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Moderns 1900-1950
Postmodern 1950-present

MODERNITY

Once again we have an example of a war completely and dramatically changing the American Voice in Fiction.

1917 -- United States entered World War I (The Great War)

Although Americans were victorious, the country was irrevocably changed-- It had lost its innocence

What changed in the writing:

Idealism turned into Crynicism

Question authority and tradition

War introduced a new moral code

Depiction of a change in culture (short skirts, bobbed haircuts, slang expression)

American connectedness was not longer a theme

Great Depression (1929) followed the Great War.  -- brought poverty and suffering to millions of Americans.

American was no longer looked on as the "utopia of the world..." -- a place of boundless capacity, of liberty, etc.

Tradition that seemed to have become spiritually empty.

Modernists experimented and rejected traditional themes and styles.

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Before the war-- America had a sort of "perfection."
1. The new Eden... land of beauty, bounty, and unlimited promise.

2. Optimisim
----People came to expect ever-expanding opportunities and abundance.
----Americans believe that our society involved progress- that everything is getting better.

3. The importance and ultimate triumph of the individual -- the independent, self-reliant person.
---- Remember Emerson's "Self-reliance"
---- Self-made men were the best kind of men.

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AFTER THE WAR: The American Dream (S.O.S)

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AFTER THE WAR: The American Dream (S.O.S)

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After the war, people can home to the American Dream to celebrate... but the American Dream did not really exist anymore.

Hedonistic (The highest goodness is PLEASURE)  lifestyles left people extremely unsatisfied.

Optimism was not as prevalent... in writing and culture.

"We saw some stuff*"

{{{{SIDE NOTE:
Congress passed the Selective Service Act, which Wilson signed into law on May 18, 1917. The act required all men in the U.S. between the ages of 21 and 30 to register for military service. Within a few months, some 10 million men across the country had registered in response to the military draft.}}}}

The Great Depression left people penniless, damaging the "Edenic land"

There was little room for optimism of the future nor was there true belief in the individual.

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Marxism (socialism)
--- Karl Marx introduced a system of government that was completely opposite of the United States' system of capitalism and free enterprise.

Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud opened the workings of the unconscious mind to scrutiny.

New understanding of Human Sexuality and its role in our thoughts (conscious and unconscious)

What freedoms do individuals really have if we do not have control over our subconscious, which rules us?

Stream of consciousness: New narrative technique which abandons chronology and attempts to imitate the moment-by-moment flow of a character's brain.

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Prohibition

1919, the Constitution was amended to prohibit the manufacture and sale of alcohol, which was considered a social evil.

The Prohibition ushered an age characterized by the bootlegger, the speakeasy, the cocktail, the short-skirted flapper, jazz, and gangsters.

Women also won the right to vote in 1920

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The Great Gatsby depicts scenes of the Roaring 20s

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The Great Gatsby depicts scenes of the Roaring 20s

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By F. Scott Fitzgerald (a participant, but also critic, of the culture)

Fitzgerald even coined the term "The Jazz Age."

The 20s style and themes even spread across the Atlantic. Most writers moved from the US to France, which was exotic, cheaper, luxurious, and drinking  legal. (Yay! No more dark cellars)

Writers who moved away were called "expatriates" -- it was another sign of American society struggling

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https://www.biography.com/people/louis-armstrong-9188912

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Disillusionment = MAJOR THEME
---- The feeling of disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed it to be.

Writers exposed the bare bones of the truth

Ernest Hemingway introduced a new kind of hero:

The Protagonist and role model

Man of action

Warrior

Tough competitor

Code of honor, courage, and endurance

"Grace under pressure"

Disillusioned

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--- Symbolism

---A form of expression where the world of appearances is violently rearranged by artists who seek different and more truthful versions of reality.

Do not just describe objects... but also emotional effects of objects.

Trust the nonrational...

Imagination was more reliable than reason.

Self-discovery

New manifestation of Romanticism.

But there was no solace and spiritual renewal in nature that a true Romantic poet would find.

Reason: increase in poverty, vioence and conflict in the Modern world

New world is NOT spiritual.

--- Imagism: Sought clarity of expression through the use of precise images.

1912-1917

T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound spearheaded the movements...

Poetry can be made pure by the concentration on a precise, clear, and unqualified image... or an image that does not have anything added to it.

Imagery alone could carry the emotion and message

--- William Carlos Williams, Amy Lowell, Marianne Moore, and Wallace Stevens followed suit.
--- Part of the poetry culture until mid-twentieth century

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Other poets stayed away from these movements and modernist trend taken from inspiration over seas.
Instead, these poets kept to Realist trends such as regionalism and depicting American diversity simply.
--- Edwin Arlington Robinson used people in his own town as characters in his works...
--- Robert Frost

Midwestern poets continued to use traditional verse forms and offered penetrating insight into a variety of American characters.

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Greatest poetic voice in New England during this time.

Was about to reproduce New England speech

Took the most conventional poetic forms, gave them a twist, and made them his own.

He didn't not join the new literary movements. He was just a poetic genius.

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Its geographical center of movement was Harlem, New York City.

Its spiritual center was in the African American concious and heart.

Out of this movement arose a new found appreciation for black talent and contribution of American culture.

African American culture found expression in poetry in 2 different ways:
1. Used conventional forms
2. Focus on black culture --- jazzy rhythms, blue-sy moods

Famous African American Lyric Poets
- James Weldon Johnson
- Claude McKay
- Langston Hughes
- Countee Cullen

And here is Langston looking smug and above it all

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Free verse.

Allowance of unothodox attitudes towards progress, religion, adn the nature of humantiy.

The Western poets were skeptical of social progress...

The South looked at wit, gentility, subtle intellect and manners... very similar to the Antebellum days of grace and sophistication.

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Accept:

Self-reliance

America as an Eden

Broadening of American voice.

Continued to ask fundamental questions such as human purpose and identity.

Rejection:
- Optimism.

Challenge:
-The American Dream

This is possibilty the best and richest period of literature from the United States.

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Poetry during the Modernism Movement really meant Independence.

Good Poetry = New (innovative) Poetry

After 1890 and 1910-- there was an explosion of modernist poetry. Poets began exploring the artistic life of Europe, especially Paris. --> some met Pablo Picasso!

These poets explored new ways of seeing and representing reality.

Symbolism and Imagist Movement are two styles that cropped up during this time.