Modernism

1
Modernism

• 1900-1945

2
Loss of the American Dream

• Prior to Modernism, Americans all believed in the
  American Dream.
• Three central themes to the American Dream
• 1. America is a new Eden a beautiful.
  bountiful, and rewarding land.
• 2. Optimism in the Future future holds
  abundance and opportunity
• 3. Importance of Individual every person has
  is important, and should be independent and
  self-reliant

3
Loss of the American Dream

• During the Modern era, the American Dream seemed
  lost. Events occurred that made the Dream seem
  unreachable. People became disillusioned in
  happily ever after.

4
Historical Background

• Modern period took place during and after WWI,
  1929 market crash, the Dust Bowl and the Great
  Depression
•  
• WWI 1914-1918 First time Americans face a
  bloodbath war. Beginning of the end of innocence
  for Americans.
• Prohibition 1919 amendment prohibited
  manufacture/sale of alcohol.
• Alcohol was thought to be central social evil.

5
Background cont.

• 1929 Stock Market Crash Economic destruction
  that spread to a global level.
• Plunged the US and the rest of the world into the
  Great Depression. Many businesses went bankrupt
  and suicide was at an all time high
•  Great Depression Millions of Americans
  suffered loss of jobs, poverty similar to third
  world poverty, starvation, and loss of material
  items
•  

6
Background Cont.

•  The Dust Bowl of the 1930s lasted for eight
  years dust blew on the southern plains. It came
  in a yellowish-brown haze from the South and in
  rolling walls of black from the North. The
  simplest acts of life breathing, eating a meal,
  taking a walk were no longer simple. Children
  wore dust masks to and from school, women hung
  wet sheets over windows in a futile attempt to
  stop the dirt, farmers watched helplessly as
  their crops blew away.

7
Breakdown of Beliefs And Traditions

• Trends Writing

• Post-War writers became skeptical of New England
  Puritan tradition and ideas/philosophies.
•  
• Previously, writers were from the North. During
  this era, most were from the South, Midwest, or
  West.
• With the breakdown of traditional beliefs and
  traditions, two movements came about
• Marxism and Psychoanalysis

8
Trends

• Marxism beginning of Socialism and Communism
• Psychoanalysis new field of psychology that was
  pioneered by Sigmund Freud. The workings of the
  unconscious mind, human sexuality, and anxiety
  about how much freedom a person really has.
• Psychoanalysis led to Stream of Consciousness
  writing style that imitates moment-by-moment flow
  of a characters perceptions and memories

9
Themes

• Themes in Writing

• Disillusionment is a major theme in writings of
  this time period.
• Self examination and dissatisfaction with self
• Paralysis
• Loss of faith in government/authority
• Self-Reliance is a continuing theme self
  reliance in the face of disillusionment of
  government/ authority

10
Hemingway Hero and Code

• The principal ideals are honor, courage, and
  endurance in a life of stress, misfortune, and
  pain. Often in Hemingway's stories, the hero's
  world is violent and disorderly moreover, the
  violence and disorder seem to win.
• The Hemingway Hero act honorably in the midst of
  what will be a losing battle. In doing so he
  finds fulfillment he becomes a man or proves his
  manhood and his worth.

11
Hemingway Hero and Code

• Belief in the self and such qualities of decency,
  bravery, competence, and skill as one can summon.
  Important to recognize and snatch up the rare,
  good, rich moments that life offers, before those
  moments elude us.

12
Harlem Renaissance

• MacDougald, Elise. Two School Teachers.

• 1. Harlem Renaissance is the name given to the
  period from the end of World War I and through
  the middle of the 1930s Depression, during which
  a group of talented African-American writers
  produced a sizable body of literature in the four
  prominent genres of poetry, fiction, drama, and
  essay.
•  2. The notion of "twoness" , a divided awareness
  of one's identity, was introduced by W.E.B. Du
  Bois, one of the founders of the National
  Association for the Advancement of Colored People
  (NAACP).

13

• Harlem Renaissance
• Johnson, William. Street Life.

• 3. Common themes alienation, marginality, the
  use of folk material, the use of the blues
  tradition, the problems of writing for an elite
  audience.
• 4. HR was more than just a literary movement it
  included racial consciousness, "the back to
  Africa" movement led by Marcus Garvey, racial
  integration, the explosion of music particularly
  jazz, spirituals and blues, painting, dramatic
  revues, and others.

14

• Reuben, Paul. Chapter 9 Harlem Renaissance -
  A Brief Introduction.
• PAL Perspectives in American Literature - A
  Research and Reference Guide - An Ongoing
  Project. 02 November 2011. Web. 27 November
  2011.