1. Modernism

2. World War 1
American entered and fought with Romantic zeal on the war front and at home…

3. Effects of World War I
Authors became more distrustful and less hopeful
Human innocence was shattered with weaponry/machines that could rip human bodies apart

4. After the War It was supposed to be the “War to end all wars”
New and better ways to kill more people
Tanks, planes, bombs, chemicals, machine guns, flame throwers, grenades
Germany, Russia and Britain suffered at about a 50% casualty rate; France was at 75%

5. Beginnings
After WWI, young people were disillusioned and angry-- they questioned the existence of God.

6. Beginnings
This “lost generation,” without patriotism, morals, or family structure, had no sense of identity.

7. Beginnings
The economy boomed after WWI, and the middle class enjoyed prosperity and entertainment during the “Roaring Twenties.”

8. Beginnings
New technologies of convenience: washing machines, telephones, refrigerators, stoves
Cars allowed for quicker, more widespread travel
These allowed for more free time, and the growth of entertainment industries
Movies, plays, radio, amusement parks, vacation destinations, beach-fronts
All of it could be bought with a new invention: CREDIT

9. Beginnings Despite Prohibition, alcohol was more widespread
With the invention of the car come the invention of the backseat
Fashions changed for women (bobbed hair, flapper dresses)

10. The Roaring 20’s Helped give birth to the Roaring 20’s
Period marked by excess, dancing, jazz
People were out to live carelessly and have fun at all costs
Social and moral values
drastically change

11. End of the Roaring 20s Ended the prosperous, madcap period of the 20’s
Brought about the Great Depression

12. Themes and Main Ideas
Writers during this period felt discontent with the American ideal
There was a moral emptiness and defiance against authority and society
A great deal of these emotions came from the loss and suffering resulting from World War I
Uncertain Themes; readers forced to draw own conclusions

13. Values
A break with tradition: defiance of traditional religious, political, and social views.

14. Values
There is no absolute truth; all things are relative.

15. Values
Life does not follow rules; it is chaotic.

16. Values
The individual and inner strength are important (since nothing else can be trusted)

17. Modern Writing-- FORM
Short Stories
Novels
Free-Verse Poetry

18. Modern Writing-- CHARACTERISTICS
Allows for multiple meanings and interpretations

19. Modern Writing-- CHARACTERISTICS
Nontraditional structures and forms
Intertextuality (combining stories from different texts)

20. Modern Writing-- CHARACTERISTICS
Features cultural diversity
Blends and overlaps between fiction and nonfiction writing

21. Modern Writing-- CHARACTERISTICS
Irony, playfulness, and black humor
Distortion of time

22. Literary Techniques Fragmented Structure of Modernist Writings
Lack of traditional story arc. Most riders did not give into the usual

23. Modern Writing-- IMPORTANT WRITERS
Lorraine Hansberry: Play entitled A Raisin in the Sun
Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
William Faulkner: “A Rose for Emily”
Robert Frost: Poetry
T.S. Eliot: The Waste Land
John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men and Grapes of Wrath

24. Loraine Hansberry She was the first black woman to write
a play performed on Broadway
Her best known work, the play
A Raisin in the Sun, highlights the lives of Black Americans living under racial segregation in Chicago.
Hansberry's family had struggled against segregation, challenging a restrictive covenant and eventually provoking the Supreme Court case Hansberry v. Lee.

25. Fitzgerald
An American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the classic writings of the Jazz Age
He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century
Fitzgerald is considered a
member of the "Lost Generation" of
the 1920s

26. William Faulkner
Faulkner is one of the most celebrated writers in American literature especially when it comes to Southern literature
Though his work was published as early as 1919, and largely during the 1920s and 1930s
Faulkner was relatively unknown until receiving the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature

27. T.S. Eliot
was an essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic, and "one of the twentieth century's major poets“
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry“
Eliot attracted widespread attention for his poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915) which is seen as a masterpiece of the Modernist movement
It was followed by some of the best-known poems in the English language, including: The Waste Land (1922), The Hollow Men (1925), Ash Wednesday (1930), and Four Quartets (1945)

28. John Steinbeck
An American author of 27 books, including 16 novels, 6 non-fiction
books, and 5 collections of short stories
Most of Steinbeck's work is set in southern and central California
His works frequently explored the themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden or everyman protagonists
Most famous for Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath

29. How It Affected Us Modern Art Feminism
Greater appreciation of cultural and racial diversity

30. Modernism Review
Sense of disillusionment and loss in faith in the “American Dream”, independence, self-reliant, individual will triumph
Emphasis on bold experimentation in style and form
Interest in the inner workings of the human mind (ex: stream of consciousness)