Introduction
Miss Foster’s Lecture
Things I know about 20th century:
● Ever-evolving
● Developing
● New discoveries, technology
● Even more fast paced than the 21st century
● Phenomenal change
AMBIGUITY
● These works are not cut and dry
● Key feature of modernism
● Every poem of Eliots is HIGHLY OPEN TO INTERPRETATION
● Each person has their own way of interpretation
● You will need to decide what these poem are about, you need to read these poems yourself
and make your own personal interpretations.
Types of previous questions of Module B:
● Personal interpretation: talk about your previous understanding and belief, then how reading/
exposure to Eliot expanded, changed and shifted your understanding of XXX
● Construction of the poem, how they have engaged you personally and intellectually
➔ MODULE B = EVIDENCE OF STUDENT THINKING!
● Be aware of how and why these poems are part of the Literary Canon and why they still
matter
Be cautious of publication dates vs composition dates!
1910-1911
- Preludes
- Rhapsody on a Windy Night
- The long Song
1925
- The Hollow Man (bleakest)
1927
- Journey of the Magi
● Be aware of how bleak the poems change over time and then end with a sombre hope?? →
WHY……
● Drip feed context throughout your essays
- Social context
- Cultural context
- Family context
, - Political context
- Historical context
- Religious context
- Intellectual context
MODERNISM → refers to a global movement in society and culture that from the early decades of
the twentieth century sought a new alignment with the experience and values of modern industrial life.
Building on late nineteenth century precedent, artists around the world used new imagery, materials
and techniques to create artworks that they felt better reflected the realistics and hopes of modern
societies.
- In response to the radical shift in aesthetics and cultural sensibilities evident in the art and
literature of the post WWI period.
- Rejection of the optimism
VOCAB (use these words well - be aware of the difference between their definitions):
1. Modernism
2. Modernist
3. Modern
4. Modernity
5. Modern Era
Principles of Victorian Morality
- Hardworkd and personal successes
- Duty and responsibility
- Earnestness
- Modersty
- Moralistic
- Positive
- Chrisitiansy
- Proper Behaviour
- Patriarchies
- Social class and status
What did Modernists think about……
Romanticism
- Modernism is a reaction to romanticism (over sentimentality)
- Resented the escapism
Realism
- Thought it was limited by its details and objectivity
- Too naturalistic
- Requires more nuance
- Realism was a response to the Industrial Revolution
Spirit of Modernism:
● Rejects literary fabrication
● Poetry is a meaning activity- search for the meaning
, ● Collapsed plots
● Fragmented images of technological damage
● Shifts in perspectives, tone and voice
Summary
● 5 poems - treat them as a suite, tend to write on 3 poems in each essay
● See poems as developing
Preludes
- First two written very early in this career
- Testing the form,s he would later use
- Preceded his longer poems
- Establishes the themes in his poetry
- Vignettes- with morning or evening
- A LOADED TITLE (frend word - meaning to TEST, latin - BEFORE PLAY, English -
before)
Mass culture and SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
● Mass transport
● Mass production
● Mass communication
● Mechanised home (electricity and technology)
● Mass migration (jewish diaspora, Iris diaspora, European diaspora)
Rhapsody on a Windy Night
- Objective time
- Subjective time → a one hour lecture feels like a 4 hour slog
- It is an extension of what is being explore in ‘preludes’ but make it more
PHANTASMAGORICAL
- Investigates the vacuity and vapidity of the urban world
- Marked by olfactory imagery with a significant focus on nighttime or
- Motif twistedness become representative of a broken world
The Love Song
- We have named dramatis personae now - DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE
- Builds on the decrepitude of Preludes and the delirium of Rhapsody
- Beings with a quote from dante’s Inferno - THE WHOLE SHEBANG IS HIGHLY
ALLUSIVE
- The kicks off with an imperative - that leads nowhere
- Spectuae if he dares to ask a question but descends into bathos
- Realises he no Hamlet and worries that he will laight out of Heaven
- Concludes with a despairing message - the sirens will not sign to him
★ ENTOMOLOGICAL METAPHOR!
