The 20th Century leading to

“If I had to sum up the twentieth century, I would say that it raised

WWIIp y, y

the greatest hopes ever conceived by humanity, and destroyed all illusions and ideals”-Menuhin cited in Hobsbawm, p. 2.

The 20th Century was no longer Eurocentric. It had brought the decline and fall of Europe, still the unquestioned centre of power and wealth, intellect and ‘Western Civilization’ when the century began.y g-Hobsbawm, p. 14.

A New World Order –The Far East: Russia, Japan & China

During the late 19th and early 20th Century imperialismwas a cause for national pride in the colonizing countrieswas a cause for national pride in the colonizing countriesof the West, and East, the acquisition of overseascolonies and interests were hailed as a sign of national Fulfillment. -Shirokauer, p. 500.

Japan could take great pride in her […] increase in international stature […] For one thing, achieving full status as a world power proved no easy task in a world dominated by Western superpowers.-Shirokauer, p. 499.

US President Woodrow Wilson at the Treaty of Versailles, 1919.

Though Japan exercised careful restraint during the Boxer Rebellion [China 1900] […] this stance was not emulated by Japan’s chief rival in North-east Asia, Czarist Russia, which had demonstrated its intent to become a major power.-Shirokauer, p. 501. Japan was not the only nation concerned over Russian expansion in East Asia. Great Britain […] had long been alarmed over Russian expansion in Central Asia.S-Shirokauer, p. 501. The conflicting imperialist ambitions of Russia and Japan led to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, in which Japan was the victor.

A New World Order The UnitedA New World Order – The United States & the European Theatre

“Postmodernism can best be defined as EuropeanCulture’s awareness that it is no longer the unquestionedand dominant centre of the world”-Brantlinger, p. 317.

The United States of America

Though the United States, a relatively new power in the world order was initially reluctant to meddle in European affairs -the onslaught of events leading up to WWI coupled with Germany’s declaration of unrestricted naval warfare- “rejected George Washington’s

g p

Germany s declaration of unrestricted naval warfare- rejected George Washington s warning against ‘European entanglements’ and sent its men to fight there, thus determining the shape of twentieth-century history”.-Hobsbawm, p. 23.

By 1914 the USA had been the major industrial economy, and the major pioneer, model and propulsive force of the mass production and mass culture which conquered the globe during the [ ] Twentieth Century and the USA in spite of its many peculiarities was the overseasthe […] Twentieth Century, and the USA, in spite of its many peculiarities, was the overseas extension of Europe.-Hobsbawm, p. 14.

The First World War 1914 - 1918

Following increasing tensions between European Nation-States due to th i f l i l l d i l d i th i ti fthe rise of colonial glory and regional dominance, the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 would lead the world to witness the first large-scale industrialized war between the central powers (Germany, Austro-Hungarian Empire & Ottoman Turkey & theArchduke Franz Ferdinand powers (Germany, Austro Hungarian Empire & Ottoman Turkey & the Triple Entente (France, England & Russia).

The sheer superiority of the German army as a military force might just The huge colonial p y y y g jhave proved decisive, had the Allies [Triple Entente] not been able to call on the practically unlimited resources of the USA from 1917. As Germany […] secured total victory in the East, driving Russia out of the war into revolution [ ] Thanks to the flood of American reinforcements

empires […] were shaken and [would] crumble into the dust.

war, into revolution […] Thanks to the flood of American reinforcements and equipment, the Allies recovered.-Hobsbawm, p. 29.

-Hobsbawm, p. 7.

Technology & Knowledgegy g“The world was filled with a revolutionary and constantly advancing technology […] Perhaps the most dramatic practical consequences of these was a revolution in transport and communications which virtually annihilated time and distance. Itin transport and communications which virtually annihilated time and distance. It was a world which could bring more information”-Hobsbawm, p. 12.

By 1914 mass media in the modern scale could already be taken for granted By 1914 mass media in the modern scale could already be taken for grantedin a number of Western countries. Nevertheless, their growth in the age ofCataclysms was spectacular.

Th l d t th lit t [ ] Th i th th h d d The press appealed to the literate […] The cinema, on the other hand, madesmall demands on literacy […] However, unlike the press, which in most partsof the world interested only a small elite, films were almost from the start aninternational mass medium.e a o a ass ed u

Unlike film, or even the revolutionized mass press, radio did not transform thehuman ways of perceiving reality in any profound way […] its capacity for speaking i lt l t t ld illi [ ] d it i i bl f lsimultaneously to untold millions […] made it an inconceivable powerful

tool of mass information […] propaganda and advertisement. -Hobsbawm, pp. 194-196.

Social & Philosophical Changes

“Revolution was the child of twentieth-century warfare”

It seemed obvious that the old world was doomed […] Humanity was waiting for an alternative […] Socialist parties represented this alternative in most countries of Europe The Russian Revolution [ ] of October 1917 set out to give the world thisEurope . The Russian Revolution […] of October 1917, set out to give the world this signal.

