General characteristics of 20th century

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The period of Queen Elizabeth rule during 1558 to 1603 is knows as Elizabethan Age. Because of her wit, wisdom and intelligency. In this period England saw a great development in trade, marine power and nationalistic feelings. The Queen Victoria died in 1897.

The first and second world war were to major disasters of 20th century. Though the world was recovery from the painful experience of world war. It was very slow long sighted people were still uneasy about the Outlook. The leg of Nations had failed to bring about the state of international harmony hoped for and poverty and social unrest in man presented. Than as the 1903 approach, a worldwide financial crisis stuck rich and poor both. In Britain and other countries millions of unemployed people created a grave social problem and industrial reagens became distress areas. In Germany Hitler in Italy Mussolini as well as in Japan and China Military Power they all have prepared background for the upcoming background of second world war in 1939.

 The beginning or end of a social cultural or literary age cannot be preciously dated. Yet some historical event or land mark has to be gought to mark the being or end of a certain age. This, the year go can be fixed as the year marking the end of the Victoria age and the beging of modern age.

The modern age is the most complex, complicated, baffling and revolutionary age in the history of the world. It is an age of most amazing, astounding and unamignable, scientific discoveres, inventions and advancement which the Victorian never imagine. This is an age of jact plans, space crafts, computers, internet, mobile phones, fax, which have reduced the entire Cosmo into a tiny unit. As compton- Rictett pointed out, 

" The dawn of 20th century witnessed the emergence of new values and progress in the filed of social, political economical and literary life."

There is the other Dark Side of the picture too. The age has invited armaments, atombomb, nuclear weapons which can kill the millions of the people in just a blink of an eye. The whole world is sitting on the mouth of volcano. The age as to witness the world war. The four motion of league of nations failed to prevent another world war. 

The rising conflict between the countries disturbance, turbulence, peace and property was in demand at international level. In such situation and circumstances literature would be useless if it did not perfect social and political purpose. If the world is to be saved thinkers philosophers, poets and literary man must come forward replacing war mongers, politicians and terrorism in the world.

During the 20th century all branches of literature developed in its own comnescious way. It is completely different from former ages. 

" 20th century is an existing age for writer, an age which marked a diffinat break with the past, a challenge to authority- a self conscious age when writers where critical of the composison of society."

"When 20th century opened Tennyson had been dead nine years and there was a wide spread impression that English poetry had dead with him."

Characteristics of 20th century :-

1. Problem Play

2. Dadaism

3. Surrealism 

4. Stream of consciousness

5. Absurd theatre

6. Apocalyptic Movement

7. Goeragan poetry.

Modernist Poems

Modernist Poems :-

Activity - Identify modernist metaphors in these short poems.

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Today is the best topic to present a great blog about the Modernist poems. In that topic we can share poems which written limit of 2 to 9 lines only. First we can have information about the Literature. Literature is trying to convince people. 

In those poems we are doing self criticism. And also we can discuss many new things and giving new thoughts as well as we can have new way to show literature. 

What is modernism?

Modernism is both a philosophical movement and an art movement that, along with cultural trends and changes, arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

We have many thoughts about Literature. Many writer wrote such a good thoughts about Literature. Many writers wrote many good works like Novel, dramas, poems, short stories etc. In that blog I'm presenting about the short poems written by many famous writer.In that Modernist poems we can write about symbols, metaphor, themes, and imaginary. 

Characteristics of Modernism 

Marked by a strong and intentional break with tradition. Belief that the world is what we say it is There is no such thing as absolute truth No connection with history or institutions Championship of the individual and celebration of inner strength Life is unordered Concerned with the sub-conscious.

1. Darkness.

- By Joseph Campbell (1879-1944)

Darkness.
I stop to watch a star shine in the boghole –
A star no longer, but a silver ribbon of light.
I look at it, and pass on.

Summarise:-

As per my point of view I try to summarised this poem. This poem was about night and writer wrote about the dark night.The great poet Joseph Campbell was an Irish poet, American professor of literature. He writes similar kind of poetry to Humle at around the same time though they were working independently of each other.Title it self presents negativity. The combination of darkness and boghole negativity in the air but then there is a star which is shining in boghole.

Darkness is the symbol of negative thoughts. But we also take that positively after dark night morning always comes with new things. Star in boghole may be symbolize as modern civilization in boghole, and no chance to rescue from that boghole that is why poet says a star no more. A silver ribbon may be as a symbol of hope. But when he just look at it and pass on it signifies disinterest, or may be with only hope poet don’t want to stay there and wait he wants his life to go on.  “Boghole” is modern metaphor. This I the metaphor used in the poem. And this is short poem about the darkness. 

