The Period of Confessional Self The Period of Confessional Self By: Allie Iseral & Alexis Whaley

“In literature, confessional writing is a first-person style that is often presented as an ongoing diary or letters, distinguished by revelations of a person's heart and darker motivations.”

Historical Context Major events

Major events of the era (1960s) -Man on the moon speech and journey to the moon ( ) -Cuban missile crisis (1962) -Berlin Wall is built (1961) -The Peace corps are founded -JFK assassination (1963) -March on Washington and Martian Luther King speech -Beatles and the British invasion ( ) -Marilyn Monroe controversial suicide -Civil Rights Act passed (1964) -Nelson Mandela sentenced to life in prison (1964) -U.S. drafts troops to go to Vietnam (1965) -Mass Draft Protests begin (1966) -MLK Jr. Assassination (1968) -Woodstock (1969)

(1970s) -Kent State Shootings -Beatles Break Up -A Ban On Radio And Television Cigarette Advertisements Goes Into Effect In The United States -Apollo 17 Flies To The Moon, And Becomes The Last Manned Mission There (as of 2011) -Fall Of Saigon -The New York City Blackout of 1977 lasts for 25 hours -Elvis Presley, The King Of Rock And Roll, Dies(1977) M*A*S*H Television Show Premiers -London Bridge Brought To The U.S. Major events of the era (cont.)

(1980s) -Assassination Attempt On The Pope -Failed U.S. Rescue Attempt To Save Hostages In Tehran -John Lennon Assassination -New Plague Identified As ‘AIDS’ -Vietnam War Memorial Opens In Washington, D.C. -Reagan Announces Defense Plan Called, “Star Wars” -U.S. Embassy In Beirut Is Bombed -The Hole In The Ozone Layer Is Discovered -Space Shuttle, Challenger, Explodes -U.S. Bombs Libya -U.S. Shoots Down Iranian Airliner

Values and beliefs

What influenced the writers/literature of this era? -The want to speak for one’s self -New Focus on truths and personal views -Writers wanting to share their own relations, feelings, and personal life through literature

During this era… -Explosive religious change -Rapid social and cultural change, when Christianity faced challenges from Eastern religions from Marxism and feminism and above all new cultural change. -Gay libertarian movements -Second wave of feminism -Changes in family life and views on conformed families -Clothing became less modest and more sexually appealing -The average age of marriage dropped -Increase in sexual intercourse (As a result, birth control became much more popular) -Increase in the amount of teens having sex and increase of teen pregnancy -Nature was very valuable during this time period

Genre and style

Popular & Influential musicians of the era * 1960s -The Beatles -The Rolling Stones -Bob Dylan -Jimi Hendrix -The Doors * 1970s -John Lennon -Led Zeppelin -Bob Marley -Pink Floyd -Bruce Springsteen * 1980s -U2 -Michael Jackson -Guns and Roses -Metallica -Price

Popular & Influential Literature of the Era -(Book) Silent Spring (Rachel Carson) -(Book) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou) -(Novel) The Winter of our Discontent (John Steinbeck) -(Book) The Feminine Mystique (Betty Friedan) -(Novel) To Kill a Mocking Bird (Harper Lee) -(song) Imagine (John Lennon) -(Speech) I have a Dream (M.L.K jr.)

Significant Authors and Works

Silent Spring By: Rachel Carson Silent Spring is a book written by Rachel Carson and published by Houghton Mifflin on September 27, The book is widely credited with helping launch the contemporary American environmental movement. Carson had become concerned about the effect of pesticides, DDT particularly, as early as the 1940s, when anti-pest campaigns had been part of the Pacific war effort. She had already begun collecting research on the matter and calling others' attention to it when a 1957 lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture regarding aerial spraying over Long Island caught her attention and mobilized her to embark on the project that would eventually become Silent Spring.

The Feminine Mystique The Feminine Mystique is a nonfiction book by Betty Friedan, first published in 1963, which is widely credited with sparking the beginning of second wave feminism in the United States. In 1957, Betty Friedan was asked to conduct a survey of her former college classmates for their 15th anniversary reunion; the results, in which she found that many of them were unhappy with their lives as housewives, prompted her to begin research for The Feminine Mystique, conducting interviews with other suburban housewives, as well as researching psychology, media, and advertising. She originally intended to publish an article on the topic, not a book, but no magazine would publish her article. By: Betty Friedan

The Winter of our discontent The Winter of Our Discontent, published in 1961, is John Steinbeck's last novel The story revolves around Ethan Allen Hawley, a former member of Long Island's aristocratic class. Ethan's late father has lost his family's fortune, and, consequently, Ethan now works as a clerk in a grocery store. His wife Mary and children resent their lowly social and economic position, and do not put any value in the high levels of honesty and integrity that Ethan struggles to maintain in a corrupt society. These external pressures, as well as his own internal turmoil, send Ethan on a dangerous path to reclaim the status and wealth that he once enjoyed. By: John Stienbeck

To Kill a Mocking Bird To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old. The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The narrator's father, Atticus Finch, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. One critic explains the novel's impact by writing, "In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism." By: Harper Lee

Highlighted Passages

Excerpt from The Feminine Mystique “The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the twentieth century in the United States. Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night--she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question—’Is this all?’”

Excerpt from the speech I have a Dream “When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, ‘Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.’”

Sources Main Sources Bruce Spizer (1960s Historian) (Book) The Movement and the Sixties (protest in America from Greensboro to Wounded Knee) Other internet sources