At the beginning of the 20th century people found it increasingly difficult to believe in anything, Einstein's Theory of Relativity, brougt the idea that even science can't give a satisfactory explanation of the Universe, The invention of the atomic bomb, led to a loss of faith in religious or humanistic explanation for reality and human life. All traditional values were questioned. The new theories about the structure and workings of the human mind, generally known as psychoanalysis were very important . It was developed by Sigmund Freud (1856- 1939),who began to explore the unconscious. Freud showed that the human mind has many layers, some of which are hidden, His theories revealed that a rational study could explain the apparent irrationality of modern life.
The term 'Modernism' usually indicates early 20th-century literature which expressed the reaction against 19th-centurv ideas and in new forms. The most important characteristics: were:
• the breakdown of traditional literary genres;
• the fragmentation of the traditional ideas of time and place;
• the collapse of traditional plot,characters, and setting:
• the use of a complex language in contrast with traditional syntax, grammar and punctuation,
• emphasis on psychological truth rather than on realistic details:
- The use of free verse instead of traditional metres
A First-generation of Modernists flourished from 1922 to 1925, with T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land, James Joyce's novel Ulysses , and Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway ). They deals with the unconscious in daily life. These writers used the "stream-of consciousness" technique , to try to reroduce the continuous flow of human thought.