Understanding Modernist Writing Essay -- essays research papers

Around 1906, modernist writing was used, but did not yet have a name. James Joyce was the first person to write in a modernist way. It was not until later that the name modernism was established. It was mainly involved with language and how it is used. Modernism is known as a result of the struggle families went through during a certain period of time. Many other authors use modernism in a similar way. To fully understand modernist poetry, a definition and a break down is needed. Modernism is better known as a reflection of historical events. During the time period of 1890-1910, many issues came about in society. Over these twenty years, Americans had massive amounts of change. For example, World War I was beginning and the Industrial Revolution was escalating. It was also the period when cars appeared and there were also massive cultural shifts. For example, John Steinbeck writes about Americans fleeing to California in search of jobs in the novel The Grapes of Wrath. Under a combination of historical pressure such as these, writers came to respect literature as an explanation for an individual life. Modern assembly lines emerged, producing material in mass amounts. Although less educated individuals were able to get jobs, they were treated very poorly. This period reduced the population’s self-confidence severely. Essentially citizens moved down in the ranks between 1890-1910. Modernist writing is known for being hard to comprehend. John Steinbeck is content with people not understanding his books. For example, The Grapes of Wrath is confusing because he claims it is â€Å"A book about the public, not for the public†. (Steinbeck 128) He writes about events that happened to the citizens in depth. Steinbeck is reacting to t... ...s, they have their own writing style which sets them apart. The large cultural wave of modernism emerged in Europe. The same wave traveled to the United States in the early years of the 19th century. Modernism generally expressed a sense of modern life through poetry. Modern life appeared very different from traditional life. It was faster with more science and technology. Modernism settled these changes. Modernism helps readers understand and looker deeper into a writer’s work. The reader is able to analyze and breakdown the authors story. The author also has a point of view which also can be broken down. For example, T.S. Eliot in the â€Å"Wasteland†, leaves parts of the story to the reader’s imagination. This gives an opportunity to the reader to create an opinion of there own. This writing style is more involving and it is different from the ordinary technique.

The Managed Heart: Emotional Management vs Emotional Labor

Can a person†s heart be controlled? Do all people go have some form of emotional management or emotional labor in their lives? In the book, The Managed Heart, written by Arlie Hochschild , discusses the issues of emotional labor and emotional management. In the book, it describes the difference between the two issues and gives Hochschild†s opinion on those issues. The first issue is emotional management. This is where the fight attendants learn how to deal with certain situations that they might encounter. Basically, they are taught to manage their emotions and look at their situation from the other side. By doing this, the flight attendants can create a happy and more comfortable setting for the passengers. On page 113 in the book, it states that the fight attendants should imagine a reason to excuse an obnoxious or unruly passenger. This is what Delta teaches: emotional management. The other issue is emotional labor. The use of emotional management is emotional labor. They flight attendants use surface acting in everyday work life. They are there to make the passenger feel comfortable and happy. This is a cover sheet for the flight attendants emotions. They are in a way bottling up their feelings to produce another feeling. The problem with emotional labor and surface acting are they become a part of that person. Hochschild thinks that this is a bad thing because one will never break away from the emotional labor and in turn have trouble expressing their inner feelings, (deep acting) in their private lives. In summary, emotional management is emotional labor. Emotional management is the learning how to deal with situations. Emotional labor is the actual use of the emotional management. Learning emotional management is helpful, but can affect that person†s lifestyle. When they use emotional labor, they are hiding their inner feelings to create are better atmosphere for others. People using this might never be able to distinguish the difference between their surface acting and deep acting. Hochschild†s sees this as a problem for the people affected by this emotion manipulator. This will affect their friend†s, family, and the rest of society.

