1. Post WWII Literature The Path to the Non-Conformist Voice Arthur Miller J.D. Salinger Norman Mailer Saul Bellow Sylvia Plath Richard Wright James Baldwin Ralph Ellison Allen Ginsberg J.D. Salinger Tennessee WilliamsLouis Armstrong Lucille Ball

2. World War II 1939 to 1945 Global War Directly involved more than 100 million people, from more than 30 different countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort Marked by mass deaths of civilians The Holocaust (during which approximately 11 million people were killed) The strategic bombing of industrial and population centers The first use of nuclear weapons in combat 50 million to 85 million fatalities. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history.

3. Affects of WWII on American Literature Question American Dream, Question who we are as Americans New Voices emerging: Children of immigrants (including Jewish) African Americans (only few generations from slavery) Women Social climate of post WWII years (1950’s) conservative, even conformist, but some of the most hotly discussed writers were beginning to clear a path for the non-conformist movement of the 1960’s.

4. Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead (1948) Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March (1953) Non-Conformist Voices from the War Realism: a literary movement stressing the depiction of contemporary life and society as it exists or existed

5. African-American Writers Path to Equality http://video.pbs.org/video/2365062252/ Ralph Ellison- The Invisible Man (1952) Richard Wright Black Boy (1945) James Baldwin –Go Tell it on the Mountain (1953)

6. The Art of Music affects the Art of Literature Louise Armstrong Miles Davis

7. Beatniks Poems that were written to the beat of a different drummer. Jazz, improvisational, revolutionary 1945 – 1960 Modernist Ironic texture Allen Ginsberg, “Howl” (1956) incantatory, prophetic, Walt Whitman inspired http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkNp56UZax4

8. The Role of Women after WWII The Trapped Voice in Literature Women War, tupperware clip http://video.pbs.org/video/2193535057 I Love Lucy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NPzLBSBzPI Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar (1963) joined icy sarcasm to white hot emotional intensity http://video.pbs.org/video/2193535057http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NPzLBSBzPI

9. Post WWII Playwrights Breaking Social Boundaries, including Sexual Norms Arthur Miller, The Crucible (1953) T ennessee Williams, Streetcar Named Desire (1947)

10. Post WWII Literature The Path to the Non- Conformist Voice Children of immigrant’s Voices African Americans Voices Women’s Voices Anti-establishment Voices Voicing Fear, Anger, Doubt, Depression, Loneliness, Strength, Humor, Creativity, Hope Redefining what it is to be an individual, broadening the human experience