American Literary Modernism

7/30/2019 American Literary Modernism

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American Literary Modernism



Literary Modernism: 1915-1945

Reaction to World War I Response to a sense of social breakdown Development of cubism and surrealism in the visual arts International perspective on cultural matters

The Jazz Age and The Great Depression Investigation of the excesses of the “Roaring 20s” Consideration of class and trauma as raised by the Great Depression

View of the world as “fragmented” The usual connective patterns are missing: morals and frameworks

are compromised

Artist’s self -consciousness about questions of form and structure Stylistic innovations, disruption of traditional syntax and form

“These fragments I have shorn against my ruin” (The Wasteland )



A B R I E F O V E R V I E W O F T H E I N T E L L E C T U A L

C U R R E N T S W H I C H I N F L U E N C E D M O D E R N I S M

Philosophy and Theory:



Darwinism

Charles Darwin

Evolution

Displacement of the human position of privilege

Collapsing of boundaries between human and animal



Existentialist Philosophy

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Economic and psychological determinism

No divine patterns

Search for meaning War and spiritual trauma



Freudian Theory

Sigmund Freud

Psychoanalysis

Psychological determinism

Forces inside the self impact human behavior Sexuality and repression



Marxism

Karl Marx

Economic determinism

Forces outside the self impact human behavior

Class struggle Relationship between labor and capitol



Modernism as Movement



Painting

Spirit of experimentation

New ways of seeing

New materials

New ideas about the function of art Abstraction



Sculpture

Addition: disparate objects and materials

Construction: involuntary sculpture

Abstract

Stylized Minimalist



Architecture

Materials and functional requirements determine theresults (form follows function)

Adoption of the machine aesthetic

Rejection of ornament

Simplification of form



Music

Sound-based composition: noise, factory, mechanical,speech

Extended techniques and sounds

Expansion on/abandonment of tonality



Sciences

Quantum Theory

Theory of Relativity

Treatment of light and color

Treatment of energy Treatment of time and space



Themes of Modern Literature

Collectivism versus individualism

Anxiety regarding the past

Historical discontinuity

Disillusionment Violence and alienation

Decadence and decay

Loss and despair

Breakdown of social norms and cultural sureties Race and gender relations

Sense of place, local color



Formal Aspects of Modern Literature

Formal experimentation Free indirect discourse: a style of third-person narration which

combines some of the characteristics of third-person report with first-person direct speech. Passages written using freeindirect speech are often ambiguous as to whether they convey the views, feelings and thoughts of the narrator or those of thecharacter the narrator is describing. This allows a flexible andsometimes ironic interaction of internal and externalperspectives.

Stream of consciousness narration: a narrative mode whichseeks to portray an individual’s point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character’s thought processes, eitherthrough loose interior monologue or in connection to action.



Democratic impulse

Anti-traditionalism Celebration of

international culture

Free expression of sexual

and political matters Technology as liberation

Revolution

Elitist impulse

Traditionalism National jingoism and

provinciality

Puritanical andrepressive elements

Fear of technologicaladvancement

Conservatism

Tensions within Modern Literature



The Modern Self

The chief characteristic of the self is alienation.

The “Lost Generation” (Gertrude Stein)

“Dissociation of Sensibility” (T.S. Eliot)

The “Dream Deferred” (Langston Hughes) The modern self is often unable to act, feel, or

express love

The modern self has a tormented recollection of the past





Djuna Barnes

Began her writing careeras a reporter

Poet and novelist

Expatriate writer

Major work:

Nightwood (1936)



John Dos Passos

Critique of materialismin early works

Literature includesfragments of pop songs,news headlines, stream-of-consciousnessmonologues, naturalisticfragments from the lives

of a horde of unrelatedcharacters

Major works: Manhattan Transfer (1925), U.S.A. (1938)



T.S. Eliot

The most dominantliterary figure between

the two world wars.

Influential poet andliterary critic.

Conceives of the poem asan object demanding a

fusion and concentrationof intellect, feeling, andexperience.

Major Works: Prufrockand Other Observations (1917), The Waste Land

(1922)



William Faulkner

Southern American writer

Many works center onthe mythical Yoknapatawpha county

Experimental techniquesinclude stream-of-

consciousness anddislocation of narrativetime

Focus on issues of sex,class, race relations

The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930), Absalom, Absalom! (1936)



F. Scott Fitzgerald

Focus on Jazz Age andGreat Depression

Examination of American materialism

Exploration of the American dream

Major works: The Great Gatsby (1925), Tender isthe Night (1934)



Ernest Hemingway

Iceberg Theory of literature (one-eighth

above water)

Spare, tight journalisticprose style

Objective, detachedpoint of view

Examination of masculinity, gender

Major works: The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms

(1929), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)



Gertrude Stein

Expatriate Author

Coined the term “LostGeneration”

Patron of authors andartists as well as artisticinnovator

“Rose is a rose is a roseis a rose.”

Major works: Three Lives (1909), The Making of Americans (1925)



Wallace Stevens

Embodied the union of the artistic and the

practical

Employed in theinsurance business

Opaque poetic style,meaning is not

transparent

Major works: Harmonium (1923), The Man with the BlueGuitar (1937)



Nathanael West

Satirizes Americansociety

Collapse of the Americandream

Investigation of materialculture

Major works: Miss Lonelyhearts (1933), Day of the Locust (1939)

Documents

American Literary Modernism