The Modern PeriodThe Modern PeriodChallenging the American Dream

1914-1939

What Is Modernism?What Is Modernism?• Modernism = bold new experimental styles and

forms sweep the arts

(1914-1939)– Modernism reflects a loss of faith in traditional

values and beliefs, including the American Dream

What Is the American Dream?What Is the American Dream?

The independent, self-reliant individual will triumph.

Everything is possible for the person who places trust in

his or her own powers and potential.

America is a new Eden, a

“promised land” of beauty, unlimited

resources, and endless

opportunities.

Progress is a good thing,

and we can optimistically expect life to keep getting

better and better.

TheAmerican

Dream

A Harsh AwakeningA Harsh Awakening• World War I (1914–1918): destruction

beyond belief -Over 300,000 die during the Battle at Verdun…

-20,000 in a single day at the River Somme…

-over 37 million casualties, including 15 million deaths over the course of the war

• The Great Depression follows the 1929 crash of the New York stock market and lasts through the 1930s

1914:WW I begins in Europe

1920: Women gain the US Vote

1929: Beginning of the Great Depression

1930-36: Dust Bowl devastates western states 1939: WW

II begins in Europe

1950

1917: Eliot’s “Prufrock”

1925: Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

1926: Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises

1930: Faulkner’s “A Rose For Emily”

1939: Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath

1949:Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye

1900

A Modernist A Modernist TimelineTimeline

Cultural ChangesCultural Changes– Painters such as Henri Matisse and

Pablo Picasso explore new ways to represent reality

– The rise of Socialism directly opposes American system of capitalism

– Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, changes the way we see ourselves

Cultural ChangesCultural Changes– The 1919 Prohibition law leads to bootlegging

and ushers in the Jazz Age

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– In 1920, women win the right to vote

Modern Poetry:Modern Poetry:The Harlem RenaissanceThe Harlem Renaissance

• Centered in Harlem, New York during the 1920s

• Flowering of African American art, music and literature

• The birth of Jazz music

• Poets: Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay

Modern Poetry:Modern Poetry:Experiments with formExperiments with form

– The image = central to poetry • T. S. Eliot’s “Prufrock”• Ezra Pound’s “In the Station of the Metro”• William Carlos Williams “The Red

Wheelbarrow”

– Poets choose everyday words over flowery, sentimental language.

– Fragmentation and re-combination• e. e. cummings, T. S. Eliot

Modern Fiction:Modern Fiction:

• “The Lost Generation”: shell-shocked souls following World War I

• Flawed heroes: honorable yet flawed, courageous yet disillusioned– Hemingway’s Nick Adams– Fitzgerald’s Nick Carraway

• Stream of consciousness narration– Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”

More on Modern Fiction:More on Modern Fiction:

The impact of Ernest Hemingway:The most lasting influence of any 20th

century writerJournalistic style: objective, observationalShort declarative sentences: “Aim to write

one true sentence.”The “iceberg effect”

Modern Poetry:Modern Poetry:Traditional FormsTraditional Forms

• Robert Frost writes in traditional rhyme and meter against the modernist trend – “Writing poetry in free verse is like playing

tennis without the net.”

What Still RemainsWhat Still Remains• American Modernists break new

ground but keep some traditional ideas• The ideal of self-reliance • (just can’t get away from Emerson…)

• Regardless of their experiments with literary form, writers continue to ask fundamental questions about the meaning and purpose of life