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20th Century American Literature: A Comprehensive Guide
Author: Dr. Evelyn Reed, Professor of American Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Reed has authored three books on 20th-century American literature and numerous peer-reviewed articles, specializing in Modernist and Postmodernist movements.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, a leading academic publisher with a long history of publishing authoritative works in literary studies and American history.
Editor: Professor Arthur Miller, Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Yale University, specializing in 20th-century American fiction and critical theory.
Keywords: 20th century American literature, Modernist literature, Postmodernist literature, American literary movements, American authors, literary criticism, Great Gatsby, Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Steinbeck.
Summary: This guide provides a comprehensive overview of 20th-century American literature, exploring its major movements, influential authors, and key themes. It outlines best practices for studying this rich and diverse body of work, highlighting common pitfalls to avoid, and offers valuable insights for both students and enthusiasts.
1. Major Literary Movements in 20th Century American Literature
The 20th century witnessed a dramatic evolution in American literature, marked by distinct movements that reflected the socio-political landscape of the time. Understanding these movements is crucial for comprehending 20th-century American literature.
Modernism (roughly 1910-1945): This era, characterized by disillusionment following World War I, saw a break from traditional forms and styles. Authors experimented with stream-of-consciousness, fragmented narratives, and explorations of psychological interiority. Key figures include Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and T.S. Eliot (though British, his influence was immense). Studying Modernism requires close attention to narrative techniques and symbolism.
The Harlem Renaissance (1920s-1930s): This flourishing of African American arts and literature centered in Harlem, New York City, celebrated Black culture and challenged racial stereotypes. Authors like Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Claude McKay explored themes of identity, racial injustice, and the African American experience with vibrant language and innovative forms. Analyzing this movement requires understanding its historical context and its contribution to the broader literary landscape.
Postmodernism (roughly 1945-present): This period questioned the grand narratives and certainties of Modernism. Postmodernist literature often features metafiction, irony, and a blurring of boundaries between high and low culture. Authors like Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, and Kurt Vonnegut explored themes of fragmentation, consumerism, and the anxieties of the post-war era. Understanding postmodernism requires a critical awareness of its playful deconstruction of literary conventions.
Realism and Naturalism (continued throughout the century): While Modernism and Postmodernism offered significant departures, realism and naturalism continued to influence American writers. Authors like John Steinbeck and John Dos Passos focused on depicting the social and economic realities of their times with stark realism. Studying these works requires understanding their social and historical contexts.
2. Key Authors and Their Works in 20th Century American Literature
No study of 20th-century American literature is complete without engaging with its major authors. These authors pushed boundaries, experimented with form, and tackled profound themes that continue to resonate today. Focusing on a few key authors allows for a deeper understanding of their individual styles and contributions to the broader literary landscape. For example, exploring the stylistic differences between Hemingway's concise prose and Faulkner's complex sentences provides valuable insight into the diversity of 20th-century American literature.
3. Best Practices for Studying 20th Century American Literature
Contextualization: Understanding the historical, social, and cultural contexts in which works were written is crucial.
Close Reading: Pay close attention to language, imagery, structure, and narrative techniques.
Critical Analysis: Develop your ability to interpret literary texts using various critical lenses.
Comparative Analysis: Compare and contrast different authors, works, and movements.
Engagement with Secondary Sources: Consult scholarly articles and books to broaden your understanding.
4. Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Oversimplification: Avoid reducing complex works to simple summaries.
Ignoring Context: Failing to consider the historical and cultural context of the works.
Lack of Critical Engagement: Simply summarizing plots without analyzing their significance.
Bias and Preconceptions: Allowing personal biases to influence interpretations.
5. Themes in 20th Century American Literature
Recurring themes in 20th-century American literature include: the American Dream, alienation and isolation, the impact of war, racial and social injustice, gender roles, and the search for identity. Analyzing these themes across different works reveals the enduring concerns of American society.
Conclusion
20th-century American literature offers a rich tapestry of voices, styles, and perspectives. By understanding its major movements, key authors, and recurring themes, we gain a deeper appreciation for the evolution of American culture and the enduring power of literature to reflect and shape our world. Studying this era requires a nuanced approach, combining careful close reading with a contextual understanding of the historical and cultural forces that shaped these works.
