American Modernism

Between World Wars Many historians have described the period between the two World Wars as a “traumatic coming of age.” In a post-Industrial Revolution era, America had moved from an agrarian nation to an urban nation. The lives of these Americans were radically different from those of their parents.

Modernism Embraced nontraditional syntax and forms. Challenged tradition Writers wanted to move beyond Realism to introduce such concepts as disjointed timelines. An overarching theme of Modernism is “emancipation”

Modernist Writers Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Gertrude Stein, T. S. Eliot, E. E. Cummings, Robert Frost Harlem Renaissance writers such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson, Countee Cullen, Jean Toomer, Richard Wright

Themes

Social Norms/Cultural Sureties Women were given the right to vote in Hemlines raised; Margaret Sanger introduces the idea of birth control. Writers begin to explore these new ideas.

Theme of Alienation Sense of alienation in literature: –The character belongs to a “lost generation” (Gertrude Stein) –The character suffers from a “dissociation of sensibility”—separation of thought from feeling (T. S. Eliot) –The character has “a dream deferred” (Langston Hughes).

Valorization of the Individual Characters are heroic in the face of a future they can’t control. Demonstrates the uncertainty felt by individuals living in this era. Examples include Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, Lt. Henry in A Farewell to Arms

Urbanscapes Life in the city differs from life on the farm; writers began to explore city life. Conflicts begin to center on society.

THE SPIRIT OF MODERNIST LITERATURE Previous structures of life (social, political, religious, or artistic) had been either destroyed or determined to be falsehoods: therefore, art had to be renovated. Marked by a conscious break with tradition - rejects traditional values and assumptions. “Modern” implies a historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, loss, and despair. It rejects not only history but also the society on which history is based.

THE SPIRIT OF MODERNIST LITERATURE provides pessimistic cultural criticism a skeptical, apprehensive attitude toward pop culture - criticized and deplored its manipulative commercialism Literature, especially poetry, becomes the place where the search for meaning, is carried out; therefore, literature should be vitally important to society.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERNIST WRITING A movement away from realism into abstractions A deliberate complexity - forcing readers to be very well-educated in order to read these works A high degree of aesthetic self-consciousness Questions of what constitutes the nature of being A breaking with tradition and conventional modes of form, resulting in fragmentation and bold, highly innovative

TECHNIQUES IN MODERNIST WORKS The modernists were highly conscious that they were being modern—that they were “making it new”—and this consciousness is manifest in the modernists’ radical use of a kind of formlessness. Collapsed plots Fragmentary techniques Shifts in perspective, voice, and tone Stream-of-consciousness point of view Associative techniques

COLLAPSED PLOTS It will seem to begin arbitrarily, to advance without explanation, and to end without resolution It will suggest rather than assert, making use of symbols and images instead of statements. The reader must participate in the making of the story by digging the coherent structure out that, on its surface, it seems to lack.

FRAGMENTARY TECHNIQUES notable for what it omits—the explanations, interpretations, connections, summaries, and distancing that provide continuity, perspective, and security in traditional literature The idea of order, sequence, and unity in works is sometimes abandoned - sometimes registers more as a collage. This fragmentation in literature was meant to reflect the reality of the flux and fragmentation of one’s life.

SHIFTS IN PERSPECTIVE, VOICE, AND TONE includes speech of the uneducated and the inarticulate, the colloquial, and the popular - the traditional educated literary voice lost its authority Writers strove for directness, compression, and vividness - they were sparing of words. Modern fiction tends to limit the reader to one character’s point of view on the action - often that of a naïve or marginal person (a child or an outsider) to convey better the reality of confusion

STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS An attempt to depict the mental and emotional reactions of characters to external events - continuous sequence of thoughts that run through a person’s head, usually without punctuation or literary interference. writers seem to share certain assumptions: –that the significant existence of human beings is to be found in their mental- emotional processes and not in the outside world –that this mental-emotional life is disjointed and illogical

ASSOCIATIVE TECHNIQUES Modernists sometimes used a collection of seemingly random impressions and literary, historical, philosophical, or religious allusions with which readers are expected to make the connections on their own. This reference to details of the past was a way of reminding readers of the old, lost coherence.