Contemporary Literature

1
Contemporary Literature Postmodernism

• 1939 Present

2
Contemp. Lit - Historical Overview

• World War II 1939 1945
• Began when Britain and France declared war on
  Germany after Hitlers armies invaded Poland.
• U.S. was drug into the war on Dec. 7 1941, when
  Japan bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor,
  Hawaii.
• The attack on Pearl Harbor killed over 2,395
  Americans and destroyed / damaged 21 ships and
  323 aircrafts.
• Until this attack, the U.S. had remained neutral
  (although we had provided financial support to
  those countries fighting Germany, Italy, and
  Japan).

3
Contemp. Lit Historical Overview

• WW II - U.S. response Atomic Bomb
• The U.S. dropped atomic bombs that obliterated
  two Japanese cities.
• Bomb on Nagasaki / Bomb on Hiroshima from the
  U.S. airplane Enola Gay
• Infamous and symbolic mushroom cloud represents
  the triumph of science technology, the purpose
  of which was, ironically enough, to benefit
  mankind, and to make life richer and easier for
  all.
• Many Americans disapproved of the use of the
  atomic bomb to end WWII, but most agreed with the
  purpose of the war itself.
• Fighting against tyranny and regimes that would
  destroy the American way of life.

4
Contemp. Lit Historical Overview

• The Cold War 1945 1991 (ideological battle
  between Capitalism and Communism)
• Although the U.S. emerged from WWII an economic
  and political powerhouse, we did not go
  unchallenged for long.
• The Soviet Union developed nuclear weapons in the
  50s and 60s created conflict with the U.S.
• Cuban Missile Crisis 1962 Soviet Union placed
  nuclear missiles on Cuba, pointed at the U.S.
• The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991
• The result a new Russian republic with
  democratic aspirations
• However, the threat of nuclear violence was still
  present.

5
Contemp. Lit The Digital Revolution and
Economic Prosperity

• Introduction of the computer
• 50s and 60s businesses and governments were
  revolutionized by large mainframe computers
• Made quick electronic storage and retrieval of
  large amounts of data possible in a short amount
  of time.
• 80s and 90s desktop computers appeared in
  schools, offices, and homes
• 80s me generation
• Individual enjoyment and material success seemed
  to overshadow other concerns.
• Late 90s internet communication emerged along
  with wireless telephone technology
• All of these innovations fueled a surge in the
  stock market in the 90s
• Attack on September 11, 2001 killed three
  thousand civilians (damaging blow to the
  countries economy).

6
Contemp. Lit The Digital Revolution and
Economic Prosperity

• Positive effects of science technology
• Increased life spans
• Better fed and housed many
• Moved us faster from place to place
• Allowing some to stroll on the surface of the moon

• Negative effects of science technology
• Computer tech. has made many jobs obsolete
• American consumers - many feel that they have
  become anonymous (known only by a password or
  credit card number)
• American privacy is unprotected
• American dreams are shaped by mass advertising,
  journalism, and entertainment

7
Literary Response

• To many writers, the madness of the war-torn
  world was an inescapable condition of modern
  life, and the only appropriate response was
  hard-edged laughter at lifes tragic ironies.
• Gallows humor ironic humor arising from an
  acknowledgement of the absurd or grotesque
• Often used to describe the work of writers who
  flourished after WWII.

8
Contemporary Fiction

• Diversity and Vitality
• Postmodern a term used to describe contemporary
  American culture - still in the process of being
  defined.
• Postmodernism sees contemporary culture as a
  change a development or a departure from
  modernism.
• Postmodern writers use many of the same tools
  that the modernists used although, they are
  constructing a body of literature that is
  completely different from that produced by the
  modernists.