FAQs:
1. What defines Modernism in American Literature? Modernism is characterized by experimentation with form, a rejection of traditional narratives, and a focus on psychological interiority.
2. How does the Harlem Renaissance differ from other literary movements? The Harlem Renaissance celebrated African American culture and challenged racial stereotypes, providing a unique voice within the broader 20th-century landscape.
3. What are some key themes in Postmodern American literature? Postmodernism often explores fragmentation, irony, metafiction, and the anxieties of a rapidly changing world.
4. Who are some of the most influential female authors of the 20th century? Consider writers like Gertrude Stein, Willa Cather, Flannery O'Connor, and Toni Morrison.
5. How did World War I and World War II impact American literature? Both wars profoundly impacted American literature, leading to disillusionment, exploration of trauma, and a reassessment of American ideals.
6. What is the significance of the "American Dream" in 20th-century literature? The "American Dream" is a recurring theme, often explored critically, examining its attainability and its impact on individuals.
7. What are some good resources for studying 20th-century American literature? Look to academic journals, literary criticism books, and online databases like JSTOR and Project MUSE.
8. How can I improve my critical analysis skills? Practice close reading, engage with secondary sources, and develop your ability to articulate your interpretations clearly and persuasively.
9. What are some common critical lenses used to analyze 20th-century American literature? Consider feminist criticism, Marxist criticism, psychoanalytic criticism, and postcolonial criticism.
Related Articles:
1. The Great Gatsby and the American Dream: An analysis of F. Scott Fitzgerald's portrayal of wealth, ambition, and the elusive American Dream.
2. Hemingway's Style and its Impact: An exploration of Ernest Hemingway's minimalist prose style and its influence on subsequent generations of writers.
3. Faulkner's Southern Gothic: An examination of William Faulkner's use of Southern Gothic elements to explore themes of race, family, and the American South.
4. The Harlem Renaissance and its Legacy: A discussion of the historical context, key figures, and lasting impact of the Harlem Renaissance.
5. Steinbeck's Social Realism: An analysis of John Steinbeck's depiction of social and economic inequalities in his novels.
6. Postmodernism and the Novel: An exploration of the key characteristics and influential authors of Postmodern American fiction.
7. Women Writers of the 20th Century: A survey of significant female authors and their contributions to American literature.
8. The Influence of War on American Literature: An examination of how World War I and World War II shaped the themes and styles of American literature.
9. Literary Criticism and 20th-Century American Literature: A guide to different critical approaches and their application to the study of 20th-century American texts.
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| 20th century american literature: Ghetto Images in Twentieth-Century American Literature Tyrone R. Simpson II, 2012-01-30 This book explores how six American writers have artistically responded to the racialization of U.S. frostbelt cities in the twentieth century. Using the critical tools of spatial theory, critical race theory, urban history and sociology, Simpson explains how these writers imagine the subjective response to the race-making power of space. |
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| 20th century american literature: Urban Underworlds Thomas Heise, 2011 Urban Underworlds is an exploration of city spaces, pathologized identities, lurid fears, and American literature. Surveying one hundred years of history, and fusing sociology, urban planning, and criminology with literary and cultural studies, it chronicles how and why marginalized populations-immigrant Americans in the Lower East Side, gays and lesbians in Greenwich Village and downtown Los Angeles, the black underclass in Harlem and Chicago, and the new urban poor dispersed across American cities-have been selectively targeted as urban underworlds and their neighborhoods. |
| 20th century american literature: Twentieth-Century Sentimentalism Jennifer A. Williamson, 2013-12-15 Today’s critical establishment assumes that sentimentalism is an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literary mode that all but disappeared by the twentieth century. In this book, Jennifer Williamson argues that sentimentalism is alive and well in the modern era. By examining working-class literature that adopts the rhetoric of “feeling right” in order to promote a proletarian or humanist ideology as well as neo-slave narratives that wrestle with the legacy of slavery and cultural definitions of African American families, she explores the ways contemporary authors engage with familiar sentimental clichés and ideals. Williamson covers new ground by examining authors who are not generally read for their sentimental narrative practices, considering the proletarian novels of Grace Lumpkin, Josephine Johnson, and John Steinbeck alongside neo-slave narratives written by Margaret Walker, Octavia Butler, and Toni Morrison. Through careful close readings, Williamson argues that the appropriation of sentimental modes enables both sympathetic thought and systemic action in the proletarian and neo-slave novels under discussion. She contrasts appropriations that facilitate such cultural work with those that do not, including Kathryn Stockett’s novel and film The Help. The book outlines how sentimentalism remains a viable and important means of promoting social justice while simultaneously recognizing and exploring how sentimentality can further white privilege. Sentimentalism is not only alive in the twentieth century. It is a flourishing rhetorical practice among a range of twentieth-century authors who use sentimental tactics in order to appeal to their readers about a range of social justice issues. This book demonstrates that at stake in their appeals is who is inside and outside of the American family and nation. |
