The Moderns

1
The Moderns

• 1914-1939

2
Key Concepts

• Literary time characterized by experimentation
  and innovation.
• 3 categories in this time period - reflect many
  elements going on in world.

3
World Events

• 1914 WWI starts
• 1918 Spanish flu epidemic - many die
• 1920 Ghandi becomes leader
• 1933 Hitler comes to power
• 1939 WWII starts in Europe

4
U.S. Events

• 1917 U.S. enters WWI
• 1920 1st radio broadcast
• 1920 18th Amendment (alcohol)
• 1920 19th Amendment (women vote)
• 1927 Lindbergh completes solo flight
• 1929 Stock market crash - Great Depression
• 1933 FDR president
• 1939 1st television broadcast

5
Literary Figures

• T.S. Eliot - controversial poetry
• F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby

6
Literary Figures

• Ernest Hemingway - WWI novel
• Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes Were Watching God
• John Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath

7
Category 1Symbolism Imagism

• Precision concreteness to poetry
• Free verse
• Symbolism images - as self discovery

8
Category 2Modernism

• Loss of faith in the American Dream
• Reject sentimental ways of discussing reality
• Emphasis on bold experimentation with form - to
  reflect fragmenting of society
• Interest in individual workings of the mind

9
Category 3Harlem Renaissance

• African American talent was mainstreamed
• Autobiographies on the African American
  experience
• Dialects in African American vernacular
• Celebrate African American culture

10
Sum Up

• The 3 categories reflect the time
• Symbolism - poetry connections to Europe,
  positive happenings
• Modernism - fiction accounts of things going on,
  negative outlooks usually
• Renaissance - nonfiction celebration of African
  Americans

11
Application

• What do you see in our times that reflect this
  time period?