The Modern Age

1910-1930

Historical, Social, and Cultural Forces

World War I Began in 1914 Allies v. Central Powers U.S. joined war in 1917 (Lusitania) Allies won November 11, 1918 10 million soldiers died

Historical, Social, and Cultural Forces

Roaring Twenties U.S. soldiers returning home Booming economy Jazz Late night parties Flappers Prohibition Gangsters (Al Capone)

Historical, Social, and Cultural Forces Women’s Rights

19th Amendment passed in 1920 Better job opportunities and military

opportunities

Great Migration African Americans left the rural South for the

North. Better jobs and living conditions Harlem, New York was a popular place to

relocate.

Historical, Social, and Cultural Forces

Pop Culture Automobiles (1913) Radios (1920) Movies (Talkies- 1927) Baseball (Babe Ruth)

The Great Depression Black Tuesday Stock Market Crash By 1933 a quarter of the population was

unemployed

Modern Poetry Characteristics

Make it new: break away from traditional poetry

Imagist movement: Direct presentation of images

Breaking the rules: Ignored all writing rules

Modern Poetry Poets

Ezra Pound T.S. Eliot William Carlos Williams Amy Lowell E.E. Cummings Carl Sandburg Robert Frost

The Imagists Imagist presented a concrete tangible

image that appears frozen in time.

Imagist method is similar to photography

Imagist Principles/Manifestos

The image is the essence, the raw material, of poetry.

Poetry should be expressed in brief, clear, concrete language that forms precise images.

Images should convey poems meaning and emotion.

Language should sound like simple speech. Topics should not be “high-minded” or poetic.

No topic is unsuitable.

Modern Fiction

The Modern American Short Story Modern writers experimented with

new ways of capturing the rich complexity of human life and responded to a world that was starting over after World War I.

Modern Fiction

Important Authors

Sherwood Anderson Ernest Hemingway* F. Scott Fitzgerald* Henry James Katherine Anne Porter*

Modern Fiction

Stream of Consciousness

A reoccurring element in modern American fiction.

William James (brother of author Henry James) an American psychologist coined the phrase in 1890. He believed that people had a constant stream of thoughts that flow through their minds without clear logic order.

Modern Fiction

Stream of Consciousness Story Elements First person point of view Lack of conventional sentence structure or

grammar Free associations that flow through a

character’s mind and link distinctly separate events.

Interior monologue

Modern Fiction The Lost Generation

Many writers left the United States during this period and established new lives in Europe.

International perspective contrasted with the regionalism that dominated literature following the Civil War.

Themes of change, indecision, and broken attachments dominate modern fiction.

Modern Fiction Features of the Modern Short Story

Understatement (de-emphasis on the importance of something or someone)

Irony (contrast between appearance and reality) Stream of Consciousness Antiheroes (conflicted characters engulfed by

indecision) Everyday settings Themes of instability and loss Plots without clear climax or resolution

Harlem Renaissance Represented the coming of age of the

African American culture.

Influenced by jazz music. The music was largely improvisational/spontaneous. Jazz inspired a an energetic social life and filled the clubs.

Harlem Renaissance The Neighborhood

Harlem became a main destination during the great migration. It was a haven for African Americans. They were able to escape the restrictions in Harlem.

Important Writers Zora Neale Hurston Claude McKay * Robert Hughes Langston Hughes* Georgia Douglas Countee Cullen *

Claude McKay Born and educated in rural Jamaica. Won an award for his poetry in 1912. He

used his prize money to come to the US- the land of opportunity.

He was shocked by the racisim and violence he found in the US.

His poem “If We Must Die” is said to be the spark that ignited the Harlem Renissance.

Spent most of his life looking for ways to counter the “ignoble cruelty” of racism.

Claude McKay

Langston Hughes Born in Joplin Missouri in 1902 Traveled around the U.S. and lived in six

different cities by the time he was 12. His writing celebrated the dignity of ordinary,

working-class African Americans. His poetry helped many people to look past

stereotypical views of African Americans. He is considered the poet laureate of Harlem.

Langston Hughes