portrait in James’s lifelong. Presented as good but lacks actions (James and Luckhurst 2009). As his father murmurs on his deathbed, Ralph concentrates on his imaginations. He imagines anything except action. Death’s head under which he lives immobilizes him and makes him assume that life, including what he has left is not for him (James and Luckhurst 2009). When his father asks what he expects from Isabel, he innocently says that he would get the good he wished to put into Isabel’s reach, which in this case is to have met requirements of his imagination. In this regard, what Ralph failed to understand is that imagination can only be gratified with life, something that Isabel would be wishing to share. He is considered to be a man of great courage but no daring at all. In fact, his lack of daring can be termed as failed imagination. If a little more daring was applied to his imagination, at a risk of humiliation, he might have made Isabel both rich and loved and perhaps won a little love for himself. Instead, his decision to protect himself by concealing his love puts Isabel at risk of being used, lied to and hatred for her money (James and Luckhurst 2009). Up to this far, although James praises imagination above all things, no matter how imaginative his characters were, nobody in the novel is seen to be led to a fulfilled life. In this regard, James can be termed as pessimist; his perception of things is tragic. Human vision is faulty and wishing won’t make it right. In fact this is evident in the whole novel since none of his character posses’ powers of imagination beyond those of other characters in the book. A haunted house A haunted house narrates the experience of a young couple (mainly the wife); with a ghost couple that haunts their home (Woolf 1972). The description of a ghost by Woolf is indirect as evident in her second sentence “From room to room they went, hand in hand, lifting here, opening there…” (Woolf 1972 p. 1) her use of ‘here’ is seen to be repeated severally undefined but the repetition emphasizes its meaning and significance. She later introduces the word ‘it’, which is also left undefined and its repetition signifies its importance as well (Woolf 1972). As the story unfolds, Woolf creates a mystery by the way she uses the word ‘here’ which begs a question; how can many places be here if ‘here’ is where it is? As the story continues, one is made to understand that ‘it’ is a ‘buried treasure’ which is another set of indistinguishable reference. However, it can be argued that Woolf develops the reader’s sense of the ‘treasure’ and ensures that it adds value towards the tail end of the story. As Woolf ends the story, she ends on an epiphanic note, which is a predominantly modernist epiphany, and one that denotes that one achieves a higher understanding by adding a different perspective to one’s understanding (Woolf 1972). Her inclusion of ghosts’ perspective to her view of things left her with greater understanding of ‘it’ and ‘treasure’ than when she started (Woolf 1972). She made her narrator recognize feelings and sentiments are also as valuable as material wealth. This story is a fine introduction to the world of modernism which demands the utmost attention of the reader. Tickets please In the ‘tickets please’, although the writer has a negative attitude towards women, the writer does not reveal much background information; something that makes the story rolling from the beginning. In the story, a young inspector of the tramway system seduces all conductresses on the midlands line (Lawrence 1985). As the inspector goes on with his mission, one of the conductresses, Annie finally falls for him. Unfortunately, she becomes more possessive something that the inspector dislikes and lets her down and picks another girl (Lawrence 1985). However, with Annie, that could not end at that. She decides to take revenge; together with other conductresses, she set a trap for him. They successfully managed to attract him in their waiting room and molested him. However, their motive was to make him choose one of them and make her his wife. Finally, he chooses Annie who, by far much from being proud and contented, fell a prey to conflicting feelings (Lawrence 1985). Although the story seems to be simple, the way is set confuses the reader. In fact, there is more than meet the eye in the narrative. It was coincidentally written during the First World War and it uses the moral and social disorder brought about by the conflict stressing on the psychological consequences of women’s position resulting from employment and following their fight to be offered an opportunity to vote. At the time, the new role of women was seen as a form of progress by the male dominated society. The conductresses were seen to benefit from their new status of microcosm of the tram system before they came to realize their second position in relation to direct human relationship (Lawrence 1985). Living