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AcknowledgementsThis thesis is dedicated to all the teachers who have taught me a lot, especially to my supervisor,Mrs Hu, who has helped to work out the outline, giving me enlightening advice throughout the whole process of the present thesis. To him, I owe a profound debt of gratitude.The work would not have been possible without the help of my roommates and friends, who gave me a lot of encouragement when I was at a loss. We discussed a lot and moved forward.I am particularly indebted to my father and mother, who encouraged me to persist and gave me the best they could offer.Without all the support, I could not have completed this tough work.A comparative study of Modernism and Post—ModernismXu Wanying(Tutor: Huzegang)(College of Arts & Science of Hubei Normal University, Huangshi, China, 435002)AbstractModernism fostered a period of experimentation in the arts from the late 19th to the20th century,particularly in the years following the World WarⅠ.It is an era charaterized by industrialization,rapid social changes.After the Second Word War there was a movement known as Postmodernism which swept all fields of learning in American literature.Within the arena of literature the main current of postmodernism was a reaction to modernism,but in some aspects it can be seen as its continuation.The modernist and post—modernist impulse are fueled in various literatures by industrialization in America.In this thesis, I have attempted to make a comparison between the modernism and post—modernism by combining the theory with the practice,making great efforts to analyze the characteristics with representative illustration.The thesis is divided into five parts. In part one, I relate modernism and post—modernism with general view in America literature. In part two, I would list some main writers and their representative works of modernism and post—modernism in American literature. In part three, I find out these similarities and differences of modernism and post—modernism from the perspective of cognition and culture in America.Through a comparative study , I shed light on the similarity and difference of modernism and post—modernism which are attributed to cognitive basis and cultural influence.People who know it well shall get a better understanding of the American literature and American society.Key Words: Modernism post—modernism American literature similarities and differences characteristics关于现代主义和后现代主义的对比研究徐皖英(指导教师: 胡泽刚)（湖北师范学院文理学院中国黄石 435002）摘要自19世纪末到20世纪中叶以来，特别是在工业文明的浪潮和日新月异的社会变革的推动下，现代主义和后现代主义已然成为艺术节竞相探究的领域。