| 20th century american literature: Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner, 2022-08-01 DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature. |
| 20th century american literature: Twentieth-Century American Poetry Christopher MacGowan, 2008-04-15 Written by a leading authority on William Carlos Williams, this book provides a wide-ranging and stimulating guide to twentieth-century American poetry. A wide-ranging and stimulating critical guide to twentieth-century American poetry. Written by a leading authority on the innovative modernist poet, William Carlos Williams. Explores the material, historical and social contexts in which twentieth-century American poetry was produced. Includes a biographical dictionary of major writers with extended entries on poets ranging from Robert Frost to Adrienne Rich. Contains a section on key texts considering major works, such as ‘The Waste Land’, ‘North & South’, ‘Howl’ and ‘Ariel’. The final section draws out key themes, such as American poetry, politics and war, and the process of anthologizing at the end of the century. |
| 20th century american literature: The Cambridge Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Poetry Christopher Beach, 2003-10-23 The Cambridge Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Poetry is designed to give readers a brief but thorough introduction to the various movements, schools, and groups of American poets in the twentieth century. It will help readers to understand and analyze modern and contemporary poems. The first part of the book deals with the transition from the nineteenth-century lyric to the modernist poem, focussing on the work of major modernists such as Robert Frost, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, Marianne Moore, and W. C. Williams. In the second half of the book, the focus is on groups such as the poets of the Harlem Renaissance, the New Critics, the Confessionals, and the Beats. In each chapter, discussions of the most important poems are placed in the larger context of literary, cultural, and social history. |
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| 20th century american literature: Twentieth-Century and Contemporary American Literature in Context [4 Volumes] Linda De Roche, 2021-06-04 This four-volume reference work surveys American literature from the early 20th century to the present day, featuring a diverse range of American works and authors and an expansive selection of primary source materials. Bringing useful and engaging material into the classroom, this four-volume set covers more than a century of American literary history--from 1900 to the present. Twentieth-Century and Contemporary American Literature in Context profiles authors and their works and provides overviews of literary movements and genres through which readers will understand the historical, cultural, and political contexts that have shaped American writing. Twentieth-Century and Contemporary American Literature in Context provides wide coverage of authors, works, genres, and movements that are emblematic of the diversity of modern America. Not only are major literary movements represented, such as the Beats, but this work also highlights the emergence and development of modern Native American literature, African American literature, and other representative groups that showcase the diversity of American letters. A rich selection of primary documents and background material provides indispensable information for student research. Covers significant authors, including those neglected by history, and their works from major historical and cultural periods of the last century, including authors writing today Situates authors' works not only within their own canon but also with the historical and cultural context of the U.S. more broadly Positions primary documents after specific authors or works, allowing readers to read excerpts critically in light of the entries Examines literary movements, forms, and genres that also pay special attention to multi-ethnic and women writers |