The Hollow Men
Miss Foster’s Lecture
Things I know about 20th century:
● Ever-evolving
● Developing
● New discoveries, technology
● Even more fast paced than the 21st century
● Phenomenal change
AMBIGUITY
● These works are not cut and dry
● Key feature of modernism
● Every poem of Eliots is HIGHLY OPEN TO INTERPRETATION
● Each person has their own way of interpretation
● You will need to decide what these poem are about, you need to read these poems yourself
and make your own personal interpretations.
Types of previous questions of Module B:
● Personal interpretation: talk about your previous understanding and belief, then how reading/
exposure to Eliot expanded, changed and shifted your understanding of XXX
● Construction of the poem, how they have engaged you personally and intellectually
➔ MODULE B = EVIDENCE OF STUDENT THINKING!
● Be aware of how and why these poems are part of the Literary Canon and why they still
matter
Be cautious of publication dates vs composition dates!
1910-1911
- Preludes
- Rhapsody on a Windy Night
- The long Song
1925
- The Hollow Man (bleakest)
1927
- Journey of the Magi
● Be aware of how bleak the poems change over time and then end with a sombre hope?? →
WHY……
● Drip feed context throughout your essays
- Social context
- Cultural context
- Family context
, - Political context
- Historical context
- Religious context
- Intellectual context
MODERNISM → refers to a global movement in society and culture that from the early decades of
the twentieth century sought a new alignment with the experience and values of modern industrial life.
Building on late nineteenth century precedent, artists around the world used new imagery, materials
and techniques to create artworks that they felt better reflected the realistics and hopes of modern
societies.
- In response to the radical shift in aesthetics and cultural sensibilities evident in the art and
literature of the post WWI period.
- Rejection of the optimism
VOCAB (use these words well - be aware of the difference between their definitions):
1. Modernism
2. Modernist
3. Modern
4. Modernity
5. Modern Era
Principles of Victorian Morality
- Hardworkd and personal successes
- Duty and responsibility
- Earnestness
- Modersty
- Moralistic
- Positive
- Chrisitiansy
- Proper Behaviour
- Patriarchies
- Social class and status
What did Modernists think about……
Romanticism
- Modernism is a reaction to romanticism (over sentimentality)
- Resented the escapism
Realism
- Thought it was limited by its details and objectivity
- Too naturalistic
- Requires more nuance
- Realism was a response to the Industrial Revolution
Spirit of Modernism:
● Rejects literary fabrication
● Poetry is a meaning activity- search for the meaning
, ● Collapsed plots
● Fragmented images of technological damage
● Shifts in perspectives, tone and voice
Summary
● 5 poems - treat them as a suite, tend to write on 3 poems in each essay
● See poems as developing
Preludes
- First two written very early in this career
- Testing the form,s he would later use
- Preceded his longer poems
- Establishes the themes in his poetry
- Vignettes- with morning or evening
- A LOADED TITLE (frend word - meaning to TEST, latin - BEFORE PLAY, English -
before)
Mass culture and SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
● Mass transport
● Mass production
● Mass communication
● Mechanised home (electricity and technology)
● Mass migration (jewish diaspora, Iris diaspora, European diaspora)
Rhapsody on a Windy Night
- Objective time
- Subjective time → a one hour lecture feels like a 4 hour slog
- It is an extension of what is being explore in ‘preludes’ but make it more
PHANTASMAGORICAL
- Investigates the vacuity and vapidity of the urban world
- Marked by olfactory imagery with a significant focus on nighttime or
- Motif twistedness become representative of a broken world
The Love Song
- We have named dramatis personae now - DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE
- Builds on the decrepitude of Preludes and the delirium of Rhapsody
- Beings with a quote from dante’s Inferno - THE WHOLE SHEBANG IS HIGHLY
ALLUSIVE
- The kicks off with an imperative - that leads nowhere
- Spectuae if he dares to ask a question but descends into bathos
- Realises he no Hamlet and worries that he will laight out of Heaven
- Concludes with a despairing message - the sirens will not sign to him
★ ENTOMOLOGICAL METAPHOR!
The Hollow Men
