20TH CENTURY
General movement/ideas: the role of individuals
Nietzsche (the death of God) Descartes (cogito ergo sum)
Reality: before Nietzsche, it was considered something governed by God, who was responsible
for everything.
Reason over intuition
The death of God: the subjective view of men -> everyone is responsible for their acts. A break
between objects and subjects. God is another object because he depends on man’s view.
God is the creator of the world: man becomes the only creator and has the authority to make
new things.
Science Albert Einstein (theory of relativity) Linguistics Ferdinand de Saussure
(signifier vs. signified)
1906. This concepts helped to kill God.
1. Through science: men is the responsible of everything
2. Trough Saussure: signifier invented by human mind signifiedwhat it really is (Language is
a system created by men for men)
We are the creators. Men take the position of God.
Nietzsche, the killer of God
We can now believe in anything, we became Nihilist, love and thinking of ourselves.
Truth does not exist, only language is real, but it does no communicate.
Nihilism = nothing to trust on
Science and inventions confirm that we are creators of the things from zero, without external
authority. Subjective approach to reality.
NORTH AMERICA 20TH CENTURY
Two movements/influences: Realism and Naturalism
Influence from Europe, an exception was Edgar Allan Poe, who created from zero and passed
his influence to Europe.
Realism: Theodore Dreiser Naturalism: Stephen Crane,
Frank Norris
Objective: they tried to present reality in an objective style. In Naturalism, they present
characters as in a laboratory, linked to determinism.
