ALH - Module 4 - American Modernisms PDF

Module 4: The Many American Modernisms and Beyond 1. Contextualisation: from World War I through the 1920s into the 1930s − World War I: context and impacts o entering another war o foreign politics: end of isolationism, internationalisation, America goes international de...

Module 4: The Many American Modernisms and Beyond 1. Contextualisation: from World War I through the 1920s into the 1930s − World War I: context and impacts o entering another war o foreign politics: end of isolationism, internationalisation, America goes international despite strong internal voices against it o domestic reaction: conservatism, rise of American nationalism o collective mentality: traditional American ideologies and a sense of mission (America as the redeemer), city upon a hill o decisive impact: these decisions always shape society and literature in new ways o landscapes turn to industry: loneliness, technological enhancement, exploitation − 1920s: a time of paradox o glamourised image (Golden Twenties, Roaring Twenties, Jazz Age) o parallelism o economic prosperity: consumption, more convenient way of life (electricity as a status symbol) o technological innovations and mobility: connects rural and urban areas → travelling o celebrity culture: rise of sports, magazines, movies, radio and Hollywood o new woman (the ‘flapper’): sports, smoking, consumerism, more sophisticated, self-confident, sexual liberation o urbanisation/pluralisation: urban areas outnumbered rural areas o post-world-war: lost generation o reactionary/conservative/supremacist climate: xenophobia and ethnocentrism (immigration restrictions, Ku Klux Klan, antisemitism) o religious fundamentalism o various prohibitions (speak easy, alcohol consumption, violence, crime) o social and economic crisis ▪ 1929: stock market crash ▪ collapse of the banking system ▪ 1932: 25% of unemployment (13 million people) − 1930s: great depression and new deal o effects and consequences of social and economic crisis ▪ crisis of American ideologies ▪ economic effects ▪ sociological and demographic consequences → rise of California ▪ Watershed elections: democrats win with F. D. Roosevelt → new deal: government involvement but individual at the centre of everything 2. American Modernism(s) − modernisation ≠ modernity ≠ modernism − modernisation: the process of adapting something to modern needs or habits − modernity: awareness that you are moving away from something traditional, ambiguous feelings of change and discontinuities, feeling of alienation − modernism: literary responses in both positive and negative ways − general features and key ideas o international movement o urban/metropolitan o characterised by disillusion and discontent (lost generation, experiences of war, feeling of not being able to rely on things) o individual, subjectivity, multiperspectivism o subconscious  o complexity, obscurity, difficulty (chaos) o brevity, fragmentation, openness (open beginnings and endings) o hybridity o emotional detachment and irony o social and cultural criticism (consumer culture, industry, exploitation of working class, mass poverty) o language: everyday, common, experimental, making it new 3. American Modernist Poetry − Gertrude Stein o mother of postmodernism o advocates radical break with all traditions → desire for everything new o innovation in poetry o reflects on modern life and modernisation − T. S. Eliot o ‘impersonal poetry’ o seeks escape from emotions and personality o ‘objective correlative’: doesn’t write about emotions directly but realises them indirectly via images, topics, actions → reader experiences emotions in a better way − Ezra Pound (highly problematic author) o personification of international modernism o part of international movement of making it new o cosmopolitan person but also problematic: expressed sympathies for people like Mussolini, had fascist ideas, antisemitic ideologies, supports censorship o poetological claims and positions ▪ make it new ▪ intertextuality ▪ direct treatment and precision ▪ musical poetry ▪ freedom in topics ▪ anti-conventions o Imagism (1910s): beginning of modernist poetry ▪ ‘The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.’ ▪ an image of a poem leads to another mental image and they are being fused ▪ traits of Imagism epiphany: one moment of recognition of a situation associative process − the project of American modernism o Marianne Moore o Wallace Stevens o E. E. Cummings o William Carlos Williams o Robert Frost ▪ reacted to the happenings at the time ▪ interested in (American) nature ▪ poetry sounds neo-romantic ▪ affirmative realism, sees himself as the ‘new realist’, sees the positive things in nature ▪ reacts to modernisation and modernity but sticks to conventional forms and romantic mode ▪ rural affinity VS. urbane sophistication (nature and the connected emotions) 4. American Modernist Fiction − Ernest Hemingway  o took away an emotional and personal wound from WWI as reflected in his writing (wound characterises a whole generation) o code hero (coined by Philip Young) ▪ deals with experiences of the time (grace under pressure) ▪ particular characters that come up in his poetry ▪ defined by stoicism and hardships of life ▪ brave hero, courage, follows principals of individualism ▪ illusionist person: drinks alcohol, takes drugs, nihilism, egotism, sexual encounters o precision: hard boiled style ▪ sounds hard and distant ▪ style language is very simple ▪ few decorations in his language ▪ afraid of losing his sense of reality o iceberg theory ▪ writes down only 1/8 of the whole, everything else is between the lines ▪ reader is expected to see beneath the surface ▪ mere description of what is going on o setting ▪ no context for the situation ▪ reader is left alone with his emotions o decontextualization ▪ no context or background information provided ▪ focus on feelings