2. ‘The Red Wheelbarrow‘

- By William Carlos Williams

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens.

Summarise:-

William Carlos Williams was an American poet and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. This poem is quite difficult to understand. I am not getting the meaning of it but may be it seems to say that too much dependency on anyone should be avoided. May be the example of wheelbarrow that it can not move by it self, it is fully dependent on someone. Last lines are so confusing. “wheelbarrow”  is modern metaphor.

The Modern Times and The great dictator

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Hello Dear Friends, I'm presenting a blog about the grate movie. This is the blog about the Movie The Modern Times and The great dictator.

#The Modern Times

"Modern Times” is a silent black and white film, performed and directed by Charles Chaplin in 1936. Movie shows especial effects as speed up in some shots, explosions, and reverse reproduction.

#The Modern Times

The opening title to the film reads, “Modern Times: a story of industry, of individual enterprise, humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness.” At the Electro Steel Corporation, the Tramp is a worker on a factory conveyor belt. The little fellow’s early misadventures at the factory include being volunteered for a feeding machine, a time-saving device employed so that workers may continue working during their lunch breaks. Ultimately, the Tramp has a nervous break-down and throws himself down a chute into the belly of the factory. Released from the hospital, he quickly lands in prison as a communist leader when he innocently picks up a red flag that has fallen from a truck and finds himself inadvertently leading a workers’ parade. After the Tramp prevents a jail break, life in prison becomes so pleasant (he is better fed, clothed, and sheltered in the safe and secure prison than in the chaos of society during the Depression) 

that he is saddened to be pardoned.

This silent movie show mostly non diegetic sound, background music that coincides with action and movement of the film. It also has a few scenes of Diegetic sound, for example when Chaplin is performing at the café. Here we can clearly hear diners talking, murmuring, laughing and cheering. We hear the music they are actually playing and the voice of Chaplin, who is actually singing. 

“Modern Times” is Chaplin’s self-conscious valedictory to the pantomime of silent film he had pioneered and nurtured into one of the great art forms of the twentieth century. Although technically a sound film, very little of the soundtrack to “Modern Times” contains dialogue. The soundtrack is primarily Chaplin’s own musical score and sound effects, as well as a performance of a song by the Tramp in gibberish. This remarkable performance marks the only time the Tramp ever spoke. Chaplin resisted talking pictures in part because the Tramp’s silence made him understood around the world. However, with the gibberish song, Chaplin ingeniously makes the statement that talking in any one language is meaningless in all others, while at the same time allowing the Tramp to “speak” in a way that is universally understood. It was the Tramp’s swan song. Chaplin retired the character with “Modern Times.”

Film use deep backgrounds with moving objects, locations as streets and yards, and other places as restaurants, jail, offices and houses. Mise en scène is impressive when it comes to represent the fabric, you can appreciate tiny details in background like gear, levers and lines of production.

Chaplin recognized that “Modern Times” was the valedictory for the Tramp and deliberately included many gags and sequences as a loving farewell to the character and an homage to the visual comedy tradition. However, the spine that holds the story together is the journey of survival taken by the Tramp and the Gamine. The final shot of the film, as the Tramp walks down a road into the unknown, is more than a reprise of Chaplin’s signature finale. This time, the Tramp is not alone. And this time, the Tramp carries the legacy of silent film down the road with him. “Modern Times,” as Hollywood’s last silent 

film, represents the end of an era.

“Modern Times” boasts Chaplin’s finest music score. His most recognizable and commercially viable song, “Smile,” emerged from a melody used by him in “Modern Times.” “Smile,” with a completed structure and lyrics, was created to promote the reissue “Modern Times” in 1954. “Smile” is still considered a popular standard today.

Comedy and philosophy genders are an unusual combination in a same film. Chaplin’s philosophy is peaceful, he looks for fairness and avoid problems. He doesn’t support the new capitalist ideas, and modern stereotype. As a film director, he shows those qualities in the film “Modern Times”, a realist critic to the capitalism.  Personally, I think Chaplin was wise when merging this genres; comedy and political discontent. Audience was captured by the comedy, by the “Charles Chaplin” character. Thanks to comedy, Chaplin gave the message to the audience he wanted. The main message of the film “Modern Time” is an anti-capitalist movement where modernity is shown as the chaos; the worker loses everything while government controls it.  We can clearly observe the inequality, the abuse and the impositions established by the rich class in the film, first the business boss, then the police and finally the government.

