EN 1002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Fisher King, Urban Density, Survivor Guilt
Document Summary
World war i and aftermath: the waste land and fragmentation. Early 20th century response to social, political and technological changes: urban expansion, urban density, urban poverty alienation from traditional life on the land, political states breaking up russian revolution, break up austro- Hungarian and prussian empires: wwi new scale of violence, impotence of politics to cover atrocity of war, distrust of leaders. Large-scale changes prompt a sense of bewilderment, estrangement, confusion in artists and thinkers. Feeling that the world is breaking up into fragments. Mass culture of the cities s felt as threatening. Overcrowding in tenements, influenza epidemic, impoverished lower classes visible and desperate. Mechanization debases the integrity of the human body. Fear of lack of class control, anxieties about mixing of different classes. Women advocate for their rights, including right to vote. Women express their dissatisfaction with traditional roles. Women"s bodies are chosen to represent certain cultural depravities they don"t control: eg.