under the illusion of being real actors and who exhibit responsible people, they unfortunately face the ruthless of the chief inspector. However, they subsequently resort to violence as an action to reveal their aggravation and the vague relationships with men (Lawrence 1985). Just like the girls, the minors are beneficiaries and victims of progress; they are part of the background of the story as realistic and symbolical as it is portrayed in the introduction of the story. The miner’s economic role is loaded with an understood symbolic value; extracting coal to fuel the industry (Lawrence 1985) is raping the earth by plundering its riches which has adverse effects on human beings. As presented in the ‘ticket please’, the subsidiary effects of humanity are indicated through the Lawrentian central theme of relationship between men and women. At this point, the weaker sex and the stronger sex are respectively and ironically embodied by Annie Stone and John Thomas Raynor. Conductresses are: fearless young hussies” (Lawrence 1985, p. 333) who courageously face the dangers of tram journeys and the male passengers’ advances; such as, they belong to a different class of women whose job is exceptional. "This, the most dangerous tram-service in England, as the authorities themselves declare, with pride, is entirely conducted by girls". (Lawrence 1985, p. 335). Such an optimistic and indirect self-congratulatory statement dourly indicates that the girls have been transformed into hybrids. In her description of tavershall, Lawrence uses the word ugly to describe the undervalued official uniform worn by girls (Lawrence 1985). The word is repeated severally just to signify stigmatize the industrial landscape crossed by tram. Resembling transvestites in their ugly uniforms, the conductresses retain only a bawdy sort of feminity with their ‘skirts above their knees. In this regard, Lawrence puts it clear that the price to pay for social congress is the loss of gender differentiation: the girls assume a new authority, which turns them into sham soldiers (Lawrence 1985). However, on the other hand, John Thomas’s permissive attitude, accepted by Annie as a matter of course, is an implicit denial of reality of social progress offering women authority and autonomy. The conventionalist rules are those of the society of that time where men were supposed to pay for women, therefore, resuming in civil behaviors (Lawrence 1985). In the story, the conductor is seen as a figure of the impersonal self, while ticket implies a give and take form of a deal. As far as that symbolic reading is concerned, the title ‘tickets please’ announces the girls’ symbolizes deep desire for real reciprocity in their relationship with men. An empty frame The George Egerton’s key notes introduces principles from which new social and sexual relations could be produced and the nature of good life and how to live it (Egerton and Ledger 2006). Egerton describes the perception of woman she introduces as principal achievement of her first book. While the woman's wildness and yearning for new experience invite comparison with the independence and boldness with which Egerton lived her early life, this characterisation of woman was also sanctioned by her acquaintance with Nietzsche's thought (Egerton and Ledger 2006). ‘A cross line’ feted for being the first of the stories in keynotes, is well known for the passage describing the fantasy of its unnamed female protagonist who has desire for audience men (Egerton and Ledger 2006). Her ‘wild song’; a song of untamed spirit that dwells in her, is predicated upon a female, that the woman maintains something that most men fails to acknowledge (Egerton and Ledger 2006). The autobiography of ‘a cross line’ can be discerned also from its protagonist makes to Nietzsche and August Strindberg, whose works and thought Egerton knew from her time living in Norway (Egerton and Ledger 2006). Actually, these women proactive references to Nietzsche's and Strindberg's ideas about women mark the culmination of the passage and accordingly suggest cues for further readings of it. It is evident that Egerton presents women as influential allies for her brand of feminism. When making a decision to separate with the man, the woman in Egerton’s story is firm, but not clear. Her nature is presented in the story as not only masterful, but also as emotionally vulnerable, a trait that replicates Nietzsche’s strange characterisation of a woman (Egerton and Ledger 2006). However, what inspires respect and fear of women is their nature which is considered to be more natural than that of men. This nature is exhibited by their cunning agility, and their inner wilderness and inability to be trained. The vulnerable side of woman’s character inhibits the energy and will to power which gives them power and their dominance over men (Egerton and Ledger 2006). Their power is inhibited by emotional nature and not by