American Literary Modernism

"THE GREATEST SINGLE FACT ABOUT OUR MODERN AMERICAN WRITING IS OUR WRITERS' ABSORPTION IN EVERY LAST DETAIL OF THEIR AMERICAN WORLD TOGETHER WITH THEIR DEEP AND SUBTLE ALIENATION FROM IT." - ALFRED KAZIN

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 Artists 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)

Philosophy and Theory:

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE INTELLECTUAL CURRENTS WHICH INFLUENCED MODERNISM

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 the results (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 free indirect speech are often ambiguous as to whether they convey the views, feelings and thoughts of the narrator or those of the character the narrator is describing. This allows a flexible and sometimes ironic interaction of internal and external perspectives. Stream of consciousness narration: a narrative mode which seeks to portray an individuals point of view by giving the written equivalent of the characters thought processes, either through loose interior monologue or in connection to action.

Tensions within Modern Literature

Democratic impulse Anti-traditionalism Celebration of

Elitist impulse Traditionalism

National jingoism and

international culture Free expression of sexual and political matters Technology as liberation Revolution

provinciality Puritanical and repressive elements Fear of technological advancement Conservatism

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

American Literary Modernism:

MAJOR AUTHORS

Began her writing career as a reporter Poet and novelist

Expatriate writer
Major work: Nightwood (1936)

Djuna Barnes

Critique of materialism in early works Literature includes fragments of pop songs, news headlines, streamof-consciousness monologues, naturalistic fragments from the lives of a horde of unrelated characters Major works: Manhattan Transfer (1925), U.S.A. (1938)

John Dos Passos

The most dominant literary figure between the two world wars. Influential poet and literary critic. Conceives of the poem as an object demanding a fusion and concentration of intellect, feeling, and experience. Major Works: Prufrock and Other Observations (1917), The Waste Land (1922)

T.S. Eliot

Southern American writer Many works center on the mythical Yoknapatawpha county Experimental techniques include stream-ofconsciousness and dislocation of narrative time Focus on issues of sex, class, race relations The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930), Absalom, Absalom! (1936)

William Faulkner

Focus on Jazz Age and Great Depression Examination of American materialism Exploration of the American dream Major works: The Great Gatsby (1925), Tender is the Night (1934)

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Iceberg Theory of literature (one-eighth above water) Spare, tight journalistic prose style Objective, detached point of view Examination of masculinity, gender Major works: The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)

Ernest Hemingway

Expatriate Author Coined the term Lost Generation

Patron of authors and artists as well as artistic innovator

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose. Major works: Three Lives (1909), The Making of Americans (1925)

Gertrude Stein

Embodied the union of the artistic and the practical Employed in the insurance business Opaque poetic style, meaning is not transparent

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

Wallace Stevens

Satirizes American society Collapse of the American dream Investigation of material culture Major works: Miss Lonelyhearts (1933), Day of the Locust (1939)

Nathanael West