o main form: short story − F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) o reflects on Jazz Age and modern times o ‘The Great Gatsby’ ▪ novel of manners and the way of life during this time ▪ party life and wealthy class (showing off) → represents leisure class of Roaring Twenties ▪ entertainment ▪ settings: East Coast, New York area, corrupted version and very desperate picture o ideological criticism: perversion of the American Dream, dreaming of mine and superficial things 5. American Modernist Theatre − commercialised theatre and entertainment o theatres as shows o shows dominated by star actors o melodrama through the 1910s − particular theatre group: Provincetown Players o Bigsby: birth of the 20th century American drama o everyone gets to participate o lose groups of about 30 members o playwright, producers and stage designers o group is against ▪ commercialised Broadway theatre and star system ▪ sentimental melodrama ▪ sensationalist drama ▪ exaggerated ‘realistic’ stage settings o instead they wanted ▪ new kind of theatre, new kind of play  ▪ artistic drama (playwright should be important) ▪ innovative and experimental forms ▪ psychological dispositions and subjective consciousness (modernist approach) ▪ sincere acting ▪ simple but symbolic and suggestive stage settings (down to earth) o idea: one-act-play (Edward Bierstadt) ▪ complete unity of thought ▪ any change in time and place would destroy this unity ▪ idea of an image/short story: unique and single effect oSusan Glaspell 6. Pluralisation − context o mass immigration late 19th/ early 20th century → people are aware of their nationality, cultural diversity o but nationalist sentiments in wake of WWI and xenophobic sentiments in the 1920s o the idea of the melting pot → immigration creates diversity but people don’t want it, they want to be American (the same) o counter movements: cultural pluralism (redefinition of ‘being American’, growing body of ethnic and immigrant literature) − Randolph S. Bourne: Trans-National America (1916) o idea of melting pot doesn’t work o old elite/immigrants (conservatism) VS. new immigrants → obvious contrast because the English immigrants want the others to become like them (very modernist approach of him) o vision of a future America ▪ diversity ▪ distinctiveness of native cultures ▪ celebrate differences ▪ pluralism ▪ multiculturalism − Horace M. Kallen o German-Jewish background o rejects the idea of the melting pot o cultural pluralism (1924) o speaks out for diversity o American democracy needs the perfection and conservation of diversity o mosaic of people − ethnic writing and/as modernism o Mary Antin: Promised Land (1912) ▪ Jewish American perspective: defines herself as American (America includes the diversity) ▪ immigrant perspective o (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin): Impressions of an Indian childhood (1921) ▪ violent confrontations by Whites ▪ traumatic experiences define her growing up 7. The Harlem Renaissance (first half of the 20th century) − definition: African American literature between WWI and WWII − mutual feeling of diversity − theatres, pubs, … were located in Harlem (jazz, dancing, glamour, night clubs, …) − but: poverty, discrimination, overcrowding, segregation, … − Whites tried to influence Blacks in their writing by sponsoring them − major flourishing in the 1920s − Harlem Renaissance counters the belief that black culture is not a part of American literature -> black art is also American − precursors of Harlem Renaissance o Booker T. Washington ▪ African Americans deserve equality → thinks that this will come over time if African Americans have industrial and agricultural training ▪ doesn’t need cooperation of whites because they will see on their own that equality is just fair o W.E.B. Du Bois ▪ demanded right to vote, equality and education ▪ more cooperation of whites − programmatic ideas: central statements o share mutual feeling o black art is just part of America as is white o Alain Locke (edited): The New Negro (1925) ▪ essays of black writers ▪ old to the new negro: change in social life and democracy → active participation ▪ change of their personalities: self-respect, race pride, self-dependence, racial unity, cultural emancipation, rejection of accommodation, turn to their inner life ▪ true progress can be achieved with a stress on reform ▪ human experiences are not limited to one race -> everyone makes them − issues o reality of life o patronage o racism, exoticism − political plays o historical pageants o melodrama ▪ political staging against lynching ▪ black family who has lost their father (lynched), believe in the American standards ▪ exposes lynching and the consequences ▪ confronts traditional gender roles o political one-act plays/folk sketches − poetry o Claude McKay: If We Must Die (1919/1922) ▪ follows very strong formal constraints (of white people: sonnet) o Langston Hughes: Homesick Blues (1926) ▪ very different from the one above − fiction and novels o Jean Toomer: Cane (1923) ▪ short glimpses and scenes (very modernist) o Nella Larsen: Quicksand/Passing (1928/1929) ▪ passing means that light skinned African American are accepted as whites although their culture is black (shows the privileges of whites and that ‘white’ is considered to be better) o Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) ▪ anthropological fiction ▪ climax of Harlem Renaissance ▪ only concentrates on black culture and folk material, uses black English ▪ exclusively concentrates on black perspectives ▪ central feminist text ▪ African American folk story − the Harlem Renaissance is not just literature but music, art, dancing, visuals, … − climax in African American history − black writers during this time inspired not only whites (especially women) but also Africans − immense celebration of African American life − demanding freedom and liberty and equality