9
Contemporary Fiction

• Characteristics of postmodernism
• Allowing multiple meanings and multiple worlds
• Worlds realistic, literal, past, and dreamlike
  metaphorical
• Narrators and characters may tell different
  versions of a story, or a story may deliberately
  accommodate several valid interpretations.
• The postmodern would ask, Why choose only one
  version? Why limit ourselves?
• Authors do not abide by conventional rules (e.g.
  9 pages one sentence / every word in the
  first chapter begins with A every word in the
  second chapter beings with B etc.)
• Intensely self-conscious
• Comment on themselves / criticize themselves /
  take themselves apart / encourage readers to put
  them together again
• Blending of fiction with nonfiction
• Uses the past fearlessly (invigorate the old by
  means of the new)

10
Contemporary Nonfiction

• Breaking the Barriers
• Until this point, nonfiction meant everything
  that wasnt fiction. (Many times, nonfiction
  writers were lumped together with journalists.)
• Critics tended to concentrate on the search for
  the Great American Novel, which was thought to be
  more important than anything a nonfiction writer
  could produce.
• Since the 70s, this idea has changed
  dramatically.
• Featured reviews now discuss the art (not just
  the factual content) of books on computers,
  architecture, travel, history, etc.
• Lists of bestsellers which have always included
  self-help books, now regularly feature memoirs,
  biographies, and histories.

11
Contemporary Nonfiction

• Two statements concerning todays nonfiction
• 1.) Does it have to be accurate?
• Traditional literary terms do not always apply to
  nonfiction (setting, theme, point of view, etc.)
• Truth or accuracy is often a test applied to
  nonfiction, with frequently unsatisfactory
  results.
• E.g. a travel memoir which discusses wildlife
  in the Himalayas found to be fiction due to the
  authors extensive research in a library rather
  than traveling to the Himalayas.

12
Contemporary Nonfiction

• Two statements concerning todays nonfiction
• 2.) The New Journalism
• 60s New Journalism (aka literary journalism)
  appeared
• Authors attracted attention by describing
  contemporary culture and actual events in
  strongly individual voices.
• Used devices (from fiction) including
  characterization, plot, suspense, setting,
  symbolism, and irony.
• A new journalist did NOT feel obliged to keep his
  or her opinion and presence out of writing in
  fact, presence and participation were often
  crucial.

13
Contemporary Poetry

• Varied and Intensely Personal
• Decline of Modernism
• No longer appropriate for the times!
• A generation had returned from war to a country
  where conformity and material success were the
  main values.
• Acquiring a house and car, and making money were
  of more immediate importance than ever.
• Projective Verse
• Led by Black Mountain Poets Charles Olson,
  Robert Duncan, and Robert Creeley
• Produced poems strongly influenced by Pound and
  Williams
• Open-form treating each poem as an individual
  entity, creating its own form as it proceeded.
• Open-form poems avoided regular meter and rhyme
  and aimed to imitate the spontaneity and
  complexity of reality itself

14
Contemporary Poetry

• The Beat Poets
• 1957 impact on American popular culture
• Marked by poetry readings, jazz performances, and
  the appearance of late-night coffeehouses in San
  Francisco and New Yorks Greenwich Village
• Howl by Allen Ginsberg Bible for the Beat Poets
• Poem that addressed the concerns of contemporary
  lifestyle (first clear alternative to poetry that
  seemed to be written for analysis in the
  classroom)
• Injustices of modern life importance of the
  imagination became the themes of contemporary
  poetry

15
Contemporary Poetry

• 1959 Robert Lowell published Life Studies, one
  of the most important and influential volumes of
  verse to appear since WWII.
• About personal experiences that modernist poets
  had avoided dealing with directly emotional
  distress, alcoholism, illness, and depression.
• Confessional School of Poets friends or
  students of Lowells (Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton,
  and John Berryman) wrote frank, sometimes brutal
  poems about their private lives.

16
Contemporary Poetry

• Today, American poetry is characterized by
  diversity.
• Variety in style and attitude has attracted more
  of an audience.
• Poetry performances
• Technology (making many available through audio,
  video, television, and/or website)
• Reflects democratic quality
• Often write in the language of common speech
  (dont hesitate to shock with details of their
  private lives)