American Literature

Modernism1900-1950

Modernism

Definition: a term for the bold new experimental styles

and forms that swept the arts during the first third of the 20th century.

Modernism called for changes in subject matter, in fictional styles, in poetic forms, and in attitudes.

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Difference between Realism and Modernism

Whereas REALISM Emphasized

absolutism, and Believed that a

single reality could be determined through the observation of nature

MODERNISM Argued for cultural

relativism, And believed that people

make their own meaning in the world.

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Value Differences in the Modern World

Pre-Modern World Modern World (Early 20th Century)

Ordered Chaotic

Meaningful Futile

Optimistic Pessimistic

Stable Fluctuating

Faith Loss of faith

Morality/Values Collapse of Morality/Values

Clear Sense of Identity Confused Sense of Identity and Place in the World

Contributing Factors

World War I

Disillusionment

Cynicism

Loss of Innocence

The Elements of Modernism

• Emphasis on bold experimentation in style and form to represent the fragmentation of society

• Rejection of traditional themes and subjects

• Disillusionment and loss of faith in the American Dream

• Rejection of the ideal hero

• Interest in the inner workings of the human mind

History and Culture

• World War I caused a “traumatic coming of age” where “Americans returned to their homeland but could never regain their innocence.”

• Soldiers from rural roots yearned for a modern, urban life. (Nick Carraway—The Great Gatsby)

• “Big Boom” business flourished—1920s

• Major advances allowed for fast production of new technology and business.

• 1920 Americans—The Lost Generation

History and Culture (cont.)

• The Lost Generation—

“Without a stable, traditional structure of values, the individual lost a sense of identity. The secure, supportive family life; the familiar, settled community; the natural and eternal rhythms of nature; the sustaining sense of patriotism; moral values [founded] on religious beliefs and observations—all seemed undermined by World War I and its aftermath.”

History and Culture (cont.)

• 1929—The Stock Market Crash brought The Great Depression of the 1930s.

• 1930s—One third of all Americans

were out of work.

“Soup kitchens, shanty towns, and

armies of hobos—unemployed men

illegally riding freight trains—became

part of the national life.”

American Literature

•The Harlem Renaissance

Noted writers: Langston Hughes

Claude McKay

Countee Cullen

W.E.B. Dubois

Zora Neale Hurston

•A time when Harlem attracted worldly and race-conscious African Americans who nurtured each other’s artistic, musical, and literary talents and created a flowering of African American arts.

American Literature• 1920s—F. Scott Fitzgerald

—The Great Gatsby

—flamboyance, bootlegging,

money, parties, wildness

—The Jazz Age

• 1930s—John Steinbeck —Of Mice and Men —The Grapes of Wrath

—no money, migrant work, tragedy, hardship

• 1940s—Arthur Miller — The Crucible

— Death of a Salesman

The American Dream

Pre-Modernist View—

•Self-reliance•America as New Eden

Modernist View

•America as the new Eden

•Triumph of the individual

•Optimism

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Forces Behind Modernism

The sense that our culture has no center, no values.

Paradigm shift from the closed, finite, measurable, cause-

and-effect universe of the 19th century to an open, relativistic, changing, strange universe;

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Characteristics of Modernism in Literature

Literature Exhibits Perspectivism Meaning comes from the individual’s

perspective and is thus personalized; A single story might be told from the

perspective of several different people, with the assumption that the “truth” is somewhere in the middle

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Characteristic of Modernism in Literature

Perception of language changes: No longer seen as transparent, allowing us

to “see through” to reality; But now considered the way an individual

constructs reality; Language is “thick” with multiple meanings

and varied connotative forces.

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Characteristic of Modernism in Literature

Emphasis on the Experimental Art is artifact rather than reality; Organized non-sequentially

Experience portrayed as layered, allusive, discontinuous, using fragmentation and juxtaposition.

Ambiguous endings—open endings which are seen as more representative of reality.