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Published byLetitia Singleton Modified over 9 years ago
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Contemporary American Literature 1955 -
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Mushroom cloud of 1945 casts a shadow over the entire generation Gallows humor The madness is funny Catch 22 Dr. Strangelove
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Historical Events The Cold War Atomix anxiety JFK Assassination MLK assassination Veitnam War Watergate scandal 1980’s – ME generation 1990’s Time of rapid development 9/11 War in Iraq
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Writers of the Time Edward Albee Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf Truman Capote In Cold Blood Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird James Dickey Deliverance Arthur Haley Roots Alice Walker The Color Purple Tim O’Brien The Things They Carried
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Post-Modernism Our own age Sees contemporary culture as a change from modernism Use tools from modernists Make our own literature different
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Post-Modernism Often multiple narrators Self-conscious of efforts Self awareness of writing Blends fiction and non-fiction The Things They Carried A Million Little Pieces To the writers, modernism feels played out
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Beat Writers Praised individuality Speak out against Social injustice Conventional middle class conformity Declared mainstream American morally bankrupt Planted seeds of protest that continued in the rebellious youth culture of the 1960’s
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Allen Ginsberg Jailed, censored, homosexual Beatnik writer “Howl” “America” Cry of outrage against conformity
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Jack Kerouac On The Road Novel A bible for young non- conformists
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Tim O’Brien Best writer on Vietnam Created vivid pictures Allowed Americans to feel as soldiers felt Jumps between fact and fiction
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Vietnam War 1961 – JFK sends in 400 “military advisors” By 1973 – 58,000 young men are dead Over 100,000 wounded At home during the war Mass protests Country dangerously divided Kent State Massacre
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