| 20th century american literature: American Literature and the Long Downturn Dan Sinykin, 2020-02-20 Apocalypse shapes the experience of millions of Americans. Not because they face imminent cataclysm, however true this is, but because apocalypse is a story they tell themselves. It offers a way out of an otherwise irredeemably unjust world. Adherence to it obscures that it is a story, rather than a description of reality. And it is old. Since its origins among Jewish writers in the first centuries BCE, apocalypse has recurred as a tempting and available form through which to express a sense of hopelessness. Why has it appeared with such force in the US now? What does it mean? This book argues that to find the meaning of our apocalyptic times we need to look at the economics of the last five decades, from the end of the postwar boom. After historian Robert Brenner, this volume calls this period the long downturn. Though it might seem abstract, the economics of the long downturn worked its way into the most intimate experiences of everyday life, including the fear that there would be no tomorrow, and this fear takes the form of 'neoliberal apocalypse'. The varieties of neoliberal apocalypse--horror at the nation's commitment to a racist, exclusionary economic system; resentment about threats to white supremacy; apprehension that the nation has unleashed a violence that will consume it; claustrophobia within the limited scripts of neoliberalism; suffocation under the weight of debt--together form the discordant chord that hums under American life in the twenty-first century. For many of us, for different reasons, it feels like the end is coming soon and this book explores how we came to this, and what it has meant for literature. |
| 20th century american literature: The Real Negro Shelly Eversley, 2004-03-29 In this book, Shelly Eversley historicizes the demand for racial authenticity - what Zora Neale Hurston called 'the real Negro' - in twentieth-century American literature. Eversley argues that the modern emergence of the interest in 'the real Negro' transforms the question of what race an author belongs into a question of what it takes to belong to |
| 20th century american literature: Images of Women in 20th-Century American Literature and Culture Janina Corda, 2015-12-09 |
| 20th century american literature: Moral Agents: Eight Twentieth-Century American Writers Edward Mendelson, 2015-03-10 A deeply considered and provocative new look at major American writers—including Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, and W.H. Auden—Edward Mendelson’s Moral Agents is also a work of critical biography in the great tradition of Plutarch, Samuel Johnson, and Emerson. Any important writer, in Mendelson’s view, writes in response to an idea of the good life that is inseparable from the life the writer lives. Fusing biography and criticism and based on extensive new research, Moral Agents presents challenging new portraits of eight writers—novelists, critics, and poets—who transformed American literature in the turbulent twentieth century. Eight sharply distinctive individuals—inspired, troubled, hugely ambitious—who reimagined what it means to be a writer. There’s Saul Bellow, a novelist determined to rule as a patriarch, who, having been neglected by his father, in turn neglected his son in favor of young writers who presented themselves as his literary heirs. Norman Mailer’s extraordinary ambition, suppressed insecurity, and renegade metaphysics muddled the novels through which he hoped to change the world, yet these same qualities endowed him with an uncanny sensitivity and deep sympathy to the pathologies of American life that make him an unequaled political reporter. William Maxwell wrote sad tales of small-town life and surrounded himself with a coterie of worshipful admirers. As a powerful editor at The New Yorker, he exercised an enormous and constraining influence on American fiction that is still felt today. Preeminent among the critics is Lionel Trilling, whose Liberal Imagination made him a celebrity sage of the anxiously tranquilized 1950s, even as his calculated image of Olympian reserve masked a deeply conflicted life and contributed to his ultimately despairing worldview. Dwight Macdonald, by contrast, was a haute-WASP anarchist and aesthete driven by an exuberant moral commitment, in a time of cautious mediocrity, to doing the right thing. Alfred Kazin, from a poor Jewish émigré background, remained an outsider at the center of literary New York, driven both to escape from and do justice to the deepest meanings of his Jewish heritage. Perhaps most intriguing are the two poets, W.H. Auden and Frank O’Hara. Early in his career, Auden was tempted to don the mantle of the poet as prophet, but after his move from England to America he lived and wrote in a spirit of modesty and charity born out of a deeply idiosyncratic understanding of Christianity. O’Hara, tireless partygoer and pioneering curator at MoMA, wrote much of his poetry for private occasions. Its lasting power has proven to be something different from its avant-garde reputation: personal warmth, individuality, rootedness in ancient traditions, and openness to the world. |
| 20th century american literature: The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry Ilan Stavans, 2012-03-27 Presents a diverse sample of twentieth century Latin American poems from eighty-four authors in Spanish, Portuguese, Ladino, Spanglish, and several indigenous languages with English translations on facing pages. |
| 20th century american literature: Prison Writing in 20th-Century America H. Bruce Franklin, 1998-06-01 Harrowing in their frank detail and desperate tone, the selections in this anthology pack an emotional wallop...Should be required reading for anyone concerned about the violence in our society and the high rate of recidivism.—Publishers Weekly. Includes work by: Jack London, Nelson Algren, Chester Himes,Jack Henry Abbott, Robert Lowell, Malcolm X, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and Piri Thomas. |
