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Literary modernism is a Western literary movement that originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Answer: True
Explanation: Literary modernism is indeed a Western literary movement that emerged during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, marking a significant departure from previous literary traditions.
Modernist literature is seen as a reaction to societal changes like the decline of industrialization and urbanization.
Answer: False
Explanation: Modernist literature is viewed as a response to profound societal shifts such as industrialization, urbanization, and technological advancements, which fundamentally reshaped the human experience in the early 20th century, rather than a reaction to their decline.
Some scholars pinpoint the beginning of literary modernism to around 1910, referencing Virginia Woolf's observation about a change in human nature.
Answer: True
Explanation: The precise commencement of literary modernism is debated; however, some scholars cite circa 1910, referencing Virginia Woolf's observation of a fundamental change in human nature. Significant works predating this include Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' (c. 1902).
The stylistic origins of literary modernism are traced back to 20th-century North America.
Answer: False
Explanation: The stylistic origins of literary modernism are traced to 19th-century Europe.
The Industrial Revolution is identified as a primary cultural origin for literary modernism.
Answer: True
Explanation: The Industrial Revolution is identified as a primary cultural origin for literary modernism.
What societal changes are cited as reactions that shaped modernist literature?
Answer: Industrialization, urbanization, and new technologies.
Explanation: Modernist literature is viewed as a response to profound societal shifts such as industrialization, urbanization, and technological advancements, which fundamentally reshaped the human experience in the early 20th century, rather than a reaction to their decline.
What is the primary stylistic origin of literary modernism?
Answer: 19th-century Europe
Explanation: The stylistic origins of literary modernism are traced to 19th-century Europe.
A central tenet of literary modernism was Ezra Pound's maxim, "Make it old."
Answer: False
Explanation: The foundational maxim of literary modernism, as articulated by Ezra Pound, was "Make it new," signifying a departure from established traditions rather than a return to them.
Modernist literature was primarily driven by a desire to preserve traditional modes of representation.
Answer: False
Explanation: Contrary to preserving traditional modes, modernist literature was characterized by a deliberate break from past conventions and an exploration of new forms of representation to capture the complexities of the modern era.
Mary Ann Gillies identified a "conscious break with the past" as a central characteristic of modernist literature.
Answer: True
Explanation: Mary Ann Gillies identifies a "conscious break with the past" as a key characteristic of modernist literature, viewing it as a complex response across disciplines to a rapidly changing world.
W. B. Yeats's line "Things are falling apart; the centre cannot hold" is often used to summarize the modernist feeling of fragmentation.
Answer: True
Explanation: The line "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" from W. B. Yeats's poem 'The Second Coming' is frequently cited to encapsulate the modernist sentiment of fragmentation and the erosion of societal order.
Modernist writers typically sought to find and depict a stable, metaphysical 'centre' or ultimate truth in their works.
Answer: False
Explanation: Modernist writers often explored the search for a metaphysical 'centre' or ultimate truth, but their works frequently depicted the experience of its collapse or absence, contrasting with postmodernism's embrace of this deconstruction.
Modernism often rejected 19th-century realism when realism focused solely on naturalistic representation.
Answer: True
Explanation: Modernism often rejected 19th-century realism, particularly when realism was confined to naturalistic representation. Conversely, some modernist approaches sought a more profound realism that embraced fragmentation and multiple perspectives.
Modernism is seen as an 'apotheosis' of romanticism because it shared the romantic quest for metaphysical truths but ultimately confronted their collapse.
Answer: True
Explanation: Modernism is seen as an 'apotheosis' of romanticism due to its shared quest for metaphysical truths concerning character, nature, and meaning. However, modernism distinguishes itself by confronting and depicting the subsequent collapse of these very truths.
Modernist writers, especially after WWI, broke the implicit contract with the public by acting as reliable interpreters of mainstream culture.
Answer: False
Explanation: Post-WWI modernist writers often broke the implicit contract with the public by eschewing the role of reliable interpreters of mainstream culture, instead employing techniques like unreliable narration to expose underlying irrationality and challenge conventional perceptions.
Stream-of-consciousness and interior monologue are literary techniques that emerged from modernist influences.
Answer: True
Explanation: Influenced by thinkers such as Darwin, Mach, Freud, Einstein, Nietzsche, and Bergson, modernist writers pioneered techniques like stream-of-consciousness, interior monologue, and multiple points-of-view, aiming for enhanced psychological realism and reflecting skepticism towards traditional narrative realism.
