Modernism (Disillusion and Defiance)

1. 1914-1946 Modernism (Disillusion and Defiance)

2. Historical Events • 1917-19 U.S. involvement in WWI • 1919-33 Prohibition is the law of the land. • 1920 13th Amendment gives women the right to vote.

3. Historical Events • 1927 Charles Lindbergh flies non-stop and solo from New York to Paris • 1929 Stock Market crash ushers in the Great Depression • 1939 Wizard of Oz is released in theaters

4. Historical Events • 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor; • US enters WWII • 1945 US drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

5. Literature • Modernists experiment with new approaches and techniques to reflect the fragmentation of the modern world. • Themes are implied. • Imagist poets used hard, clear expression, concrete images and everyday speech.

6. Literature • Writers used stream of consciousness to recreate the natural flow of a character’s thoughts. • African American artists gather in NY: • Harlem Renaissance

7. Values • Before WWI there was optimism in the future. • WWI creates feelings of uncertainty about past values. People searched for new ideas to explain 20th century life. • The roaring 20’s saw wild social abandon and prosperity. • Then, also economic despair with the Great Depression

8. Values • WWII began with isolationism that gave way to a patriotic nationalism and the responsibilities of a world superpower. • The atomic bomb ushers in a sense of fear and the Cold War.

9. Authors • Sherwood Anderson • F. Scott Fitzgerald • John Steinbeck • Ernest Hemingway • William Faulkner

10. Authors • Langston Hughes • T.S. Eliot • Zora Neale Hurston • William Carlos Williams • Katherine Porter

11. #36 William Carlos Williams • Write 3 poems in the style of the imagists • Short, appeal to the senses, use everyday speech • OR questions on page 734, 1-6