| 20th century american literature: Crossing the Line Gayle Wald, 2000-07-24 As W. E. B. DuBois famously prophesied in The Souls of Black Folk, the fiction of the color line has been of urgent concern in defining a certain twentieth-century U.S. racial “order.” Yet the very arbitrariness of this line also gives rise to opportunities for racial “passing,” a practice through which subjects appropriate the terms of racial discourse. To erode race’s authority, Gayle Wald argues, we must understand how race defines and yet fails to represent identity. She thus uses cultural narratives of passing to illuminate both the contradictions of race and the deployment of such contradictions for a variety of needs, interests, and desires. Wald begins her reading of twentieth-century passing narratives by analyzing works by African American writers James Weldon Johnson, Jessie Fauset, and Nella Larsen, showing how they use the “passing plot” to explore the negotiation of identity, agency, and freedom within the context of their protagonists' restricted choices. She then examines the 1946 autobiography Really the Blues, which details the transformation of Milton Mesirow, middle-class son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, into Mezz Mezzrow, jazz musician and self-described “voluntary Negro.” Turning to the 1949 films Pinky and Lost Boundaries, which imagine African American citizenship within class-specific protocols of race and gender, she interrogates the complicated representation of racial passing in a visual medium. Her investigation of “post-passing” testimonials in postwar African American magazines, which strove to foster black consumerism while constructing “positive” images of black achievement and affluence in the postwar years, focuses on neglected texts within the archives of black popular culture. Finally, after a look at liberal contradictions of John Howard Griffin’s 1961 auto-ethnography Black Like Me, Wald concludes with an epilogue that considers the idea of passing in the context of the recent discourse of “color blindness.” Wald’s analysis of the moral, political, and theoretical dimensions of racial passing makes Crossing the Line important reading as we approach the twenty-first century. Her engaging and dynamic book will be of particular interest to scholars of American studies, African American studies, cultural studies, and literary criticism. |
| 20th century american literature: The Facts on File Companion to 20th-century American Poetry Burt Kimmelman, 2005-01-01 Includes more than six hundred A-to-Z entries which provide concise information on particular poems, poets, and subjects which have contributed to this literary form. |
| 20th century american literature: Twentieth-Century Southern Literature J. A. BryantJr., 2021-11-21 Authors discussed include: Wendell Berry, Erskine Caldwell, Truman Capote, Ralph Ellison, William Faulkner, Shelby Foote, Zora Neal Hurston, Bobbie Ann Mason, Cormac McCarthy, Flannery O'Connor, William Styron, Anne Tyler, Alice Walker, Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, Thomas Wolfe, Richard Wright, and many more. By World War II, the Southern Renaissance had established itself as one of the most significant literary events of the century, and today much of the best American fiction is southern fiction. Though the flowering of realistic and local-color writing during the first two decades of the century was a sign of things to come, the period between the two world wars was the crucial one for the South's literary development: a literary revival in Richmond came to fruition; at Vanderbilt University a group of young men produced The Fugitive, a remarkable, controversial magazine that published some of the century's best verse in its brief run; and the publication and widespread recognition of Faulkner (among others) inaugurated the great flood of southern writing that was to follow in novels, short stories, poetry, and plays. With more than forty years of experience writing and reading about the subject, and friendships with many of the figures discussed, J. A. Bryant is uniquely qualified to provide the first comprehensive account of southern American literature since 1900. Bryant pays attention to both the cultural and the historical context of the works and authors discussed, and presents the information in an enjoyable, accessible style. No lover of great American literature can afford to be without this book. |
| 20th century american literature: The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-century American Poetry Rita Dove, 2011 An anthology of twentieth-century American poetry, featuring Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Hayden, Gwendolyn Brooks, Derek Walcott, Adrienne Rich, John Ashbery, Anne Sexton, and many others. |
| 20th century american literature: Harper's Anthology of Twentieth Century Native American Poetry Duane Niatum, 1988-05-14 Representing the work of thirty-one poets since the turn of the century, this is the definitive anthology of Native American poetry. |