Class Consciousness and False Consciousness as Defined by Marx

Class consciousness and false consciousness are concepts introduced by Karl Marx that were later expanded by social theorists who came after him. Marx wrote about the theory in his book Capital, Volume 1, and again with his frequent collaborator, Friedrich Engels, in the impassioned treatise, Manifesto of the Communist Party. Class consciousness refers to the awareness by a social or economic class of their position and interests within the structure of the economic order and social system in which they live. In contrast, false consciousness is a perception of ones relationships to social and economic systems of an individual nature, and a failure to see oneself as a part of a class with particular class interests relative to the economic order and social system. Marxs Theory of Class Consciousness According to Marxist theory, class consciousness is an awareness of ones social and/or economic class relative to others, as well as an understanding of the economic rank of the class to which you belong in the context of the larger society. In addition, class consciousness involves an understanding of the defining social and economic characteristics and collective interests of your own class within the constructs of the given socio-economic and political order. Class consciousness is a core facet of Marxs theory of class conflict, which focuses on the social, economic, and political relationships between workers and owners within a capitalist economy. The precept was developed in conjunction with his theory on how workers might overthrow the system of capitalism and then go on to create a new economic, social, and political system based on equality rather than inequality and exploitation. The Proletariat vs. the Bourgeoisie Marx believed that the capitalist system was rooted in class conflict—specifically, the economic exploitation of the proletariat (workers) by the bourgeoisie (those who owned and controlled production). He reasoned that the system only functioned as long as the workers did not recognize their unity as a class of laborers, their shared economic and political interests, and the power inherent in their numbers. Marx argued that when workers came to understand the totality of these factors, they would achieve class consciousness, and this, in turn, would lead to a workers revolution that would overthrow the exploitative system of capitalism. Hungarian social theorist Georg Lukà ¡cs, who followed in the tradition of Marxist theory, expanded the concept by saying that class consciousness is an achievement that opposes individual consciousness and results from the group struggle to see the totality of social and economic systems. The Problem of False Consciousness According to Marx, before workers developed a class consciousness they were actually living with a false consciousness. (Though Marx never used the actual term, he did develop the ideas that it encompasses.) In essence, false consciousness is the opposite of class consciousness. Individualistic rather than collective in nature, it produces a view of oneself as a single entity engaged in competition with others of ones social and economic standing, rather than as part of a group with unified experiences, struggles, and interests. According to Marx and other social theorists who followed, false consciousness was dangerous because it encouraged people to think and act in ways that were counterintuitive to their economic, social, and political self-interests. Marx saw false consciousness as a product of an unequal social system controlled by a powerful minority of elites. The false consciousness among workers, which prevented them from seeing their collective interests and power, was created by the material relations and conditions of the capitalist system, by the ideology (the dominant worldview and values) of those who control the system, and by social institutions and how they function in society. Marx cited the phenomenon of commodity fetishism—the way capitalist production frames relationships between people (workers and owners) as relationships between things (money and products)—with playing a key role in producing false consciousness among workers. He believed that commodity fetishism served to obscure the fact that relations with regard to production within a capitalist system are actually relationships between people, and that as such, they are changeable. Building on Marxs theory, Italian scholar, writer, and activist Antonio Gramsci expanded the ideological component of false consciousness by arguing that a process of cultural hegemony guided by those holding economic, social, and cultural power in society produced a common sense way of thinking that embued the status quo with legitimacy. Gramsci noted that by believing in the common sense of ones age, a person actually consents to the conditions of exploitation and domination that one experiences. This common sense—the ideology that produces false consciousness—is actually a misrepresentation and misunderstanding of the social relationships that define the economic, social, and political systems. False Consciousness in a Stratified Society An example of how cultural hegemony works to produce false consciousness—that is true both historically and today—is the belief that upward mobility is possible for all people, regardless of the circumstances of their birth, as long as they choose to dedicate themselves to education, training, and hard work. In the U.S. this belief is encapsulated in the ideal of the American Dream. Viewing society and ones place within it based on the set of assumptions derived from common sense thinking results in a perception of being an individual rather than part of a collective. Economic success and failure rest squarely on the shoulders of the individual and do not take into account the totality of the social, economic, and political systems that shape our lives. At the time Marx was writing about class consciousness, he perceived class as the relationship of people to the means of production—the owners versus the workers. While the model is still useful, we can also think about the economic stratification of our society into different classes based on income, occupation, and social status. Decades worth of demographic data reveals that the American Dream and its promise of upward mobility is largely a myth. In truth, the economic class a person is born into is the primary determinant of how he or she will fair economically as an adult. However, as long as a person believes the myth, he or she will continue to live and operate with a false consciousness. Without a class consciousness, they will fail to recognize that the stratified economic system in which theyre operating was designed to afford only the bare minimum of money to workers while funneling huge profits to the owners, executives, and financiers at the top.