What Are the Most Interesting Aspects of Modernism?

What are the most interesting aspects of modernism?

Address both the concerns of the modernists as well as techniques they use to explore these concerns

The modernist movement encompassed a set of cultural tendencies and array of linked cultural movements, initially rising from broad and far- reaching changes to Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Modernism was a revolt against the conservative values of realism. Writers of this period tended to pursue more experimental and individualistic forms of writing. Key aspects of modernism as displayed in TS Eliots Prufrock and Virgina Woolf's Mark on the Wall are stream of consciousness, interior perceptions of time and loss of meaning.

Stream of consciousness, a focus on the subjective consciousness of the individual mind, has become one of the significant aspects of modernist literature. Stream of consciousness originally appeared in the early twentieth century as result of the developing science of psychology (eg investigations of the forms and expression of consciousness as detailed by Freud and others), the continuing assumption of western philosophy as to the nature of being (eg investigations of consciousness in time by Henri Bergson), and reactionary forces in the arts which were turning away from realism and in the late nineteenth century in favour of examination of an individual, self- conscious subjectivity.

The aspect stream of consciousness, caused for the writers to compose their work in associative leaps in syntax and puncation, violating the 'norms' of grammar, syntax and logic, often making the prose difficult to follow. It influenced the speakers thought process to be more often portrayed as overheard in the mind, which became a fictional device. Stream of consciousness was a daring modernisation that enabled readers to experience emotional, moral and intellectual thought from inside a characters head and opened up new possibilities for point of view beyond conventional first or third person narration. Through Woolf's application of stream of consciousness, she was able to emphasise the concern over patriarchal views, which were so deeply embedded in her time.

Woolf employed the technique of a recurring motif/ theme to display the modernist aspect of stream of consciousness. The motif initially appeared on the surface of a characters thoughts, then disappeared among the flow of memories, sensations and impressions it initiated only to reappear some time later, possibly in a different form, to pull the story back into the consciousness of both the character and the reader. For example, in Mark on the Wall, the story starts as a reflection, which could straightforwardly be read as a spoken monologue- on a series of recollected events but swiftly turns, through the motif of a mark seen by the narrator on the wall, to a almost random stream of loosely

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