| 20th century american literature: Handbook of the American Novel of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries Timo Müller, 2017-01-11 Increasing specialization within the discipline of English and American Studies has shifted the focus of scholarly discussion toward theoretical reflection and cultural contexts. These developments have benefitted the discipline in more ways than one, but they have also resulted in a certain neglect of close reading. As a result, students and researchers interested in such material are forced to turn to scholarship from the 1960s and 1970s, much of which relies on dated methodological and ideological presuppositions. The handbook aims to fill this gap by providing new readings of texts that figure prominently in the literature classroom and in scholarly debate − from James’s The Ambassadors to McCarthy’s The Road. These readings do not revert naively to a time “before theory.” Instead, they distil the insights of literary and cultural theory into concise introductions to the historical background, the themes, the formal strategies, and the reception of influential literary texts, and they do so in a jargon-free language accessible to readers on all levels of qualification. |
| 20th century american literature: Afro-American Literature in the Twentieth Century Michael G. Cooke, 1984 For the serious student of black writers and black writing, this book is provocative and challenging, not to mention original. If one's appetite for black literature is large, this book will be a continuous source of nourishment.-Charlayne Hunter-Gault |
| 20th century american literature: Are We what We Eat? William R. Dalessio, 2012 Over the last forty years, scenes that prominently feature acts of preparing and eating food have filled the pages of novels and memoirs written by American immigrants and their descendants because these writers understand that eating is more than a purely biological function but, instead, works to define who we are in the United States and abroad. Are We What We Eat? critically analyzes eight of these pieces of ethnic American literature, which demonstrate the important role that cooking and eating play in the process of identity formation. With the growing scholarly and popular interests in food and ethnicity in the United States, Are We What We Eat? is a timely analysis of food in literature and culture. To date, much of the scholarship on cooking and eating in ethnic American literature has focused on a specific ethnic group, but has not examined, in any in depth way, the similarities among the different ethnic and racial groups that comprise American culture. Are We What We Eat? presents a cross-cultural analysis that considers the common experiences among several ethnic cultures and, at the same time, recognizes the different ways that each culture was (and in some cases, still is) marginalized by the dominant American one. With analysis that is articulate and accessible to most, Are We What We Eat? will be an illuminating study for all who are interested in food, ethnicity, or gender in American culture. |
| 20th century american literature: Rethinking Postmodern Subjectivity Zuzanna Ladyga, 2009 What is postmodern literary subjectivity? How to talk about it without falling in the trap of negative hyper-essentialism or being seduced by exuberant lit speak? One way out of this dilemma, as this book suggests, is via a redefinition of the concept in the context of Emmanuel Levinas and his radical ethics. By defining subjectivity as an ethically charged act of language, Levinas provides a fresh perspective on the often trivialized aspects of postmodern poetics such as referentiality and affect construction strategies. The foregrounding of the ethical dimension of those poetic elements has far-reaching consequences for how we read postmodern texts and understand postmodernism in general. Thus, to prove the benefits of the Levinasian approach, the author applies it to the work of the canonical American postmodernist, Donald Barthelme, and explains the distinctly ethical character of his apparently surfictional experiments. |
| 20th century american literature: The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger, 2024-06-28 The Catcher in the Rye," written by J.D. Salinger and published in 1951, is a classic American novel that explores the themes of adolescence, alienation, and identity through the eyes of its protagonist, Holden Caulfield. The novel is set in the 1950s and follows Holden, a 16-year-old who has just been expelled from his prep school, Pencey Prep. Disillusioned with the world around him, Holden decides to leave Pencey early and spend a few days alone in New York City before returning home. Over the course of these days, Holden interacts with various people, including old friends, a former teacher, and strangers, all the while grappling with his feelings of loneliness and dissatisfaction. Holden is deeply troubled by the "phoniness" of the adult world and is haunted by the death of his younger brother, Allie, which has left a lasting impact on him. He fantasizes about being "the catcher in the rye," a guardian who saves children from losing their innocence by catching them before they fall off a cliff into adulthooda. The novel ends with Holden in a mental institution, where he is being treated for a nervous breakdown. He expresses some hope for the future, indicating a possible path to recovery.. |
