1. Contemporary Literature & Postmodernism
1939 – Present
Notes

2. Contemp. Lit - Historical Overview
World War II – 1939 – 1945
Began when Britain and France declared war on Germany after Hitler’s armies invaded Poland.
U.S. was drug into the war on Dec , when Japan bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The attack on Pearl Harbor killed over 2,395 Americans and destroyed / damaged 21 ships and 323 aircrafts.
Until this attack, the U.S. had remained neutral (although we had provided financial support to those countries fighting Germany, Italy, and Japan).

3. Contemp. Lit – Historical Overview
WW II - U.S. response – Atomic Bomb
The U.S. dropped atomic bombs that obliterated two Japanese cities.
Bomb on Nagasaki / Bomb on Hiroshima – from the U.S. airplane Enola Gay
Many Americans disapproved of the use of the atomic bomb to end WWII, but most agreed with the purpose of the war itself.
Fighting against tyranny and regimes that would destroy the American way of life.

4. Contemp. Lit – Historical Overview
The Cold War – 1945 – 1991 (ideological battle between Capitalism and Communism)
The Soviet Union developed nuclear weapons in the 50’s and 60’s – created conflict with the U.S.
Cuban Missile Crisis – 1962 – Soviet Union placed nuclear missiles on Cuba, pointed at the U.S.
The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991

5. Contemp. Lit – Historical Overview
70’s – winding down of the Vietnam War
Watergate Scandal – 1974 – forced the resignation of U.S. president, Richard Nixon
80’s – “me generation”
Individual enjoyment and material success seemed to overshadow other concerns.
Today - Attack on September 11, 2001
killed three thousand civilians (damaging blow to the countries economy).
War on Terrorism

6. Contemp. Lit – The Digital Revolution and Economic Prosperity
Introduction of the computer
50’s and 60’s – businesses and governments were revolutionized by large mainframe computers
Made quick electronic storage and retrieval of large amounts of data possible in a short amount of time.
80’s and 90’s – desktop computers appeared in schools, offices, and homes
Late 90’s – internet communication emerged along with wireless telephone technology
All of these innovations fueled a surge in the stock market in the 90’s

7. Contemporary Fiction Diversity and Vitality
Postmodern – a term used to describe contemporary American culture - still in the process of being defined.
Postmodernism – sees contemporary culture as a change – a development or a departure – from modernism.
Postmodern writers use many of the same tools that the modernists used; although, they are constructing a body of literature that is completely different from that produced by the modernists.

8. Contemporary Fiction Characteristics of postmodernism
Allowing multiple meanings and multiple worlds
Worlds: realistic, literal, past, and dreamlike / metaphorical
Narrators and characters may tell different versions of a story, or a story may deliberately accommodate several valid interpretations.
The postmodern would ask, “Why choose only one version? Why limit ourselves?”
Authors do not abide by conventional rules
Ex: 9 pages = one sentence / every word in the first chapter begins with “A” … every word in the second chapter beings with “B” etc.
Intensely self-conscious
Comment on themselves / criticize themselves
Blending of fiction with nonfiction
Uses the past fearlessly (invigorate the old by means of the new)

9. Contemporary Nonfiction
Breaking the Barriers
Until this point, nonfiction meant everything that wasn’t fiction. (Many times, nonfiction writers were lumped together with journalists.)
Since the 70’s, this idea has changed dramatically.
Featured reviews now discuss the art (not just the factual content) of books on computers, architecture, travel, history, etc.
Lists of bestsellers which have always included self-help books, now regularly feature memoirs, biographies, and histories.

10. Contemporary Poetry Varied and Intensely Personal Decline of Modernism
A generation had returned from war to a country where conformity and material success were the main values.
Acquiring a house and car, and making money were of more immediate importance than ever.
Projective Verse
Led by Black Mountain Poets: Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, and Robert Creeley
“Open-form” – treating each poem as an individual entity, creating its own form as it proceeded.
Open-form poems avoided regular meter and rhyme and aimed to imitate the spontaneity and complexity of reality itself