Modernism 1914 -1939 F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

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Modernism 1914 -1939F. Scott Fitzgerald The
Great Gatsby

• Notes

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Organization of this Unit

• Symbolism Imagism Poetry
• Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams,
  Marianne Moore, E.E. Cummings
• Modern American Fiction
• Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William
  Faulkner
• Midcentury Voices
• John Steinbeck, James Thurber, Robert Frost
• The Harlem Renaissance
• Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale
  Hurston

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History An Overview

• Historical Timeline
• World War I (The Great War) 1914 1918
• Began June 1914 when the Archduke Francis
  Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated by
  a Serbian nationalist.
• The U.S. enters in 1917
• The armistice (aka truce which ended the
  fighting) was signed on the 11th hour on Nov. 11,
  1918 (where Veteran's Day comes from).
• The Treat of Versailles (which officially ends
  the war) was signed in 1919.

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History An Overview

• Historical Timeline cont.
• Womans Suffrage
• 1920 Ratification of the 19th Amendment U.S.
  women earn the right to vote.
• This new status affects women overall
• Begin wearing shorter skirts
• Bobbing hair in modern fashion
• Participated in sports

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History An Overview

• Historical Timeline cont.
• The Great Depression 1929 1939 (beginning of
  WWII)
• A result of the New York Stock Market Crash in
  1929.
• The early 30s were the hardest
• Nearly 1/4 to 1/3 of Americans were unemployed.
• People were found waiting in bread and soup
  lines, hunting for food in garbage, and sleeping
  in sewer pipes.
• Hoovervilles towns made up by the homeless
  named after President Hoover (who was reluctant
  to take steps to change things).
• Caused much despair in America
• Gave rise to extremist political parties in
  Europe, like the Nazis.

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History An Overview

• The American Dream (damaged by The Great
  Depression)
• America as a New Eden
• a land of beauty, bounty, and unlimited promise.
  (The Great Gatsby -1925)
• A belief in progress
• optimism that life will keep getting better, and
  that we are always moving towards an era of
  greater prosperity, justice and joy.
• Triumph of the Individual
• The independent, self-reliant person will triumph
  (championed by Ralph Waldo Emerson). Everything
  is possible for the person who places trust in
  his or her own powers and potential.

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Modernism Sprouts

• Shift from New England
• American literary life finally started to move
  away from New England, which had been the native
  region of many American writers during the 19th
  century.
• Modern writers were born in the South, Midwest,
  or the West.

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Modernism Definition

• Modernist Movement
• Movement in literature, painting, music, and
  other arts.
• Called for bold experimentation and an extensive
  rejection of traditional themes and styles.

Vincent Van Goghs famous Starry Night
painting.
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Modernism Philosophical Views

• Postwar Modern Movements
• Marxism
• Embraces socialism as the desired social
  structure
• takes hold in Russia and finds some support in
  the U.S. (named after Karl Marx, a socialist that
  invented Communism wanted the workers to revolt
  felt that rich businesses controlled the
  government)
• Psychoanalysis founded by Sigmund Freud
• Encourages exploration of the human subconscious
  and the meaning of dreams.
• Stream of Consciousness
• Narrative technique that attempts to imitate the
  moment-by-moment flow of a characters
  perceptions and memories. (Used by James Joyce
  in Ulysses).
• These two movements combined to influence
  previous beliefs and values.

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Modernism Social Influences

• The Jazz Age
• Prohibition results in speak-easys,
  short-skirted flappers, new rhythms of jazz,
  dangerous yet profitable professions as
  gangsters, and the emerging role of women.
• The New American Hero
• Created by Ernest Hemmingway a man of action, a
  warrior, and a tough competitor. He has a code of
  honor, courage and endurance while showing grace
  under pressure.
• More importantly though, he showed thorough
  disillusionment
• Experimentation in Poetry
• Influence of British poetry was over.
• New ways of seeing and thinking.
• Symbolism Imagism take over.

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Modernism Social Influences

• Rejection of Modernism
• Robert Frost rejected modern trends
• Took the most conventional forms, and gave them a
  twist of his own (was unique and impossible to
  imitate).
• The Harlem Renaissance
• 1920s a group of black poets focused on the
  unique contributions of African American culture
  to America.
• Langston Hughes
• Based out of Harlem (neighborhood in NYC)
• Poetry based its rhythms on jazz, lyrics on the
  blues, and its diction on street talk of the
  ghettos.
• The American Dream Revised
• An effect of Modernism and Modern Literature

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Modernism Summary

• Major Elements of Modernism
• Emphasis on bold experimentation in style and
  form
• Rejection of traditional themes, subjects and
  forms
• Sense of disillusionment and loss of faith in the
  American dream
• Rejection of the perfect hero and acceptance of a
  hero that is flawed and disillusioned but shows
  grace under pressure
• Increasing popularity of socialism
• Interest in the inner workings of the mind,
  sometimes expressed through the stream of
  consciousness
• Social influences including the Jazz Age and the
  Harlem Renaissance