二战后，在美国文学领域掀起了一场后现代主义文学运动。

在美国文学领域里，后现代主义的主流思想是对现代主义的一个延续。

现代主义学家和后现代主义学家的创作热情因美国境内的工业文明而空前高涨。

在本篇论文中，我打算采用理论结合实际的的方法，以典型性的例子，分析和说明现代主义和后现代主义的关系和特征。

论文将分为五部分。

第一部分，我将从一般的视角去剖析现代主义和后现代主义。

第二部分，我将列举一些代表作家及其代表作，进一步阐释现代主义和后现代主义的联系。

第三部分，我将对比分析二者的特征。

第四部分，我将从美国文化文化和认知视角来剖析总结二者的异同点。

通过对比研究，我了解到现代主义和后现代主义的联系，特征，异同点是基于文化的认知和文化自身的影响力。

只有观察到这一点，人们将能够更好地了解美国的社会和美国文化。

关键词：现代主义后现代主义美国文学异同点特征1.IntroductionModernism was the name given to a dramatic period in European culture from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. An emphasised faith in reason, freedom and the concept of progress reveals its origins in the philosophy of the Enlightenment. A key concept in the later modern period was the process of getting to the underlying structure, and this was played out in both the arts and the sciences.Postmodernism was first used in the 1950s and 1960s to refer to a movement in architecture that was a reaction against the austere linear forms of modern architectural styles and which wanted to maintain elements of modern utility while returning to the reassuring classical forms of the past. This style was soon broadened to include movements in literature, art, and a mixture of philosophy and sociology. Further, postmodernism develops in the way that rejects the sovereign autonomous individual with an emphasis upon anarchic collective, anonymous experience.However,there is still a blurring of distinctions between modernism and post—modernism.There have been a lot of studies about the characteristics of modernism and post—modernism, and the relationship between modernism and post—modernism. Many of them focus on several facet, and some focusing on one point only list lots of examples without comparing them in detail, so it’s meaningful to make a comparison between the modernism and the post—modernism. If we know the similarities and differences in the sense between these two facets,we will get a better understanding of the modernism and post—modernism in American literature.The thesis is about to analyze the relationship of modernism and post—modernism,and try to find the similarities and dissimilarities between them from the perspective of cognition and culture in American literature.2.The General View of Modernism and Post—ModernismModernism and Post—Modernism are complicated terms or sets of ideas that are hard to define,because they are all appears in a wide variety of disciplines or areas of study,include art,architecture,music,film,literature,sociology,communications,fashions and technology.It is hard to locate them temporally or historically,because the exact time when they begins are not clear.2.1 Cognition of ModernismModernism fostered a period of experimentation in the arts from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, particularly in the years following World War I. In an era characterized by industrialization, rapid social change, advances in science and the social sciences (e.g., Darwinism, Freudian theory), Modernists felt a growing alienation incompatible with Victorian morality, optimism, and convention. The Modernist impulse is fueled in various literatures by industrialization and urbanization, by the search for an authentic response to a much-changed world.In the visual arts the roots of Modernism are often traced back to painter douard Manet, who beginning in the 1860s broke away from inherited notions of perspective, modeling, and subject matter.The avant-garde movements that followedincluding Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism,Const ructivism, De Stijl, and Abstract Expressionismare generally defined as Modernist. Over the span of these movements, artists increasingly focused on the intrinsic qualities of their mediae.g., line, form, and colourand moved away from inherited notions of art. By the beginning of the 20th century, architects also had increasingly abandoned past styles and conventions in favour of a form of architecture based on essential functional concerns. In the period after World War I these tendencies became codified as the International style, which utilized simple, geometric shapes and unadorned facades and which abandoned any use of historical reference; thebuildings of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier embodied this style. After World War II the style manifested itself in clean-lined.2.2 Cognition of Post—ModernismPostmodernism was first used in the 1950s and 1960s to refer to a movement in architecture that was a reaction against the austere linear forms of modern architectural styles and which wanted to maintain elements of modern utility while returning to the reassuring classical forms of the past. This style was soon broadened to include movements in literature, art, and a mixture of philosophy and sociology. Further, postmodernism develops in the way that rejects the sovereign autonomous individual with an emphasis upon anarchic collective, anonymous experience.During the 1960s and 70s the U.S.found itself mired in the Vietnam War from which it could not easily pull itself away.Meanwhile, civil rights movements continuously hit the whole country. After the Second Word War there was a movement known as Postmodernism which swept all fields of learning.Within the arena of literature the main current of postmodernism