Modernist works typically maintained clear distinctions between literary genres, such as poetry and prose.
Answer: False
Explanation: Modernist works frequently blurred genre distinctions, resulting in prose exhibiting poetic qualities and poetry adopting prose-like structures; for example, Virginia Woolf's novels were deemed poetical, while T. S. Eliot's poetry often prioritized fragmented narrative over lyrical grace.
What is the core principle or maxim associated with literary modernism?
Answer: Make it new.
Explanation: Ezra Pound's maxim, "Make it new," is central to literary modernism, signifying a deliberate effort to innovate and depart from established literary forms and expressions.
According to Mary Ann Gillies, what is a central characteristic of modernist literature?
Answer: A "conscious break with the past."
Explanation: Mary Ann Gillies identifies a "conscious break with the past" as a key characteristic of modernist literature, viewing it as a complex response across disciplines to a rapidly changing world.
How did modernist writers break from the "implicit contract" with the public, particularly after World War I?
Answer: By using techniques like unreliable narrators to expose underlying irrationality.
Explanation: Post-WWI modernist writers often broke the implicit contract by eschewing the role of reliable interpreters of mainstream culture, instead employing techniques like unreliable narration to expose underlying irrationality and challenge conventional perceptions.
What is the significance of the "conscious break with the past" in modernist literature, according to Mary Ann Gillies?
Answer: It was a complex response to a world undergoing significant change.
Explanation: Mary Ann Gillies identifies a "conscious break with the past" as a key characteristic of modernist literature, viewing it as a complex response across disciplines to a rapidly changing world.
How did modernist writers engage with the concept of a metaphysical 'centre' or ultimate truth?
Answer: They often depicted its collapse or absence.
Explanation: Modernist writers often explored the search for a metaphysical 'centre' or ultimate truth, but their works frequently depicted the experience of its collapse or absence, contrasting with postmodernism's embrace of this deconstruction.
What is the significance of Ezra Pound's maxim, "Make it new," for literary modernism?
Answer: It represented a conscious effort to innovate and break from established forms.
Explanation: Ezra Pound's maxim, "Make it new," is central to literary modernism, signifying a deliberate effort to innovate and depart from established literary forms and expressions.
The First World War had little impact on literary modernism, as it focused on pre-war sensibilities.
Answer: False
Explanation: The First World War profoundly impacted literary modernism, shattering pre-war certainties and fostering a sense of disillusionment that became a central theme in much modernist writing.
David Hume's skepticism about causality and the self is seen as a philosophical precursor to the modernist exploration of the collapse of metaphysics.
Answer: True
Explanation: David Hume's philosophical skepticism regarding causality and the self is indeed considered a precursor to modernism's engagement with the collapse of metaphysics, as he questioned the certainty of cause-and-effect and the nature of the self.
Modernist theory, influenced by Symbolism, often emphasized the certainty and accessibility of symbols and metaphors.
Answer: False
Explanation: Influenced by Symbolism, modernist theory often viewed symbols and metaphors not as certain or easily accessible keys to meaning, but as potentially inscrutable or even failing instruments for conveying profound truths.
Early modernist literature was influenced by thinkers like Sigmund Freud, Ernst Mach, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Henri Bergson.
Answer: True
Explanation: Early modernist literature drew significantly from thinkers such as Sigmund Freud (unconscious mind), Ernst Mach (mind structure, subjective experience), Friedrich Nietzsche (psychological drives), and Henri Bergson (time, consciousness).
Ernst Mach's work influenced logical positivism and foreshadowed concepts in Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.
Answer: True
Explanation: Ernst Mach's ideas on the mind's structure and subjective experience influenced logical positivism and anticipated concepts in Einstein's relativity, while his critique of Newtonian physics contributed to a broader questioning of established certainties.
Freud's exploration of the unconscious mind and Jung's concept of the collective unconscious provided modernist writers with ways to explore human psychology.
Answer: True
Explanation: Freud's exploration of the unconscious and Jung's concept of the collective unconscious offered modernist writers novel avenues for psychological exploration, suggesting that deviations from social norms could originate from fundamental human nature.
Henri Bergson's ideas on subjective experience directly contributed to the development of the stream-of-consciousness technique.
Answer: True
Explanation: Henri Bergson's distinction between objective 'clock time' and subjective, lived temporal experience significantly influenced modernist novelists, directly contributing to the development of the stream-of-consciousness technique.
Which philosopher's ideas are seen as tracing back the collapse of metaphysics that influenced modernism?
