Warm-up –Answer these Essential Questions 1.Explain the style of the Modernist time period in literature. 2.Name the genres of the Modernists. 3.What was happening in the U.S. during this period? 4.What was the purpose of the Modernists? 5.Name some works from this period. 6.Name some authors from this period. 7.What was the Harlem Renaissance?

AMERICAN LITERATURE Modernism

Georgia Performance Standard ELAALRL3: The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods. b. The student relates a literary work to the characteristics of the literary time period or historical setting: – iv. Modernism (including Harlem Renaissance)

Genre & Style of the Modernism Period Style Genres novels plays poetry highly experimental as writers tried to find a unique style use of interior monologue & stream of consciousness interior monologue: a speech by one person in the middle of the play, story, or poem stream of consciousness: a literary technique that presents the thoughts & feelings of a character as they occur.

Historical Context of Modernism Writers reflected the ideas of Darwin (survival of the fittest) and Karl Marx (how money and class structure control a nation). WW I (destroyed sense of optimism from past) Roaring 20’s Great Depression WWII overwhelming technological changes of the 20 th century rise of the youth culture Harlem Renaissance

Modernism Modernists experimented with a wide variety of new approaches and techniques, producing a remarkably diverse body of literature.

Modernism continued… Modernists omitted expositions, transitions, resolutions, and explanations that were used in traditional literature= NON-TRADITIONAL WRITING AND FORMS

Modernism continued… In poetry, they abandoned traditional forms and meters in favor of free verse. They made up rhythms to suit individual poems. The themes of their works were usually implied, rather than directly stated, creating a sense of uncertainty and forcing readers to draw their own conclusions.

Expatriates (artists born in America but moved to other countries) Some writers were disillusioned ( by WWI and went to Europe to live: Gertrude Stein, Sherwood Anderson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, and T.S. Eliot

Stream of Consciousness Writers began using this technique to re-create the natural flow of a character’s thoughts. DONE FIRST BY BIERCE IN “AN OWL CREEK BRIDGE” BUT COPIED BY MANY MODERN WRITERS

Poets E.E. Cummings used new techniques in his poetry: wordplay, unique typography, and special punctuation. William Carlos Williams used informal, conversational speech in his poetry; also known for minimalist and imagist poems

Nobel Prize for Literature The first American to win this prize in 1930 was Sinclair Lewis. He wrote Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith. The playwright Eugene O’Neill, won the prize in 1936 for his plays. In 1938, Pearl S. Buck won. She wrote about China where she had lived as a child. The Good Earth is considered her best work. Other winners: T.S. Eliot (1948), William Faulkner (1949), Ernest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath)

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby and This Side of Paradise (both stories depict life in the roaring 1920’s) F. Scott Fitzgerald

William Carlos Williams (also a physician) used informal, conversational speech in his poetry. His epic poem is “Paterson” named for a New Jersey city. It is on the next 3 slides.

Paterson lies in the valley under the Passaic Falls its spent waters forming the outline of his back. He lies on his right side, head near the thunder of the waters filling his dreams! Eternally asleep, his dreams walk about the city where he persists incognito. Butterflies settle on his stone ear. Immortal he neither moves nor rouses and is seldom seen, though he breathes and the subtleties of his machinations drawing their substance from the noise of the pouring river animate a thousand automations. Who because they neither know their sources nor the sills of their disappointments walk outside their bodies aimlessly for the most part, locked and forgot in their desires-unroused.

—Say it, no ideas but in things— nothing but the blank faces of the houses and cylindrical trees bent, forked by preconception and accident— split, furrowed, creased, mottled, stained— secret—into the body of the light! From above, higher than the spires, higher even than the office towers, from oozy fields abandoned to gray beds of dead grass, black sumac, withered weed-stalks, mud and thickets cluttered with dead leaves- the river comes pouring in above the city and crashes from the edge of the gorge in a recoil of spray and rainbow mists-

(What common language to unravel?...combed into straight lines from that rafter of a rock's lip.) A man like a city and a woman like a flower —who are in love. Two women. Three women. Innumerable women, each like a flower. But only one man—like a city.

Ernest Hemingway ( ) Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1953) Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Nobel Prize in Literature (1954) Nobel Prize in Literature He wrote The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, among others. Much of his best writing focuses on WWI and its aftermath.

John Steinbeck ( ) Won Nobel prize for Literature Two works are: Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men

Sinclair Lewis ( ) In 1930, he was the first American to win the Nobel prize for literature. Three of his works are Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith.

T. S. Eliot ( ) In 1938, he won the Nobel prize for literature. He was an expatriate and went to Europe in He lived in England until he died. His poem, ”The Waste Land” is considered by some to be the most important poem of the century.

First few lines of “The Waste Land” APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers.

The Harlem Renaissance This movement started around 1921 and continued into the 1930’s. It was a rebirth of art, music and literature from Harlem, New York. The video on the next slide will explain the Harlem Renaissance.

Click in the area below to start the video (6:40)

Georgia Performance Standard ELAALRL3: The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods. b. The student relates a literary work to the characteristics of the literary time period or historical setting: – iv. Modernism (including Harlem Renaissance)

Answer these Essential Questions 1.Explain the style of the Modernist time period in literature. 2.Name the genres of the Modernists. 3.What was happening in the U.S. during this period? 4.What was the purpose of the Modernists? 5.Name some works from this period. 6.Name some authors from this period. 7.What was the Harlem Renaissance?

1.Explain the style of the Modernist time period in literature. highly experimental as writers tried to find a unique style use of interior monologue & stream of consciousness

2. Name the genres of the Modernists. Novels Plays Poetry

3. What was happening in the U.S. during the Modernists time period of literature? WW I Roaring 20’s Great Depression WWII technological changes of the 20 th century rise of the youth culture Harlem Renaissance

4. What was the purpose of the Modernists? to capture the essence of modern life in both the form and content of their work

5. Name some works from this period. The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Gatsby, The Sound and the Fury, The Good Earth, Of Mice and Men, etc…

6. Name some authors from this period. Possible answers: Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, T.S. Eliot, E.E. Cummings, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, William Carlos Williams,

7. What was the Harlem Renaissance? A rebirth of art, music, and literature that happened in Harlem, New York