was a reaction to modernism,but in some aspects it can be seen as its continuation.The guiding theory of postmodernism literature came from the French philosopher and writer Jean—Paul Sartre(1905—1980)＇s existentialism.Sartre believed that human existence precedes human nature,therefore human nature is shaped and determined by human existence,and that human life is absurd,and human existence is nothing but solitude and pain.Postmodernism in America features many new genres and techniques of literature including black humor or black comey,theatre of the absurd,anti—drama,new novel or anti novel,the beat generation,the New York poets,the Black Mountain poets and magical realism.All of this find its way into American literature.3.Main Writers and Works of Modernism and Post—Modernism in American LiteratureIn the history of American literature,there are a lot of excellent writers in the peroid of Modernism and Post—Modernism.And their major works have injected new blood into American literature.They all have made great contribution to our world.3.1 Main Writers and Works of Modernism in American Literature①Robert Frost(1874—1963)is great poet and writer at this peroid.He won four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry.Of his 31collections of poetry the most noteworthy are Mountain Interval(1916)and New Hampshire(1923). He also wrote four blank verse plays.His most famous poems ,The Road Not Taken(1915)is a short lyric poem in which the poet assumes himself to be an experienced man,first recalling how he gave up one road for another and then predicting that in his old age he will regret the decision he made as a young man.It is meant as an advice to the young that it is important to choose one’s way when young.②Carl Sandburg(1878—1967)is a journalist and a editorial writer.He draw most of his inspiration from American history and was profoundly influenced by Walt Whitman.The long poem The People,Yes(1936)in particular he is sometimes called“the people’s poet”.He published over 60poems and his most ambitious prose work was the six—volume biography of Abraham Lincoln；this monumental work exalts Lincoln as the symbol and embodiment of the American spirit.③William Carlos Williams(1883—1963)was regarded as one of the most important and original American poets of the 20th century.His early poetry shows the influence of various poetic trends of the time:from metaphorical imagism in Poems(1909)and The Tempers(1913)to free—verse expressionism in Al Que Quiere!(1917)and surrealism in Kora in Hell(1920)and SourGraoes(1921).He observed American life closely,expressed anger at injustice,and recorded his impression in a lucid,vital style.3.2 Main Writers and Works of Post—Modernism in American Literature①Vladimir Naokov(1899—1977)is one of the great novelists of the 20th century.He was a very prolific writer.He wrote 19novels,500poems.Lolita(1958)is a satirical novel in the form of a confession to the jury by a criminal just before his trial.In the approach of the Freud’s theory of psychology the author tells the story of a middle—aged man’morbid love for a teenage girl.②Charles Olson(1910—1970)is a great novelist.His literacy reputation was established with Call Me Ishmael(1947),a study of the influence of Shakespeare and other writers on Melville’s Moby—Dick.He began to write poems in 1940 and later became noted as poet.His works include The Maximus Poems(1960and1968）,Casual Mythology(1969).③Tennessee Williams(1911—1983)wrote 48plays,2novels,six essay collections and 10 short story collections.A Street Named Desire(1947)reveals the frustrated love and her lower class relatuves.Expressionistic methods are used in this play.Reality and fantacy are confused in her morbid mind.4.Main Characteristics of Modernism and Post—Modernism4.1Main Characteristics of Modernism①An emphasis on impressionism and subjectivity in writing and in virsual arts as well);And emphasis on How seeing or reading itself takes place,rather than on What is perceived.An example of this would be sream—Of—consciousness writing.②A movement away from the apparent objectivity provided by omniscient third—personnarrators,fixed narrative point of view,and clear—cut moral positions.Faulkner’s multiply—narrated stories are an example of this aspect of moderniam.4.2Main Characteristics of Post—Modernism①Advocated that life and everythingin the world are meaningless and absurd as do the absurdist dramatists such as Edward Albee,writers of black humor like Joseph Heller,.②Deliberately mixed up high culture with low culture.5.Similarities and Differences of Modernism and Post—Modernism 5.1Smilaritiesof Modernism and Post—ModernismModernists and postmodernists have many similarities.Only postmodernist writers carried the modernists＇practices to the extreme.In the first place,the both lay emphasis on the subjective rather than the objective.If modernist techniques such as impressionism and expressionism only express the subjective perceptions of the outside world and personal emotions,then postmodernists such as New York poets,Black Mountain poets and Beat poets advocated impromptu composition,that is,writing poetry without preparation before hand.Secondly,they both denied the social and moral functions of literature and were concerned only with new techniques