Answer: David Hume
Explanation: David Hume's philosophical skepticism regarding causality and the self is indeed considered a precursor to modernism's engagement with the collapse of metaphysics, as he questioned the certainty of cause-and-effect and the nature of the self.
How did the First World War influence literary modernism?
Answer: It led to a reassessment of assumptions and engagement with disillusionment.
Explanation: The First World War profoundly impacted literary modernism, shattering pre-war certainties and fostering a sense of disillusionment that became a central theme in much modernist writing.
What philosophical concept, particularly from Henri Bergson, greatly influenced modernist novelists' techniques?
Answer: The distinction between clock time and subjective experience.
Explanation: Henri Bergson's distinction between objective 'clock time' and subjective, lived temporal experience significantly influenced modernist novelists, directly contributing to the development of the stream-of-consciousness technique.
Which of these psychological theories provided modernist writers with new ways to explore the unconscious mind?
Answer: Psychoanalysis (Freud) and the Collective Unconscious (Jung)
Explanation: Freud's exploration of the unconscious and Jung's concept of the collective unconscious offered modernist writers novel avenues for psychological exploration, suggesting that deviations from social norms could originate from fundamental human nature.
How did modernist theory, influenced by Symbolism, often view symbols and metaphors?
Answer: As inscrutable, potentially failing tools for conveying meaning.
Explanation: While Romantics often perceived an essential, divine connection between symbols and their meanings, modernist theory, influenced by Symbolism, tends to emphasize the inscrutability and potential failure of symbols and metaphors, suggesting that meaning, though sensed, remains elusive.
How did Ernst Mach's work influence modernist thought?
Answer: By influencing logical positivism and foreshadowing concepts in relativity.
Explanation: Ernst Mach's ideas on the mind's structure and subjective experience influenced logical positivism and anticipated concepts in Einstein's relativity, while his critique of Newtonian physics contributed to a broader questioning of established certainties.
Picasso's 'The Poet' is cited as an example of modernist realism because it presents the subject from a single, privileged perspective.
Answer: False
Explanation: Picasso's proto-Cubist painting 'The Poet' (1911) exemplifies modernist realism through its synthesis of multiple viewpoints into a single image, thereby challenging the limitations of a singular, privileged perspective and suggesting a more comprehensive representation.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Walt Whitman, and Gustave Flaubert are considered key literary precursors to modernism.
Answer: True
Explanation: Key literary precursors to modernism include Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Walt Whitman, Gustave Flaubert, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Knut Hamsun, and August Strindberg, noted for their explorations of psychological depth, subjective experience, and innovative narrative forms.
Arnold Schoenberg's atonal music and Wassily Kandinsky's Expressionist paintings paralleled the rise of literary modernism.
Answer: True
Explanation: Parallel artistic developments included Arnold Schoenberg's atonal music (1908), Wassily Kandinsky's Expressionist paintings and the Blue Rider group (1911), Fauvism, and Cubism pioneered by Picasso and Braque (c. 1900-1910).
Gertrude Stein's abstract writings, like 'Tender Buttons,' have been compared to the multi-perspective Cubist paintings of Pablo Picasso.
Answer: True
Explanation: Gertrude Stein's abstract writings, exemplified by 'Tender Buttons' (1914), are often compared to the fragmentary, multi-perspective Cubist paintings of Pablo Picasso, underscoring shared modernist preoccupations with form and representation.
The Imagist movement, founded by Ezra Pound in 1912, favored complex, abstract imagery and traditional rhyme schemes.
Answer: False
Explanation: Founded by Ezra Pound in 1912, the Imagist movement was an early modernist poetic style characterized by precision in imagery, brevity, and the use of free verse.
David Thorburn saw connections between literary modernism and Impressionist painters like Claude Monet, noting a shared drive towards the abstract.
Answer: True
Explanation: Literary modernist scholar David Thorburn noted connections between modernist writers and Impressionist painters like Claude Monet, observing a shared awareness of art as art and a drive towards the abstract, rejecting purely realistic interpretations.
Which of the following is NOT listed as a key literary precursor to modernism?
Answer: Charles Dickens
Explanation: Key literary precursors to modernism include Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Walt Whitman, and Gustave Flaubert, among others. Charles Dickens is not typically listed among the primary precursors in this context.
What artistic movement, exemplified by Picasso's 'The Poet,' is cited as an example of modernist realism for its multi-perspective approach?
Answer: Cubism
Explanation: Picasso's proto-Cubist painting 'The Poet' (1911) exemplifies modernist realism through its synthesis of multiple viewpoints into a single image, thereby challenging the limitations of a singular, privileged perspective and suggesting a more comprehensive representation.