childbearing. The woman’s inner wildness is a clear indication that her character is modeled upon Nietzsche’s Dionysian woman, whose creative commitment to change is exemplified in her ability to give birth (Egerton and Ledger 2006). Implications of the stories To some extents, though they fall under modernism, these stories could be viewed as movements that fought for the rights of women (feminism). This is evident by the way they present the problems women go through in their social, economic and political life. Concentration is much on gender equality. These stories examine and exhibit the social roles of women and how they play their role in real life (Hoffman 2006). The stories tend to explain the origins of gender inequality and how the issue of social construction is perceived by the society. In some instances, modernists have made some campaigns on the fight for women’s rights and their place in the society in terms of social and political setting. Some of the things that emerge as the reason why women tend to be sidelined in some social, economic and political matters in the society are much attached to cultural settings and beliefs, as evident in all the stories. However, one unique concept is introduced in the three stories as ‘inability of women to action their imaginations’. In the ‘tickets please’, the writer emphasises on women oppression in work places. In many instances, women are not given equal opportunities as men. They are underpaid, and are limited to some heights of achievements where by only men have opportunities to be ranked above those heights (Hoffman 2006). Modernism as presented in the stories was wave that involved and social equality of women. This covered many aspects challenges of women in day to day activities. Modernism has attracted a lot of critics claiming that it promoted relativism especially through the literature work- a perspective that, there is no way to determine wrong or immoral. According to Hoffman (2006), modernism has seemingly abhorred any belief in an established ethical code and it has questioned all naturalism, foundations, universals, authority, and autonomy of ethics and politics as subjects, and the idea of future transparent political order (Armstrong 2005). However, it is apparent that these arguments are not accurate or valid criticisms of modernism. The differences arise in the approach of condemning the ills in our society. Modernism has a great significance on moral reflection (McFarlane 1978). The denial of objective knowledge, universal meaning, unity of self and distinction between rational and political action can be linked to immensely shape our moral reflection because it may seem to suggest that relativism is the only option (Armstrong 2005). The denial of universal meaning of words and texts can equally lead to conclusions by some people that ethical reflection has lost its meaning. With such views expressed by modernists, the moral imagination is greatly vulnerable (Armstrong 2005). However, modernism presents a valuable critique of the tendency of socialist orthodoxy to refer to their insights as social and historical values. Conclusion It is apparent that modernism has impacted immensely on real life situations in our generation today. Women in the society are sidelined in developmental matters that affect them direct and in direct. Culture is one of the impediments in liberating some of the oppressions experienced in the society currently. Besides being subordinates of men, women are treated in very diminishing way. However, some efforts by some modernists have helped improve on the perception of women by men. Some women have taken leadership positions including political positions and have proved to perform even better than some men do. This paper suggests that more revolution need to be done so that the women can have opportunity to contribute to the economy as men do. It has been proved that family is a very important unit in the society. In this regard, women play a key role in ensuring that the family is complete. Therefore they need to be given equal opportunities as men. Bibliography: Armstrong, T. 2005. Modernism: a cultural history. Cambridge [u.a.] Politiy. Egerton, G. and Ledger, S. 2006. Keynotes and Discords. London: Continuum. Hoffman, C. 2006. Post modernism, Ethics and Psychometric. Paper presented at the American Psychological Associations Annual Convention, New Orleans, LA James, H. and Luckhurst, R. 2009. The portrait of a lady. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. Lawrence, D. H. 1985. Tickets please. Napa, CA: Tales for Travellers. Matthiessen, F.O. and Kenneth, B. Murdock. 1947. The Notebooks of Henry James. New York: Oxford University Press. McFarlane, M. 1978. Modernism London, Penguin Books Schreiner, O. 1995. Story of African Farm. New York: Penguin Books, 1995. Woolf, V. 1972. A haunted house and other short stories. San Diego; New York; London: Harcourt. Read More