and ways of expression.If Hemingway＇s understatement style and Faulkner＇s distortion of time and unrealiable narrator are innovative,then we are stunned to see Naboko tell his story of Pale Fire in a poem of 999 lines with extensive notes and commentary and Upedike＇s character in The Centaur recalls his past experience in a future time.Thirdly,both modernists and postmodernists were fond of fragmentariness in literature.Pound applied the dadaists＇s collage method by casually adulterating foreign phrases and words in his Cantos and William Carlos Williams mixed up lyrics,essays,letters,documents in his poem Paterson.But William Seward Burroughs the beat writer developed this to a so—called cut—up method as inhis novel The Naked Lunch in which all the chapters are made up of loosely connected passages which can be read in any order.The plot of Vabokov＇s Pale Fire is scattered in the poem,the notes and commentaries and the reader has to piece together these odds and ends by himself to get a complete story.Finally both generations of writers were fond of multiculturalism.Eliot used quotations from six foreign languages in his The Waste Land.But the whole Beat generation of writers preferred Zen Buddhism and Islamism to Christianity not only in their works but their daily life.Many of Pynchon＇s novels and stories on the other hand draws materials from cartoons,TV programs,folks art etc,and from different fields of study such as Gravity＇s Rainbow which involves knowledge in psychology,chemistry,mathematics,history,religion,and music. 5.2Differences of Modernism and Post—ModernismFirstly,modernist denied traditional values and beliefs,and they tried to find new meanings for life and the world.In The Waste Land,Eliot believes that since God is dead modern man leads a spiritless and meaningless life and he tries to find back a new spiritual world for man.Likewise Pound in his Cantos imagines an earthly paradise which man is prevented from entering as a result of avarice in hunman nature.In constrast,postmodernist writers advocated that life and everythingin the world are meaningless and absurd as do the absurdist dramatists such as Edward Albee,writers of black humor like Joseph Heller,Beat writers such as Allan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac,and writers of magical realism like Toni Morrison.Secondly,the modernist writers broke with all traditional rules,particularly those of realism,but at the same they tried to establish new rules.For example,the imagist poets observed the rule of a central image or word picture in a poem,and Hemingway＇s style is always characterized by simple and colloquial language.Contrarily,postmodernism didn＇t want any rule at all.As a result,their anti—novels such as Nabokov＇s Pale Fire,donnot haveplots,characterization and narrators,their anti—drama like the absurdist plays donnot have conflicts,and their protagonista are anti—heroes who have no ambition in their life or career and who lead a meaningless life such as Updike＇s“Rabbit”.Thirdly, modernist writers tried to make their works difficult,or too highbrow,for readers to understand by means by means of multiculturalism as in Eliot＇s The Waste Land which uses a lot of foreign and classical quotations,and of using dadaist methods as manifested in cummings＇“Grasshopper”poem.Contrastively,postmodernists deliberately mixed up high culture with low culture.William Seward Burrough＇s The Naked Lunch resembles a piece of science fiction and he was fond of freely using obscene words in his fiction.His friend Allan Ginsberg had the same liking for dirty words in his“Howl”poem.6.ConclusionThis thesis focuses on a contrastive study of the realtionship of Modernism and Post—Modernism. At the very beginning, I related modernism and post—modernism with general view in America literature. Then, Ilisted some main writers and their representative works of modernism and post—modernism in American literature. In part three, Ianalyzed some features of modernism and post—modernism in American literature.And next I try to find out these similarities and differences of modernism and post—modernism from the perspective of cognition and culture in America. Within the arena of literature, the main current of postmodernism was a reaction to modernism,and in some aspects it can be seen as its continuation.The modernist and post—modernist impulse are fueled in various literatures by industrialization in America.They are all injected new blood into the American literature at that time.Bibliography①Arnold J. Toynbee.Essays in Postmodern and Modern Theory and Culture［J］,Ohio University Press, 1987②Anderson, Walter Truett.A Report on Postmodernism and Modernism［J］, Oxford University Press, 1998③Leonard Knox,The Origins of Postmidenism and Modernism［J］,Harvad University Press,2009④Belinda Rama,The History of American Literature［J］Oxford University Press,2009⑤Nigel Nevin,Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture［J］,Washington Post,2012⑥张培基. 美国文学翻译观[M]. 北京：商务印书馆，1964.⑦刘旭，现代主义文学和后现代主义文学［J］北京：人民教育出版社，2011⑧万丽，后现代主义和现代主义对美国文学的影响［J］湖北高等教育出版社，2009⑨崔永禄，后现代主义与现代主义的建构［J］中国社会科学院，2010⑩薛斌，后现代主义和现代主义对中国文学的影响［J］山东教育出版社，2010自评以A Comparative Study of Modernism and Post—Modernism in American Literature为论文的标题，旨在通过对比研究，探寻出现代主义和后现代主义的联系，特征及其异同点，还有对美国的文化的影响。