Dictatorships of WWII and Postwar Uncertainty Flashcards
What Enlightenment belief did the war destroy?
- That reason would prevail and progress would continue
How did the people react to questioning their traditional beliefs?
- Some looked for answers using science
- They enjoyed how technology had improved
How had technology improved during the war?
- Better communication and transportation
What happened as society became more open?
- Young people adopted new values
- Women demanded more rights
What did the new styles of art, music, literature, and philosophy reflect?
Uncertain times
Which scientists’ ideas had enormous impacts in the 20th century
- Albert Einstien
- Sigmud Freid
Einstein’s idea
Theory of Relativity
Sigmund Freid’s idea
- The human mind is split into the conscious and the unconscious mind
How did Sigmud Freid’s idea weaken faith in logic
- He said that the majority of the human mind was unconsious, and illogical
How did certain writers and thinkers express their anxieties
- They described disturbing visions of the present and future, leaning towards a more modernist view of society
- They became part of modernist and expressionistic movements
What did T.S Elliot write in 1922 about Western society?
- He wrote that Western Society had lost its values and described the postwar world as a barren wasteland drained of hope and faith
Which poem did this passage come from, and who wrote it?
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”
“The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats
During the 1920’s, many American writers left the US to go live where?
Europe
What did Gertrude Stein refer to the ‘many American writers who left the US to go live in Europe’ as and why?
“The Lost Generation” because they were trying to find meaning in life
What did the books by Franz Kafka depict?
- People caught in frightening situations that they couldn’t understand or escape
Who and which idea did many authors pull their inspiration from?
Freud’s idea of the unconsious
Who wrote Ulysses
James Joyce wrote it.
What was Ulysses about?
It was about a single day in the lives of Dublin for 3 separate people.
How did Ulysses by James Joyce capture Sigmud Freud’s idea of the unconsious?
- It was a stream of consiousness from the characters
- It broke normal sentence structures to show how people think
What did thinkers turn to when searching for meaning in the uncertain world?
existentialism
What do existentialists believe?
- That there is no universal meaning to life, and that each individual gives it meaning
Who were existantialists influenced by?
Freidrich Neitzsche
Who wrote that Western ideas such as reason, democracy, and progress stifled people’s creativity and actions
Freidrich Neitzsche
What did Freidrich Neitzsche urge?
A return to the aincent values of heroism, pride, assertaveness, and strength.
