American Modernism
Entering the 20th Century and
breaking new ground
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Historical Context
About early 1900s-1950 (began just after World War I in 1914 and ended with the end WW II into the
1950s)
Spurred by disillusionment (loss of illusions about reality; loss of faith in the American Dream,
which holds that: progress is inevitable and things are always getting better; America is a promised
land of plenty that offers ever-expanding opportunity; the individual is championed; and the
independent/self-reliant person will triumph, for if you work hard enough, you can always get what
you want) after a savage WW I--What had this world become?
– Loss of innocence
– War shook faith in the foundations & continuity of Western civilization & culture
– Hard to believe in the progress of mankind in face of senseless slaughter
– Belief that life is unordered and meaningless
– People sick of Romanticism (optimism replaced by pessimism)
– Unease with social order
Russian Revolution highlighted political tension & advocated need for change
Flourished/peaked in 1920s (The “Roaring Twenties” marked by prohibition, jazz, & decadence, as
captured by author F. Scott Fitzgerald) & 1930s (industrialization, labor movement, and a
Depression); explored both the decadence & wealth of the 1920s and the harsh realities of the Great
Depression that plagued the 1930s
Development of the West
Immigrant influx (primarily European)
Photography as fine art
The Harlem Renaissance: rise of African American literature, art, etc.
The Lost Generation: a group of American writers, many of whom served in WWI, who reacted
against certain tendencies of older writers in the 1920s; many spent their time abroad, particularly in
Paris; based on Gertrude Stein’s remark to a mechanic: “You are all a lost generation” (Stein was a
homosexual, feminist – yet conservative - American writer and developer of modern literature & art
Expatriates – people who left their native land (America, in this case) and reside elsewhere
voluntarily; many were American writers, such as Henry James & T.S. Eliot, and many lived in Paris,
such as Gertrude Stein & Ernest Hemingway
Influenced by Nietzsche, Karl Marx, (Marxism expressed disillusionment in Capitalism) & James G.
Grazer, Darwin (his theory undermined religion), Carl Jung (suggested that impulses towards
breaking social norms were essential to the nature of the human animal)
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Historical
Context,
cont.
Science = source of logic & stability
Technological Innovation:
Fixation on LIGHT (invention of electricity)
• Light as symbol for knowledge/awareness, and the
darkness beyond as ignorance of blind tradition (i.e.
Puritanism), such as the green light in The Great
Gatsby. Light changed a person’s (pace of) life.
• Enrollment in college doubled in the 1920s
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in physics (notion of time
travel)
Integration of internal combustion engine (motor) &
industrialization: machines replacing humans  changes
lives & culture (i.e. employment); rise of the machine and
feelings of loss of humanity
Rise of social sciences, including public policy: welfare,
compulsory school (before kids worked instead of school
previously), labor laws (minimum wage), etc. to protect
people
Psychology as prominent field of study: Sigmund Freud
(began with Realism), interest in the subconscious (leads
to stream of consciousness style & revolt against loss of
spirituality & moral center)
People owned cars, radios, cameras, typewriters, and even
phones, drastically changing daily life forever (i.e. didn’t
have to ride horse miles to deliver a message) because not
as limited
Values & Beliefs
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Like other movements, it occurred across all forms of expression: literature (minimalism),
music (jazz - improvised), dance, art (minimalism; Impressionist paintings focused on work
done outdoors & saw not objects but light itself; Cubist painting & sculpture broke up &
reassembled objects in abstract form, distorting depth), architecture (minimalism & simplicity
in form; driven by technology, which made function more important than appearance,
eliminating ornaments/decoration)
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Strong & intentional break with tradition (tradition seen as outdated), including reaction
against political, religious, and social views; rejects traditional art, sentimentality, artificiality, &
consumerism
“avant garde”: movements attempting to overthrow the status quo and do something new
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Move past confines of extremely conservative Victorianism
New = good; move forward and embrace the future
Celebrates deviation from the norm
Breakdown of social norms – beginnings of civil rights movements for equality
Two World Wars' effects on humanity: alienation, frustration, disillusionment (feel
disconnected; experience is that of loss & despair)
Focuses on the fragmentation of society
Spiritual loneliness: rejection of organized religion, but unsure how to replace it because
ugliness of war; trying to do new things but can’t bring them together
The world is created in the act of perceiving it (the world is what we say it is)
Do not subscribe to an absolute truth; that all things are relative
Freedom of expression
The possibility of unity (weltanschauung = comprehensive world view that encompasses
everyone everywhere)
The artist = revolutionary (overthrowing rather than enlightening)
Conventions
• Experimental in style (forms & techniques)
– Stream of Consciousness: written as one would think (i.e. James Joyce’s
Ulysses broke new ground); tries to capture a character’s thoughts &
memories as they would occur; playful, humorous, sometimes repetitive
– Point of View: limited, multiple narratives, etc. (i.e. Faulkner’s The Sound
and the Fury told from different points of view)
• Fragmented narratives: readers have to make connections
• Break from bonds of Realism
– Disjointed timelines
• Classical allusions (i.e. Shakespeare & Greek myths)
– Including intertextuality
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Symbolic representation
Poetry: symbolism & imagism
Anti-hero: one who is flawed
Contradictions & paradoxes
Blurring of distinctions between genres: poetry seems more
documentary; prose seems more poetic
Who?
• T.S. Eliot (born American but moved to England so often claimed
to be British): The Wasteland, Four Quartets, The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock
• John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men, Grapes of Wrath (a novel about a family
during the Dust Bowl), East of Eden (uses Biblical allusions of Cain & Abel)
• F. Scott Fitzgerald:The Great Gatsby
• Sherwood Anderson: Winesberg, Ohio
• Ernest Hemingway: “Hills Like White Elephants,”
The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls
• William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury,
A Light in August, “A Rose for Emily”
• Robert Frost: “The Road Not Taken,” “Nothing Gold Can Stay”
• Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire
• William Carlos Williams: “The Red Wheelbarrow”
• Willa Cather: “A Wagner Matinee”
• Eudora Welty: “A Worn Path”
• Flannery O’Connor: “The Life You Save Could Be Your Own”
• Ezra Pound: “In a Station of the Metro”
• Wallace Stevens: “Sixteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,”
“Anecdote of a Jar”
• ee cummings: “what if a much of a which of a wind,” “somewhere I have
never travelled”
• Langston Hughes: “The Weary Blues,” “Harlem,” “I too Sing America”
• Claude McKay: Home to Harlem, “America”
• Countee Cullen: “Tableau,” “Incident”