Post-Modernism/
Contemporary
(1945-present)
Historical Events
➔ World War II
◆ August 6, 1945 when US drops
atomic bombs on Japan
◆ Ends on September 2, 1945
➔ Korean War (1950-1953)
➔ Civil Rights
◆ 1954 - Supreme Court declared
segregation unconstitutional in
Brown v. Board of Education
◆ 1964 - Civil RIghts Acts
➔ Space (Cont.)
◆ 1969 - Americans land on moon
◆ 1986 - Challenger Space Shuttle
explodes
➔ Berlin
◆ 1961- East Germans raises the Berlin
Wall.
◆ 1989 - Fall of Berlin Wall heralds end
of Cold War
◆ 1991 - Breakup of USSR
➔ September 11, 2001
◆ Terrorists attack the US
Values and Beliefs
**Disclaimer: Because the world changed so much so fast, it’s hard to generalize anything about this time period and
everything has exceptions**
❏ Writers tried to figure out how to live in a world that was constantly changing
❏ Believe innovation is no longer possible, just tried to rework what had already
been done
❏ Reflects political, social, and personal disillusionment
❏ Everything you know depends on your perspective.
❏ There is no “truth”, only my truth and your truth and those can change at any
moment
Genre and Style
❏ Lines of reality blurred; mix of fantasy and nonfiction
❏ No heroes/Anti-heroes
❏ Concern with individual in isolation
❏ Detached, unemotional, usually humorless
❏ Emergence of ethnic and women writers
Significant Authors and Works
1. Alice Walker
1. The Color Purple
2. Maya Angelou
2. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
3. Anne Sexon
3. Live or Die
4. James Baldwin
4. Go Tell It on the Mountain
5. Richard Wright
5. Black Boy
6. Amy Tan
6. The Joy Luck Club
7. Sandra Cisneros
7. The House on Mango Street
8. J. D. Salinger
8. Catcher in the Rye
9. Ralph Ellison
9. Invisible Man
Video!!!
❏ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO_gaxFIRXw