Prepared by Aizhan Turganbayeva
Mar 25, 2016
Prepared by Aizhan Turganbayeva
Editor’s note Dear Reader,
The year 1939 was a watershed moment of a decade in many aspects. Our
magazine made a major work in highlighting the monthly updates in the world of
literature, politics, arts, and science. The main purpose was to create a range of
images and ideas which could represent the modernist flow as a separate artistic
and historical movement. In this inaugural issue we tried to demonstrate how the
major events on the year 1939 could be represented by a single writer and poet. For
this issue is dedicated to Wystan Hugh Auden and his three poems, which are
representative of such events as the death of major literary figure, W.H. Yeats, the
outbreak of the Word War II, and the death of a prominent scientist Sigmund Freud.
There is another aspect of the year 1939, which deserve to be the part
of this issue. Our friends from the US are developing their film industry and
growing faster as a modern artistic movement. Moreover, Pablo Picasso created
number of paintings, which could be a significant finish for the decade of cubist
movement. For this is the purpose of art and this issue of the magazine
“Modernist Times.”
Best wishes,
Hugh Andersen
2
Table of contents
World War II………………………………………….4
September 1, 1939 by W. H. Auden ……..…….……5
Sigmund Freud ………………………………….……6
In Memory of Sigmund Freud by W. H. Auden …..7
W.B. Yeats …………………………………………...8
In Memory of W. B. Yeats by W. H. Auden ………..9
Gone with the Wind ………………………………. 10
Pablo Picasso ……………………………………….11
Reference List ………………………………………12
3
What can impact our society more
than devastating military actions
aimed to disturb peace in our world?
It was an early morning
of the 1st September
when the German Nazi
troops violated the
territorial boundaries
of Poland.
This became a watershed
moment of 1939, when the
Second World War
became inevitable.
Minds of ordinary people continue to be
affected by this turning point in our
modern history. Being here, at the
beginning of 1940s it is unclear what will
happen tomorrow and which outcomes
this war might bring.
Our favourite British poet
being far away in the
United States revealed his
concern about the war and
innocent people, who are
the victims of authorities’
political games.
Here comes his poem called
“September 1, 1939” with
little explanation by our
magazine.
4
1939 in the History WORLD WAR II
September 1, 1939
by W. H. Auden
5
Auden underlines how the outbreak of
the war summarises this time period. He
places personal emotions to the centre of
the occurring events.
I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.
In this poem one can find the reflection
on the pain of the Word War One, which
continues to be influential among the
modernist artists. Auden places the
reasons for the war into the a bsurd
decision of the authorities, which put the
individuals into the sufferings.
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.
Auden is a like a lighthouse, burning for
those who remain unprotected against
the will of the “imperial authorities”.
Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
6
1939 in the History Sigmund Freud passes away
The same September of the year 1939 brought us another
dreadful event. The father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud
died in London after a long disease. This person made an
immense contribution to the modernist thinking as well as
turned psychology into the separate field of science.
Freud questioned the rationale of human behaviour and proved
the complexity of mind in his studies. Thus, he created a field
for the modernist writers for self-conscious images and inner
motives to perceive the reality as they see it.
In Memory of Sigmund Freud
by W. H. Auden
7
The poem dedicated to the memory of Sigmund Freud is also personal for
Auden. The death treats everyone equally, although Freud was a very
prominent person for many of us.
Auden is also attached to him because of their exile from the homeland and
impossibility to return back. The death that found Freud during his
expatriation brings the feeling of sadness to what Auden is writing about in
the poem.
When there are so many we shall
have to mourn,
when grief has been made so
public, and exposed
to the critique of a whole epoch
the frailty of our conscience and
anguish,
of whom shall we speak? For
every day they die
among us, those who were doing
us some good,
who knew it was never enough
but
hoped to improve a little by
living.
For about him till the very end were still
those he had studied, the fauna of the night,
and shades that still waited to enter
the bright circle of his recognition
turned elsewhere with their disappointment
as he
was taken away from his life interest
to go back to the earth in London,
an important Jew who died in exile.
