Introduction the world at the beginning

Conclusion

By the end of the nineteenth century, the advantages of industrial civilization, which had established itself in a number of European countries and in the United States, were becoming increasingly apparent. This type of civilization guaranteed society not only a relatively stable standard of living, but also a wide range of rights, including the right to own and dispose of private property. This right strengthened a person's faith in themselves, in their capabilities, and in a certain sense became an objective measure of the latter.

For most of the peoples of Europe, the industrial revolution was not a product of their own development, but an external demand of the time. The breakdown of old social norms was painful everywhere.
With the advent of industrial civilization, the age-old principles of life structure collapsed.
The European of the early twentieth century had much more choice than his great-grandfather, but much less confidence in the future. And very many (almost most) longingly recalled the "good old days" when the community, the workshop, the sovereign, the state protected him and guided his life.
The industrial breakthrough in England has shown that individual freedom and equality of all before the law are not only morally justified, but also extremely beneficial and useful for society. The mass consciousness became increasingly convinced that individual rights and freedoms are sacred and inviolable, that they are more important than any interests of society and the state.
In the twentieth century, in many countries, a complex, subtle, but very strong and stable social and state system, which is called liberal democracy, was gradually built on such ideasлиберальной демократией. A liberal constitution and democratically elected parliament have been the norm for a European state since the beginning of the last century.
The generation that reached maturity by the beginning of the twentieth century had the opportunity to experience for themselves how life is changing for the better, becoming more comfortable and safe. Europeans were full of self-confidence and determination to improve the world according to their own will and understanding.
Industrial civilization made Europe much more unified — all states were connected by a network of railways; the volume of international trade increased dramatically, and with it the economic interdependence of previously untouched regions; thanks to the telegraph, any news instantly reached the most remote corners; uniform European fashions and standards of life emerged. The laws of different countries became closer; borders between states became transparent, and people, as a rule, freely traveled from one country to another.
But at the same time, a powerful force appeared that divided the European peoples — nationalism.
Nationalism became the main source of military conflicts in Europe — all the wars that were fought between 1815 and 1914 were somehow connected with the process of national disengagement. During these wars, Germany and Italy united, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire, and created their own states-the Greeks, Bulgarians, Romanians, Serbs, and Montenegrins. Gradually, the idea that each nation should have its own separate national state became stronger in the mass consciousness.
The heightened national consciousness of the peoples of Europe prevented the expansion of any country, even the most powerful, on the continent. But the rest of the world was still completely open to such expansion: there, the Europeans were confronted not by cohesive nations, but by weak, badly in need of money, often hostile to each other and often despising their own people. Subjugating them to his influence was usually not very difficult. The technological (primarily military) advantage of the Europeans made the once great civilizations of the East defenseless. Even small Western countries have managed to establish their control over vast territories.
The spiritual and material culture of the twentieth century is a continuation of the sociocultural processes of the nineteenth century, which failed to meet the expectations of humanity and gave rise to a new crisis and upheaval: the contradictions accumulated within society could not be resolved by the course of natural historical changes. At the end of the 19th century, irreversible changes took place concerning a new understanding of man, his attitude to the world, and a new language of art. An example of such a new attitude was given by French painting, which became not only actively temperamental, but also colored by the subjective experiences of a person: impressionism appears, the main goal of which is to capture a moment of life.
The art of decadence is a reflection of all social and ideological contradictions. In 1909 futurism appeared, its" godfather " - the Italian writer F. Marinetti. Later, a new expressionist society "Blue Rider" appeared, and adherents of Dadaism, Audism, etc. appeared. In 1915, the Fauvists — "the wild ones" - made their appearance in Paris, and in the same year the Most, a group of united expressionist artists, appeared in Dresden. Three years after the Bridge, Cubism was formed. In Russia, innovation processes in culture are similar to those in Western Europe: M. Nesterov and I. Levitan created in the lyrical spirit, and K. Korovin wrote in the spirit of impressionism. The figurative-romantic method of M. Vrubel and the complex symbolism of V. Borisov-Musatov are formed. The newly appeared magazine "Mir Iskusstva" focused on the non-traditional for Russia detachment from real life impressions, illusory, masquerade. Finally, the exhibition "Jack of Diamonds", held in Moscow, defined a new direction in the development of art. Similar processes took place in literature, theater, and music.
In the literary process of the XX century, changes occurred due to socio-economic and political reasons. Among the main features of the literature of this time, we can distinguish:
* politicization, strengthening the connection of literary trends with various political trends,
* strengthening the mutual influence and interpenetration of national literatures, internationalization,
* rejection of literary traditions,
* intellectualization, the influence of philosophical ideas, the desire for scientific and philosophical analysis,
* fusion and mixing of genres, variety of forms and styles,
* striving for the essay genre.
The First World War became a cardinal theme of the art of the first half of the century, determined the personal destinies and shaped the artistic personalities of such writers as Henri Barbusse, Richard Aldington, Ernest Hemingway, Erich Maria Remarque. During the war, Guillaume Apollinaire, a poet whose work opened the twentieth century, was mortally wounded. The conditions and consequences of this war were different for each of the countries. However, the artistic embodiment of the First World War in different literatures also has common, typological features, both in problematics and pathos, and in poetics.
The literature of the "lost generation" developed in European and American literatures in the decade after the end of the First World War. Recorded its appearance in 1929, when three novels were published: "The Death of a Hero" by the Englishman Aldington," On the Western Front without change "by the German Remarque and" Farewell to arms! " by the American Hemingway. In literature, the lost generation was defined, so named with the light hand of Hemingway, who put the epigraph to his first novel " Fiesta. And the Sun Rises "(1926) the words of Gertrude Stein, an American woman who lived in Paris, "All of you are a lost generation." These words were an exact definition of the general feeling of loss and longing that the authors of these books who went through the war brought with them. There was so much despair and pain in their novels that they were defined as a mournful lament for those killed in war, even if the heroes were fleeing from bullets. This is a requiem for a whole generation that was not fulfilled because of the war, where the ideals and values that were taught from childhood fell apart like fake castles. The war exposed the lies of many familiar dogmas and State institutions, such as the family and the school, turned false moral values inside out, and plunged young men who grew old early into the abyss of disbelief and loneliness.
The characters in the books of the writers of the "lost generation" are usually very young, one might say, from school and belong to the intelligentsia. For them, the Barbousse path and its "clarity" seem unattainable. They are individualists and rely, like Hemingway's heroes, only on themselves, on their own will, and if they are capable of a decisive social act, then separately concluding a "contract with the war" and deserting. Remarque's characters find solace in love and friendship, without giving up on calvados. This is their unique form of defense against a world that accepts war as a way to resolve political conflicts. The heroes of the literature of the "lost generation" are not able to unite with the people, the state, and the class, as was observed in Barbusse. "The Lost Generation" contrasted the world that deceived them with bitter irony, rage, uncompromising and all-encompassing criticism of the foundations of a false civilization, which determined the place of this literature in realism, despite the pessimism it shares with the literature of modernism.

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