While Russia experienced a revolution based on notions of socialism, the West - in ti l G i d t iti t d F ll i th i ti

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) Russian

revolutionary Leader 1917-1923 particular Germany - experienced a transition to democracy. Following the armistice on

the 11th November 1918 it became clear that the successful powers, mainly the USA, were unwilling to negotiate with undemocratic states. It was for this reason that the Weimar Republic flourished in Germany. Enjoying a relative level of stability in the b i i b 1933 G h d f ll i t th h d f t t lit i i b t

1923

beginning, by 1933 Germany had fallen into the hands of a totalitarian regime bent on expansion and defying the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.

Following the 1929 Wall Street economic crash, the resulting Great Depression led t i i l “ h f t bilit [ ] Th W i R bli f ll l l b thto minimal “chances of stability […] The Weimar Republic fell largely because the Great slump made it impossible to keep the tactic bargain between state, employers and organized workers.-Hobsbawm, p. 137.

The Rise of FascismFascists were the revolutionaries of counter-revolution. –Hobsbawm, p. 117.

Fascism was a product of the deep-seated social and economic crisis in Europe which followed World War I […] [Fascists] were strongly nationalist, violently anti-communist, and hated liberalism,strongly nationalist, violently anti communist, and hated liberalism, democracy and parliamentary parties […] Racism and anti-Semitism were strongly marked features of some Fascist movements (e.g. the German) but not all (e.g. the Italian).B ll k St ll b & T bl 308 309

Benito Mussolini & Adolf Hitler-Bullock, Stallybrass & Trombley, pp. 308-309.

Without the triumph of Hitler in Germany in 1933, fascism would not have become a general movement.g

Fascism existed by mobilizing masses from below […] Fascism gloried in the mobilization of the masses, and maintained it

b li ll i th f f bli th tsymbolically in the form of public theatre-Hobsbawm, pp. 116-117.

Arts & Society in the Age of Id lIdeology

Of all the developments in the Age of Catastrophe, survivors from the nineteenth century were perhaps most shocked by the collapse of the values and institutions of the liberal civilization whose progress their century had taken for granted […] These values were a distrust of dictatorship and absolute rule, a commitment to constitutional government.

-Hobsbawm, p. 109.

As Lenin’s influence brought Marxism back to the Western world as the only important theory and ideology of social revolution, so it assured the conversion of avant-gardes to what the National Socialists […] called ‘cultural Bolshevism.

Hobsbawm, p. 187.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Heidegger, the Nietzsche-enthusiast, seems after 1938 to have come to Hobsbawm, p. 187.

It was the tragedy of modern artists […] that the much more effective political commitment of their own mass movements and politicians – rejected them. With the exception of Futurist-influenced Italian Fascism, the new authoritarian regimes [ ] preferred old-fashioned and gigantic monumental structures

1938 to have come to regard Nietzsche as the prophet of the evil thathad descended upon the world and was pushing it regimes […] preferred old fashioned and gigantic monumental structures.

-Hobsbawm,, p. 187.

Heidegger also became more and more preoccupied with poetry and art, which themselves represent the possibility of a world order that is not metaphysical. Both of these moments led Heidegger directly into the confrontation with

into its largest and mostdevastating conflagration. -Lawrence, p. 711.

Both of these moments led Heidegger directly into the confrontation with Nietzsche. For Nietzsche might be regarded as the advocate of that will to power that Heidegger now viewed as the problematical consequence of the history of rational metaphysics.

Lawrence p 713- Lawrence, p. 713.

New Paradigms in the ArtsNew Paradigms in the Arts

Behaviourism: The school of psychology that studies only unambiguously Behaviourism: The school of psychology that studies only unambiguously observable, and preferably measureable, behaviour. It leaves out of account consciousness and introspection […] It was closely identified with Physiology […] as studied by, notably, Ivan Pavlov. Ivan Pavlov– Bullock, Stallybrass & Trombley, p. 75.

Functionalism: In Philosophy, the theory that the nature of mental attributes can be specified by means of a description of the causal role or function of those p y pattributes in the mental life and general behaviour of the subject.– Bullock, Stallybrass & Trombley, p. 337.

Hi t i i A d hi h t diff t ti h b li d t t Historicism: A word which at different times has been applied to two diametrically opposed approaches to history. In the late 19th Century, it meant an approach which emphasised the uniqueness of all historical phenomena and maintained that each age should be interpreted in terms of its own ideas andmaintained that each age should be interpreted in terms of its own ideas and principles. [Alternatively] the course of history is radically affected by the growth ofknowledge. – Bullock, Stallybrass & Trombley, p. 387.

SummarySummaryIn Short, 1914 opens the age of massacre

-Singer, p. 66. The 20th Century had begun as an age of empires.

Following the World War I an era of revolutions emerged (Russia -1917, Germany – 1918).

By 1933 liberal democracy in Europe was in radical decline with th i t f Ad lf Hitl d th N i P t i Gthe coming to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany and Benito Mussolini and the Fascists in Italy.

The arts came to be heavily influenced by socialist and totalitarian The arts came to be heavily influenced by socialist and totalitarian regimes.

The progress of modernity however by 1939 would end in yet The progress of modernity, however, by 1939 would end in yet another World War, this time, however, man’s ability to destroy himself would be further more emphasised.

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