Which of the following is a subgenre or related movement listed as associated with modernism?
Answer: Dada
Explanation: Associated subgenres and movements include Absurdism, Dada, Expressionism, Futurism, Imagism, Stream of consciousness, Surrealism, Symbolism, and Vorticism.
What is the significance of Gertrude Stein's abstract writings, like 'Tender Buttons,' in relation to modernist visual art?
Answer: They mirrored the fragmentation and multi-perspective approach of Cubist paintings.
Explanation: Gertrude Stein's abstract writings, exemplified by 'Tender Buttons' (1914), are often compared to the fragmentary, multi-perspective Cubist paintings of Pablo Picasso, underscoring shared modernist preoccupations with form and representation.
What did David Thorburn suggest was a connection between literary modernism and Impressionist painters like Claude Monet?
Answer: An awareness of art as art and a drive towards the abstract.
Explanation: Literary modernist scholar David Thorburn noted connections between modernist writers and Impressionist painters like Claude Monet, observing a shared awareness of art as art and a drive towards the abstract, rejecting purely realistic interpretations.
Which of the following is NOT listed as a visual art movement related to modernism?
Answer: Renaissance Art
Explanation: Visual art movements related to modernism include Cubism, Dada, Expressionism, Fauvism, Futurism, Imagism, Neoplasticism, Orphism, Surrealism, Symbolism, and Vorticism. Renaissance Art predates modernism.
Which of the following is NOT listed as a group associated with modernism?
Answer: The Beat Generation
Explanation: Associated groups and movements include the Lost Generation, the Bloomsbury Group, the Harlem Renaissance, and the British Poetry Revival. The Beat Generation is a later literary movement.
Characters like Marlow in 'Heart of Darkness' and Nick Carraway in 'The Great Gatsby' are presented as discovering unassailable, profound truths within their novels.
Answer: False
Explanation: While characters like Marlow and Nick Carraway may believe they uncover profound truths, modernist narratives often treat these discoveries ironically, suggesting their elusiveness or subjectivity, thereby highlighting the tension between the search for meaning and its ultimate elusiveness.
Wallace Stevens' poetry consistently affirms that nature possesses inherent, easily discernible meaning.
Answer: False
Explanation: Wallace Stevens' poetry frequently engages with the struggle to ascertain nature's significance, often depicting scenarios where the speaker denies nature's inherent meaning, only for it to re-emerge, or asserts meaning that subsequently collapses.
T.S. Eliot's description of an evening "spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table" is an example of a natural modernist metaphor.
Answer: False
Explanation: T.S. Eliot's depiction of an evening 'spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table' is cited as an instance of an 'unnatural' modernist metaphor, notable for its juxtaposition of the sublime with the clinical.
Sherwood Anderson's 'Winesburg, Ohio' is considered an early modernist work due to its complex, ornate prose style.
Answer: False
Explanation: Sherwood Anderson's 'Winesburg, Ohio' (1919) is recognized as an early modernist work due to its unadorned prose style and its focus on delivering psychological insight into its characters.
T. S. Eliot described James Joyce's technique in 'Ulysses' as a way to give shape and significance to contemporary history's futility and anarchy.
Answer: True
Explanation: T. S. Eliot characterized Joyce's technique in 'Ulysses' as a method for 'controlling, ordering, and giving shape and significance to the immense panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history,' employing a 'mythical method' to render the modern world artistically.
The fragmented structure of T. S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' serves to convey the poem's theme of the decay and fragmentation of Western culture.
Answer: True
Explanation: The fragmented structure of T. S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' (1922) functions rhetorically to convey the poem's theme of Western cultural decay and fragmentation, finding structural coherence through fertility symbolism and juxtaposition.
Eugenio Montale, Giuseppe Ungaretti, and Umberto Saba are noted Italian poets who embodied modernism by adhering strictly to classical poetic traditions.
Answer: False
Explanation: Eugenio Montale, Giuseppe Ungaretti, and Umberto Saba are recognized Italian poets who embodied modernism through their departure from prior poetic traditions in style, language, and tone, and their awareness of the evolving role of the poet.
Hugh MacDiarmid's 'A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle' is an example of modernism using comedic parody to address nationalism.
Answer: True
Explanation: Hugh MacDiarmid's 'A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle' (1928) exemplifies modernism through its use of comedic parody to address nationalism, representing an optimistic yet challenging modernist stance that embraces complexity and the pursuit of new meanings.
