1. Literature Selected Literature of the World War II Era
DemiDec PowerPoint Lecture 2016

2. I: Critical Reading

3. Critical Reading What is the main point of this text?
How does the writer say it?
QUESTIONS
A critical reading exercise shows you a passage that you have not seen before.
These exercises require readers to ask two essential questions:
What is main point of text, and how does the writer convey that point?

4. Critical Reading Language Structure Elements of Diction Organization
Syntax
Figurative language
Tone
Voice
Dialogue
Structure
Organization
Characterization
Pacing
Genre
When reading a critical reading passage, be careful to pay attention to textual elements on both a large and small scale.

5. PHOTO: By Tommy Gildseth - Own work / Riksarkivet, DKØ, Public Domain,
II: Theme—World War II

6. Causes and Effects of World War II
Aftershocks of World War I
Great Depression
Fascist vs. Communist Ideologies
20 million
60 million
World War I ended with the Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919.
The treaty established unfavorable terms for the Germans.
WWI massively impacted European culture, but eventually the “roaring ‘20s” gave way to the stock market crash of 1929.
Many countries, including Germany, experienced great hardships in the ensuing depression.
Throughout Europe, right-wing fascists and left-wing communists faced off in ideological conflicts, including the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939.
Franco and fascists emerged victorious from the Spanish Civil War.
World War II was even more destructive, in terms of loss of life, than World War I.
PHOTO: Communism graffiti, By bunnyfrosch - de:Die Sendung mit der Maus / unknown street artist, CC BY-SA 3.0,

7. Theaters of War Western Europe Eastern Europe North Africa
East Asia & Pacific
This map depicts the combatants in World War II.
Blue denotes Axis countries and their colonies.
Dark green represents nations that were involved in the war prior to Pearl Harbor on the Allied side, while light green represents countries that joined after Pearl Harbor.
Gray nations were neutral.
Highlighted areas represent the regions—or theaters—where major areas of conflict took place.
Source of Map: WikiMedia Commons
Theaters of War

8. World War II in Literature
Transit
(1942)
Night
(1954/1960)
Catch-22
(1961)
The Book Thief
(2005)
World War II has been a common subject of literature.
Some authors, such as Anna Seghers, wrote novels during or in the immediate aftermath of the war, while later books provided a retrospective perspective.

9. Women and World War II
Although most World War II combatants were men, the scale of the war meant that women became a major part of the war effort.
Women experienced displacement (as Seghers depicts in Transit) as well as being subjected to bombings, genocide, and other wartime violence.
Though Seghers uses a male narrator in Transit, her perspective on the war as a woman writer was significant.
Like Seghers, Transit’s narrator was not a soldier, but nonetheless clearly impacted by war.
PHOTO SOURCES:
1) Source: Captain America: The First Avenger