Modernism was a cultural movement from the late 19th to early 20th century that rejected traditional styles and values. It favored form over style and saw the past as different. Modernism attempted to rethink areas like art, culture, and philosophy. It emerged as a response to industrialization, capitalism, and other forces of modernity that were transforming the world and creating uncertainty.

1. Modernism

2. What is modernism? A cultural movement Late 19 th – early 20 th C Literature (Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Franz Kafka and T.S Eliot) Architecture (Frank Lloyd Wright, Norman Foster, Le Corbusier ) Art/ Design Rejection of traditional style and values

3. Functionality in architecture Rejection of distinctions between high and low culture Rejection of how texts ‘should’ be received Celebration of plurality Radical individualism against social forces in literature

4. Old traditions were outdated Overtly self conscious Favoured form over style Sees the past as different and over Traditional authorities to be questioned Modernism attempted to rethink science, art, culture, ethics, philosophy and psychology

5. Culmination of Modernity (industrialism, capitalism, nation states, technology) - Transformation of the world Modernism as a cultural experience within modernity “All that is solid melts into air” - change and uncertainty

11. A Girl The tree has entered my hands, The sap has ascended my arms, The tree has grown in my breast - Downward, The branches grow out of me, like arms. Tree you are, Moss you are, You are violets with wind above them. A child - so high - you are, And all this is folly to the world. Ezra Pound

12. Activity In small groups and using the internet to help brainstorm modernism as a way of thinking Go to www.glogster.com and begin to create posters