“Modern Times” is perhaps more meaningful now than at any time since its first release. The twentieth century theme of the film, farsighted for its time—the struggle to eschew alienation and preserve  humanity in a modern, mechanized world—profoundly reflects issues confronting the twenty-first century. The Tramp’s travails in “Modern Times” and the comedic 

mayhem that ensues should provide strength and comfort to all who feel like helpless cogs in a world beyond control. Through its universal themes and comic inventiveness, the film remains one of 

Chaplin’s greatest and most enduring works.

Perhaps more important, it is the Tramp’s finale, a tribute to Chaplin’s immortal character and the silent film era he commanded for a generation.

This film has a scene that depict great differences between social classes.  There's a moment of parallelism between reality and a dream. A moment in which Chaplin and his partner are happily lying on the grass, then they saw a typical modern married couple. The man leaving home and going to work, and the wife staying house. They first joke and parody the situation, but then they dream about it. They imagine them in a real house, with food, comfort and all facilities. 

“Can you imagine us in a little home like that?” – Chapplin

Then they stop fantasizing and return to rude reality, they were homeless, without work, starving and alone.

Times were hard, workers were low paid, they work in bad conditions, and were injured several times while working. In one scene Chaplin goes mentally crazy because of his work. In other scene he finds out that his ex-partners have to steal for leaving. Strikes and manifestation are common in this times. Every time a manifestation was started, policemen arrive in order to arrest the leaders. In my opinion, Chaplin represented all the innocent persons that, while expressing in a pacific way, were unfair arrested by the government.

During this film, a clear example of this inequality and racism classes is shown. The chief, who demanded much discipline to his employees, is only interested in growing your business. He interrupt recesses and was about to remove the “lunch time”. Interested on been better than the competitor, the boss, chose Chaplin for a new machine evaluation. Here we can compare the modern worker to a dependent domestic animal, accepting what master says,  with no right of choosing or making own decisions. Finally the experiment fail, leaving Chaplin injured and confused.

Meanwhile, the Gamine has found work dancing in a café and persuades the café proprietor to hire the Tramp as a singing waiter. The Tramp’s complete lack of skill 

tending to tables in the café is compensated for by his great success as a singing waiter. However, the juvenile-care authorities pursue the Gamine, forcing them to flee their new jobs and take to the open 

road. Discouraged, the Gamine asks the Tramp, “What’s the use of trying?” Summoning his trademark ptimism, the Tramp responds, “Buck up! We’ll get along!” Heartened, the Gamine replies, “You betcha! Let’s go!” Arm in arm, they walk off to-

ward the horizon, off to pursue a better life. It is the Tramp’s very last shuffle down the open road. This time, however, he has a companion by his side.

This movie shows how difficult is for majority to have a “perfect” life under capitalism. Chaplin capture the despair of the lower classes, nothing but the reality that people live those days. He also capture the value of perseverance and tolerance at the end of the film. The final image is him and his couple walking in straight line. Waiting for new problems to confront and overcome, and facing all those changes that bring the modern times.

#Reference 

1. https://youtu.be/HAPilyrEzC4

2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Times_(film)

#The Grate Dictator

In 1938, the world's most famous movie star began to prepare a film about the monster of the 20th century. Charlie Chaplin looked a little like Adolf Hitler, in part because Hitler had chosen the same toothbrush moustache as the Little Tramp. Exploiting that resemblance, Chaplin devised a satire in which the dictator and a Jewish barber from the ghetto would be mistaken for each other. The result, released in 1940, was "The Great Dictator," Chaplin's first talking picture and the highest-grossing of his career, although it would cause him great difficulties and indirectly lead to his long exile from the United States.

The Great Dictator made in 1940 by Charlie Chaplin was at the time a controversial film because it exposed Nazism and anti- Semitism with both humor and horror. In his film, Chaplin plays the two main characters: Adenoid Hynkel, the tyrannical dictator of Tomania and a Jewish barber persecuted by Storm Troopers in the ghetto.

In 1938, Hitler was not yet recognized in all quarters as the embodiment of evil. Powerful isolationist forces in America preached a policy of nonintervention in the troubles of Europe, and rumors of Hitler's policy to exterminate the Jews were welcomed by anti-Semitic groups. Some of Hitler's earliest opponents, including anti-Franco American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, were later seen as "premature antifascists"; by fighting against fascism when Hitler was still considered an ally, they raised suspicion that they might be communists. "The Great Dictator" ended with a long speech denouncing dictatorships, and extolling democracy and individual freedoms. This sounded to the left like bedrock American values, but to some on the right, it sounded pinko.