1. MODERNISM

2. HISTORICAL CONTEXT WWI Roaring Twenties The Great Depression WWII
modern weapons = loss of humane values & optimism
Roaring Twenties
economic boom & new technology and products
Prohibition & rise of organized crime
Gave way to self-indulgence
The Great Depression
economic recession
WWII
Ushered in the atomic age

3. LITERARY STYLES
Experimented with new approaches & techniques - this produced a more diverse body of literature
Form became fragmented
Formal boundaries broken
Themes became implied rather than directly stated
Tone became more ironic
Imagery more symbolic

4. WHO WERE THE MODERNISTS?
T.S. Eliot
Ernest Hemingway
F. Scott Fitzgerald
E.E. Cummings
Expatriates: writers who settled in Europe (mainly Paris) because of post-war disenchantment/ disillusionment – “The Lost Generation”

5. WHO WERE THE MODERNISTS?
William Faulkner
John Steinbeck
Robert Frost
Sinclair Lewis
Eudora Welty
Writers who described the more rural life

6. THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
A time of artistic/ musical/ literary creativity for African Americans, centered in the Harlem district of NYC
Produced great works of literature, the new musical forms of jazz and the blues, and opened the door for later African American Writers

7. Hemingway
Wrote about people trying to maintain dignity in a hostile world
Could not fight in the war (WW1) due to an eye defect, so he joined the Red Cross Ambulance corps & was sent to the Italian front
Severely wounded in Italy
Struggled to readjust to life in the U.S. after war
Writing style was concise & concrete