Modernism

1
Modernism

• 1900-1945

2
The History

• Overwhelming technological changes
• World War I is the first war of mass destruction
• There is fear that traditions are eroding
• There is a rise in the youth culture
• U.S. becomes a significant world power

3
Genre and Style

• Alienation and discontent were the dominant moods
  in writing.
• Writing was highly experimental use of
  fragments, stream of consciousness, and interior
  dialogue.
• Writers tried to create a unique style of their
  own.

4
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

• Writing style concise, direct, spare, objective,
  precise, rhythmic.
• Major works include The Sun Also Rises, A Farwell
  to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man
  and the Sea.
• Won the Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize for
  literature.

5
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

• His work and life illustrate the American culture
  of the 1920s.
• Wrote The Great Gatsby which is one of the
  masterpieces of American literature.
• It is a brilliant comment on the 1920s but also
  an ironic and tragic treatment of the American
  success myth.
• Created the term The Roaring Twenties.

6
William Faulkner (1897-1962)

• Considered the most original writer of his time.
• Experimented with different narrative techniques,
  including stream of consciousness, interior
  monologues, discontinuous time, fragmented
  chronological order, multiple narrators, complex
  allusions, dialects, elements of the Gothic, and
  allegory.

7
John Steinbeck (1902-1968)

• Steinbecks novels and short stories reflect his
  belief in the need for social justice and his
  hope that people can learn from the suffering of
  others.
• Was able to combine naturalism and symbolism in
  the same novel.

8
The Harlem Renaissance (1915-1929)

• A black cultural movement that emerged in Harlem
  during the 20s literature, music, and art
  flourished.
• Richard Wright-first African-American whose work
  appeared on the national bestseller list.
• Zora Neale Hurston-rediscovered by the womens
  movement in the 70s
• Langston Hughes-wanted to capture the dominant
  oral traditions of black culture

9
There were poets too!

• Ezra Pound-Imagism (ordinary language, free
  verse, concentrated word pictures).
• T.S. Eliot-questioned our place in the universe.
• Robert Frost-Americas best known poet who wrote
  in traditional forms.
• e.e. cummings-played with form, punctuation,
  spelling, type style, grammar, imagery, rhythm,
  and syntax