When learning about the literary movements,
I found it ironic that many of the concepts and elements from the Classical,
Medieval, and Renaissance Eras are so much more familiar to us than concepts
and elements from the Modern and Postmodernist Eras. A lot of people know who
Hades is, because they saw him on the Disney movie Hercules. A lot of people are familiar with Dante’s depiction of a
hot, fiery Hell because that’s the way TV and movies portray it today. Many
people know Shakespeare’s story of Romeo and Juliet because it’s reproduced in
numerous different ways in pop culture. Then why aren’t Modernist/Postmodern
concepts like Impressionism and The Simulacrum as familiar?
I can think of one reason for this.
We recognize things from earlier literary eras because of a few recognizable
characters and stories that come from those eras. These early eras had more
defining characters and stories, while Modernism and Postmodernism simply didn’t.
The Classical Era survives through its famous Greek gods and heroes like Zeus
and Hercules. The Medieval Era survives through the legend of King Arthur and
the Round Table. The Renaissance survives through the famous plays of
Shakespeare. The Romantic Era survives because of the extravagant images of
Frankenstein or the great whale from Moby
Dick. Even the Victorian Era survives through famous characters like
Sherlock Holmes and Alice from Alice in
Wonderland.
Yet, despite the importance and the
impact that Modernist/Postmodernist writing has had on society today, we don’t
really have any images or characters that have a major presence in our
consciousness. A lot of us would probably
have to be in a literature class before reading the works of Hemingway, TS
Eliot, Fitzgerald, or any of the other Modernists. The reason we are more
familiar with the Romantic concepts of nature and extremes is because we are
already familiar with the story of Moby
Dick, which demonstrates this. Yet, we aren’t as familiar with the
Modernist concept of impressionism because there aren’t many mainstream
examples of Modernist literature that already demonstrate impressionism.
Therefore, when we learn about impressionism, it takes more time to grasp the
concept.
I never really thought about that but you're totally right. I think a lot of it is the ability to take the characters from the older eras and manipulate them to make them appeal to a wide audience or children. Like you said, there are Disney movies about Hercules and Alice but somehow I don't think an animated movie about Grandma from American Dream would make a lot of money.
ReplyDeleteOther people get all mad when you only talk about one thing in the response to course materials assignment but you went so in depth with just one I don't think there is much need to talk about anything else.
This is a really interesting point Andrew, I focused more on our study of the American Dream in my post so nothing like this ever occurred to me. This only means that we will have to study Post-modern/Modern ideas more because our understanding of them is looser than Classical or Medieval for reasons that you stated. It might be important to note everything we have been studying in class because the American Dream became a focal point of our discussions!
ReplyDeleteWoOoOoh. Very true. Stuff like "theater of the absurd" definitely wouldn't be recognized by someone our age as much as dark looming castles and knights. I actually liked that you went in depth on one particular thing instead of a quick overview... I might do that next time too ! :)
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