Modernist Movement

1
Modernist Movement

• Jr. Honors Language Arts

2
History of the time

• What comes to mind as you think about the U.S.
  during 19101930?

3
History of the time

• What was the most important international event
  of this period?

4
History of the time

• What is the decade of the 1920s called and why?

5
History of the time

• What economic even signaled the end of this era?

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History of the time

• What population shifts took place during this
  period?

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History of the time

• What cultural changes took place?

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History of the time

• Woodrow Wilson
• Took nation by surprise
• That singular fact is that nothing is done in
  this country as it was done twenty years ago.

9
Woodrow Wilson Presidency

• New technology Government limited power of huge
  businesses
• Consumer rights protected
• Lower tariffs
• Women vote
• Americans left rural areas moved to cities

10
World War I

• August 1914 war burst out
• America entered war in 1917
• Unbelievable carnage (Europe over 10 million US
  approximately 115,000

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Roaring Twenties

• Disgusted by war, focused on making money and
  having fun
• Prohibition attempted to ban alcohol speakeasies
  sprang up laws were broken with wild abandon
  gangs took to the mattresses.

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Roaring Twenties

• Economy boomed
• New buildings rosecreating new downtown areas in
  many cities
• Movies, radio, and jazz provided entertainment
• Writers flocked to Greenwich Village

13
Great Depression

• Over ¼ of Americas work force was out of a job
• Roosevelt and his New Deal took office he
  served three terms
• World War II began 20 years after end of WWI

14
World War II

• US wanted to remain neutral until December 7,
  1941bombing of Pearl Harbor
• After dropping of two atomic bombs on two
  Japanese cities, peace and atomic age arrived

15
Literature of the period

• After devastation of WWI, optimism withered
  feeling of uncertainty and disillusionment no
  trust for ideas and values of the past
• Literature focused on the twentieth century

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Modernism

• Even though Modernists were diverse, they had a
  common characteristic they sought to capture the
  essence of modern life in both form and content
  of their work.

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Modernism

• To reflect fragmentation of society, they
  constructed their works out of fragments,
  omitting expositions, transitions, resolutions,
  and traditional explanations

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Modernism

• In poetry, poets abandoned traditional form and
  meter in favor of free verse.
• Themes were implied, thereby creating uncertainty
  and forcing readers to draw own conclusions

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Modernism

• Modernist literature demanded more from readers
• Placed American literature in the worlds esteem.

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Imagism 1909--1917

• Poets rebelled against sentimentality of 19th
  century poets
• Poetry characterized by hard, clear expression,
  concrete images, and language of everyday speech
• Ezra Pound most famous poet

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Expatriates

• After WWI, many poets authors were so
  disenchanted that they left America and lived
  overseas
• Gertrude Stein coined this phase as the Lost
  Generation.

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Lost Generation

• Sherwood Anderson
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Ernest Hemingway
• Ezra Pound
• T.S. Eliot
• Archibald MacLeish

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New Approaches

• Due to developments in modern psychology,
  stream-of-consciousness technique took center
  stage
• James Joyces Ulysses
• W. Faulkner
• Katherine Porter
• John Dos Passo

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New Approaches to Poetry

• E.E. Cummings poems attracted attention b/c of
  wordplay, unique typography, and special
  punctuationthese are vital to his poetry
• W.C. Williams emulated the style of John Keats,
  but focused on his native sights

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International Acclaim Nobel Prize Winners

• Sinclair Lewis
• Main Street
• Babbit
• Arrosmith

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Nobel Prize Winners

• Eugene ONeill
• Desire Under the Elm
• The Iceman Cometh
• Long Days Journey Into Night
• Morning Becomes Electra

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Nobel Prize Winners

• Pearl S. Buck
• The Good Earth

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Nobel Prize Winners

• T. S. Eliot
• Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

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Nobel Prize Winners

• William Faulkner
• As I Lay Dying
• Absalom, Absalom
• Intruder in the Dust
• Sound and the Fury

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Nobel Prize Winners

• Ernest Hemmingway
• Old Man and the Sea
• Farewell to Arms
• The Sun Also Rises

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Nobel Prize Winners

• John Steinbeck
• Of Mice and Men
• The Pearl
• Cannery Row
• East of Eden
• Grapes of Wrath

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Harlem Renaissance

• Black writers (mostly from the South) flocked to
  Harlem.
• Publicly recognized March 1924