1. The Moderns 1914-1946 Disillusion, Defiance, Discontent
Communication Arts, Joplin High School - Brenda White, 2009

2. I. Introduction World War I brought a clash of the old and the young.
Reality hit: half a million killed in one battle
America seemed to have lost its innocence.
Idealism became cynicism
Writers began to question authority
New moral codes; slang expressions
The Great Depression brought suffering to millions of Americans.
The modernist movement called for bold experimentation and rejection of tradition.

3. II. The American Dream
Americans had always held some of these beliefs.
The American Dream evolved out of three basic tenets.
America is a new Eden.
Optimism, opportunity, progress
Triumph of the individual
Emerson: “Trust the universe and trust yourself.”

4. III. A Crack in the World: Breakdown of Beliefs
World War I damaged the idealism of the American Dream.
Authors were no longer only from New England, but came from the South, Midwest, and the West. It was the birth of regionalism.
Karl Marx - Marxism
Marx fueled the Russian Revolution in 1917.
Marxism directly opposed the American system of capitalism and free enterprise.
After a visit to Marxist Russia, American journalist John Reed wrote: “I have seen the future and it works.”

5. III. A Crack in the World: Breakdown of Beliefs (continued)
B. Sigmund Freud - Psychoanalysis
Called for understanding of sexuality and its effect on our lives.
The role of psychology was becoming understood, and as a result the degree of individual freedom an individual really has was questioned.
C. Stream of Consciousness literary style
Moment-by-moment flow of a character’s perceptions and memories.
James Joyce’s Ulysses
Katherine Anne Porter’s Granny Weatherall
William Faulkner (almost everything!)

6. IV. At Home and Abroad: The Jazz Age
Prohibition: In 1919 it became part of the Constitution through an amendment.
Alcohol was contrary to traditional American values.
Ushered in the age of the bootlegger, the speakeasy, short-skirted flappers, and gangsters.
The Jazz Age / Expatriates
The Jazz Age was so-named by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald and many others were Americans in search of pleasure abroad.
The wave of expatriates was a sign of something wrong with the American Dream.
The idea of America as land of heroes was disappearing.

7. V. Grace Under Pressure: The New American Hero
Disillusionment was a major theme in the fiction of the time.
Ernest Hemingway ( )
Most influential post WWI writer
Known for his reportorial literary style: straightforward, few adverbs, minimalist, bare bones
Reportorial refers to his journalistic training.
Hemingway’s new American hero
Man of action, warrior, tough competitor
A code of honor, courage, and endurance
Hemingway called this attitude “grace under pressure”
Hemingway’s beliefs: bravery, decency, competency, skill

8. VI. Modernist Voices in Poetry: A Dazzling Period
American poetry went into somewhat of a decline
Writers looked to European artists for inspiration:
Henry Matisse and Pablo Picasso were exploring new ways to see and represent reality.
Poets like Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot started using a technique called Symbolism to fashion a new, modernist poetry.
Pound spearheaded the poetic movement called Imagism.
Imagism aims at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images.
These styles prevailed until midway of the 20th century.

9. VI. Elements of Modernism
Emphasis on bold experimentation in style and form, reflecting the fragmenting of society
Rejection of traditional themes and subjects
Sense of disillusionment and loss of faith in the American Dream
Rejection of the idea of a hero as infallible in favor of a hero who is flawed and disillusioned but shows “grace under pressure”
Interest in the inner workings of the human mind sometimes expressed through new narrative techniques such as stream of consciousness

10. VII. Voices of American Character: Poets of Tradition
Some poets rejected modernism and chose to stay home instead of finding inspiration abroad.
Some of those poets were: Edwin A. Robinson of Maine, Edgar Lee Masters of Kansas, Robinson Jeffers of California and John Ransom of Tennessee.
Robert Frost
The greatest of these stay-at-home poets
From New England; handled speech skillfully but with a twist all his own
Individual poetic genius
Used iambic pentameter to create a uniquely American poetic voice

11. VIII. The Harlem Renaissance: Voices of the African American Experience
There were two forms of African-American poetry
Conventional forms (Paul Laurence Dunbar) were quickly accepted by the masses
New forms based on spirituals, jazz, rhythms (Langston Hughes, “Shakespeare of Harlem”)
Harlem Renaissance
Geographical center of this movement was Harlem
Spiritual center was the too-long-ignored African Americans who wanted their art recognized
These poets mixed their talents with the jazz and other music coming out of New Orleans, Memphis, and Chicago to become part of the Jazz Age.

12. IX. The American Dream Revised
A belief in self-reliance
This is the richest period of American literature since the flowering of New England.
Ideas challenged the American Dream resulting in the second American Renaissance.
Writers continued to ask fundamental questions about meaning and purpose of human existence.