Franz Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis' and Knut Hamsun's 'Hunger' are listed as early modernist works.
Answer: True
Explanation: Early modernist writers and their notable works include Knut Hamsun ('Hunger'), Italo Svevo ('Zeno's Conscience'), Luigi Pirandello ('Six Characters in Search of an Author'), Rainer Maria Rilke ('Sonnets to Orpheus'), Guillaume Apollinaire ('Alcools'), Andrei Bely ('Petersburg'), Katherine Mansfield ('Prelude'), Georg Trakl ('Poems'), Franz Kafka ('The Metamorphosis'), and Sherwood Anderson ('Winesburg, Ohio').
Virginia Woolf's 'Mrs. Dalloway' and William Faulkner's 'The Sound and the Fury' are significant modernist works published in the 1940s.
Answer: False
Explanation: Virginia Woolf's 'Mrs. Dalloway' (1925) and William Faulkner's 'The Sound and the Fury' (1929) are seminal modernist works, but they were published in the 1920s and 1930s, not the 1940s.
The 'mythical method,' as described by T. S. Eliot, involves using contemporary events to directly predict future outcomes.
Answer: False
Explanation: T. S. Eliot described the 'mythical method' as a means to order and imbue contemporary chaos with significance, deeming it crucial for modern art. This method involves structuring narratives through mythic patterns, as exemplified in James Joyce's 'Ulysses'.
Which of the following is an example of an "unnatural" modernist metaphor cited in the text?
Answer: An evening spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table.
Explanation: T.S. Eliot's depiction of an evening 'spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table' is cited as an instance of an 'unnatural' modernist metaphor, notable for its juxtaposition of the sublime with the clinical.
What is the significance of T. S. Eliot's "mythical method" in relation to modernism?
Answer: It was a way to bring order and significance to contemporary chaos using mythic patterns.
Explanation: T. S. Eliot described the 'mythical method' as a means to order and imbue contemporary chaos with significance, deeming it crucial for modern art. This method involves structuring narratives through mythic patterns, as exemplified in James Joyce's 'Ulysses'.
Which of the following modernist works is associated with the theme of decay and fragmentation of Western culture through its structure?
Answer: T. S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land'
Explanation: The fragmented structure of T. S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' (1922) functions rhetorically to convey the poem's theme of Western cultural decay and fragmentation, finding structural coherence through fertility symbolism and juxtaposition.
Which of the following is an example of a modernist work published in the 1920s or 1930s?
Answer: Rainer Maria Rilke's 'Sonnets to Orpheus'
Explanation: Significant modernist works from the 1920s and 1930s include Marcel Proust's later volumes of 'In Search of Lost Time,' Virginia Woolf's 'Mrs. Dalloway' and 'The Waves,' Robert Musil's 'The Man Without Qualities,' Eugene O'Neill's plays, D. H. Lawrence's 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' (1928), William Faulkner's 'The Sound and the Fury' (1929), and T. S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' (1922) and 'The Hollow Men'.
Which of the following is an example of a modernist work that blurred genre boundaries by being described as poetical?
Answer: Virginia Woolf's novels
Explanation: Modernist works frequently blurred genre distinctions, resulting in prose exhibiting poetic qualities and poetry adopting prose-like structures; for example, Virginia Woolf's novels were deemed poetical, while T. S. Eliot's poetry often prioritized fragmented narrative over lyrical grace.
What is the significance of Hugh MacDiarmid's 'A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle' in the context of modernism?
Answer: It uses comedic parody to address nationalism and embraces complexity.
Explanation: Hugh MacDiarmid's 'A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle' (1928) exemplifies modernism through its use of comedic parody to address nationalism, representing an optimistic yet challenging modernist stance that embraces complexity and the pursuit of new meanings.
What did T. S. Eliot describe as a way of controlling, ordering, and giving shape and significance to contemporary history?
Answer: The "mythical method"
Explanation: T. S. Eliot described the 'mythical method' as a means to order and imbue contemporary chaos with significance, deeming it crucial for modern art. This method involves structuring narratives through mythic patterns, as exemplified in James Joyce's 'Ulysses'.
What did T. S. Eliot see as the function of the fragmented structure in 'The Waste Land'?
Answer: To convey the poem's theme of the decay and fragmentation of Western culture.
Explanation: The fragmented structure of T. S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' (1922) functions rhetorically to convey the poem's theme of Western cultural decay and fragmentation, finding structural coherence through fertility symbolism and juxtaposition.