8
In Memory of W. B. Yeats
by W. H. Auden
9
Auden places the death of Yeats into
the daily routine of the ordinary people
them all. At the same time, there is a
specific oddity in this day and it must
bring something different into their
lives, feelings or emotions, like it
affected Auden himself.
But in the importance and noise of
to-morrow
When the brokers are roaring like
beasts on the floor of the Bourse,
And the poor have the sufferings to
which they are fairly accustomed,
And each in the cell of himself is
almost convinced of his freedom,
A few thousand will think of this
day
As one thinks of a day when one did
something slightly unusual.
The same as Sigmund Freud Yeats,
despite his talents, was an ordinary
man and death treated him equally as
others. The matter of his talent was
nothing, but a gift to write poetry or
bear it as something long-lasting
inside.
You were silly like us; your gift
survived it all:
The parish of rich women,
physical decay,
Yourself. Mad Ireland hurt you
into poetry.
Now Ireland has her madness
and her weather still,
For poetry makes nothing
happen: it survives
The last part of the poem is an attempt
to predict the emerging disaster of war
in Europe. Auden proceeds by making
the poet to survive within the falling
world and bear his duty to illuminate
the path for others.
Intellectual disgrace
Stares from every human face,
And the seas of pity lie
Locked and frozen in each eye.
Follow, poet, follow right
To the bottom of the night,
With your unconstraining
voice
Still persuade us to rejoice;
With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress;
10
1939 in the History of Film
The film industry of our American friends proceeds to flourish and the
following film is the best justification for such claim. During the year 1939
there were number of the great movies, which already became masterpieces of
their time. “Gone with the Wind” is the brightest example for what should be
recorded in the history of film from the third decade of the 20th
century.
GONE WITH THE WIND
Directed by Viktor Fleming and
starring Thomas Mitchell with
Barbara O'Neil the film “Gone
with the Wind” (1939) is one of
the first coloured movies. It was
adapted from Margaret Mitchel’s
prize winning novel and narrated
us a story on the south of the US.
In the center of the movie are the
main character Scarlett O'Hara and
her life during the civil war.
The film is already nominated to
16 Oscar awards. Next ceremony
must reveal how many of them
“Gone with the Wind” could get.
This is a modern adaptation of a
novel which is represented in an
absolutely new way, and this
deserves the attention of our reads
as one of the best movies of the
last year.
11
PABLO PICASSO (1939)
Pablo Picasso as one
of the leading artists in
the cubic movement
finishes the decade
with number of
impressive paintings,
which convey his
usual style and at the
same time bring up the
modern motives.
The themes, discussed
by Picasso are similar to what Auden discusses on in his previous three works.
Thus, the ideas of death and life are dominant in all these works presented by the
artists. For Auden the death was an inevitable consequence for all human beings
and it made everyone equal before the higher powers. However, for Picasso it
seems to be an essential part of the
life, when the stronger survives by
killing the weakest. Human being
is also a part of this cycle and in
Picasso’s artistic expression there
are also other powers to decide on
his fate. For Auden claimed the
responsibility of authorities over
the death of ordinary man, Picasso
also feels the darkness arising in
the continent and the theme of death
and life becomes central at the dawn
of the Second World War.
Night Fishing at Antibes
Still Life with Bull’s Skull
Cat Eating a Bird
Reference List
• Royde-Smith, John Graham. "World War II (1939-45)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
• Auden, W. H. "September 1, 1939." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.
• Auden, W. H. "In Memory of Sigmund Freud." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.
• Auden, W. H. "In Memory of W. B. Yeats." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.
• "Freud, Sigmund." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2014.
• "W. B. Yeats." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2014.
• "Gone with the Wind." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2014.
• Picasso, Pablo. The Poet. 1910. N.p.
• Picasso, Pablo. Guernica. 1937. N.p.
• Picasso, Pablo. Cassagemas in His Coffin. 1901. N.p.
• Picasso, Pablo. Night Fishing at Antibes. 1939. N.p.
• Picasso, Pablo. Still Life with Bull’s Skull. 1939. N.p.
• Picasso, Pablo. Cat Eating a Bird. 1939. N.p.
12