Modernism in literature involves nihilism

The argument

While not beginning and ending with the Modernists, Nihilism is a prevalent characteristic that manifests in the psychological darkness of the movement’s key literature. Several things sparked it: Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, Freud’s psychoanalysis, an increased skepticism of western faith and the carnage of World War 1. All of this was absorbed into 20th-century literature and summed up by Nietzsche’s prophetic philosophy near the end of the 19th century. Nihilism in Modernist Literature could also be seen to represent the shift toward Relativism and vice-versa. This is noticeable in texts such as TS Eliot’s The Wasteland (1922), William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, and works from Franz Kafka and playwright Samuel Beckett. To take Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’: this famous poem situates itself somewhere between Nihilism's derelict abyss and a vivid past. Its constantly shifting viewpoint gives the impression of a world in disarray, with characters engaging in futile lives. This can be seen in the opening section in which an aristocratic woman reflects on her childhood but appears to be living a desolate existence; we get imagery of ‘Lilacs out of the dead land’ and a desire to remember upturned by the inevitability of forgetting. Another side to Nihilism is the decline of religion and belief in a godless universe. Eliot suggests this through the heavy use of biblical allusions. Decades later, Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1952) and Endgame (1957) would be defined by their religious absence- of structure, morals, and authority. Faulkner’s The Sound and Fury (1929) shows its effect on the individual level through Benjy, a mentally disabled man. Benjy’s incoherent, stream-of-consciousness accounts highlight the chaotic nature of modern living, where traditional values have been destabilized. If Nihilism has prevailed, as Nietzsche predicted, then we can look to Modernist literature as a document of it. Still, its influence permeates modern life.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Critics argue the equation of Modernism with nihilism overgeneralises from one strand. Nihilism and despair are certainly present in some Modernist work, but many of its central figures were engaged in the opposite project — constructing new sources of order and meaning after the old ones fell away. Eliot's The Waste Land ends reaching toward spiritual renewal, and he later turned explicitly to religious faith; Joyce's 'mythic method' imposes ancient structure on modern chaos; Woolf and others sought meaning in consciousness and the moment. Reading the movement as fundamentally nihilistic mistakes a mood found in parts of it for its defining character. They add that the argument's own bridge — from nihilism to relativism — conflates distinct ideas: nihilism denies value or meaning outright, whereas relativism holds that value is plural and perspective-dependent, which is not the same thing. And the sibling positions capture Modernism at least as well: formal experimentation, the focus on individual consciousness, and the revaluation of the past are widely taken as more definitional than nihilism. On this view nihilism is one theme among several, not what constitutes Modernism.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Critics note nihilism is one strand, not pervasive; many Modernists (Eliot, Joyce, Woolf) sought new order and meaning after old certainties collapsed, so darkness does not define the movement. [Rejecting P3] The argument slides from nihilism to relativism, but the two differ — nihilism denies meaning while relativism pluralises it — so nihilism does not straightforwardly establish 'favouring relativism over absolute truth.'