Modern Art, Architecture, and Literature

A.     Surrealism

1.     Key Characteristics

a.     Depicts the world of the unconscious mind as revealed in dreams and fantasies

b.     Reveals the influence of Freudian psychology

c.      Portrays strange objects and symbols that express the artist’s inner mind

2.     Key Artists and Works

a.     Giorgio de Chirico, The Song of Love

b.     Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory

B.     Bauhaus Architecture

1.     Key Characteristics

a.     Architecture should be practical, useful, and above all functional.

b.     Architects should avoid using unnecessary exterior decorations and instead rely on clear straight lines.

c.      Builders should use modern materials and support materials including glass, steel, ferroconcrete, and cantilevers.

d.     It is important to note that the Bauhaus style originated in Germany and spread to the United States where it became known as the International Style.

2.     Key Architects and Buildings

a.     Walter Gropius, The ***us Shoe Factory, Bauhaus workshop wing

b.     Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye

C.     Twentieth-Century Literature

1.     Key Characteristics

a.     Questions accepted values and practices

b.     Expresses discontent and alienation from middle-class conformity and materialism

c.      Focuses on the complexity and irrationality of the human mind

d.     Employs the stream-of-consciousness technique to explore the human psyche

2.     Key Authors and Works

a.     James Joyce, Ulysses

b.     Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past

c.      William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury

d.     T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land