| 20th century american literature: The Labour of Laziness in Twentieth-century American Literature Zuzanna Ladyga, 2021 This text argues that major twentieth-century American writers such as Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, John Barth, Donald Barthelme, and David Foster Wallace provocatively challenge the ethos of productivity by filtering their ethical interventions through culturally stigmatised imagery of laziness. |
| 20th century american literature: Father–Daughter Incest in Twentieth-Century American Literature Christine Grogan, 2016-10-03 The first major study to challenge the narrow definition of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by rereading six American literary texts, this book argues for the importance of literature in representing not just circumscribed, singular traumatic events, as Cathy Caruth argued in the late nineties, but for giving voice to chronic and cumulative, or complex, traumatic experiences. This interdisciplinary study traces the development of father–daughter incest narratives published in the last hundred years, from male-authored fiction to female-authored memoir, bringing new readings to Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night, Ellison’s Invisible Man, and the Dylan Farrow-Woody Allen case. This study builds on the work of those ushering in a second-wave of trauma theory, which has argued that the difficulty of speaking about a traumatic experience is not necessarily caused by neurobiological changes that prevent victims from recalling details. Rather, it’s from social and political repercussions. In other words, they argue that many who experience trauma aren’t unable to deliver accounts; they fear the results. There is a significant gender component to trauma, whose implications, along with those of race and class, have largely gone unexamined in the first-wave of trauma theory. Exploring two additional questions about articulating trauma, this book asks what happens when the voice of trauma is crying out from what Toni Morrison has called the “most delicate,” “most vulnerable” member of society: a female child; and, second, what happens when the trauma is not just a time-limit event but chronic and cumulative experiences. Some traumatic experiences, namely father–daughter incest, are culturally reduced to the untellable, and yet accounts of paternal incest are readily available in American literature. This book is written in part as a response to the psychological community which failed to include complex PTSD in the latest edition of the DSM (DSM-5), denying victims, many of whom are father–daughter incest survivors, the validation and recognition they deserve and leaving many misdiagnosed and thereby mistreated. |
| 20th century american literature: 20th Century American Short Stories Jean A. McConochie, 1995 A collection of twentieth-century Amrican short stories designed specifically for the ESL/EFL students. |
| 20th century american literature: Labour of Laziness in Twentieth-Century American Literature Zuzanna Ladyga, 2019-07-04 This text argues that major twentieth-century American writers such as Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, John Barth, Donald Barthelme, and David Foster Wallace provocatively challenge the ethos of productivity by filtering their ethical interventions through culturally stigmatised imagery of laziness. |
| 20th century american literature: When Malindy Sings Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1903 |
| 20th century american literature: The Modernist Nation Michael Soto, 2004-05-18 A fresh look at American literary modernism. |
| 20th century american literature: Twentieth-Century American Writers Elizabeth Meehan, 2000 Profiles the lives and work of the following twentieth-century American writers: John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, James Baldwin, Flannery O'Connor, and Toni Morrison. |
| 20th century american literature: Twentieth-Century American Poetry Christopher MacGowan, 2008-04-15 Written by a leading authority on William Carlos Williams, this book provides a wide-ranging and stimulating guide to twentieth-century American poetry. A wide-ranging and stimulating critical guide to twentieth-century American poetry. Written by a leading authority on the innovative modernist poet, William Carlos Williams. Explores the material, historical and social contexts in which twentieth-century American poetry was produced. Includes a biographical dictionary of major writers with extended entries on poets ranging from Robert Frost to Adrienne Rich. Contains a section on key texts considering major works, such as ‘The Waste Land’, ‘North & South’, ‘Howl’ and ‘Ariel’. The final section draws out key themes, such as American poetry, politics and war, and the process of anthologizing at the end of the century. |
| 20th century american literature: Racism and Xenophobia in Early Twentieth-Century American Fiction Wisam Abughosh Chaleila, 2020-12-29 The Melting Pot, The Land of The Free, The Land of Opportunity. These tropes or nicknames apparently reflect the freedom and open-armed welcome that the United States of America offers. However, the chronicles of history do not complement that image. These historical happenings have not often been brought into the focus of Modernist literary criticism, though their existence in the record is clear. This book aims to discuss these chronicles, displaying in great detail the underpinnings and subtle references of racism and xenophobia embedded so deeply in both fictional and real personas, whether they are characters, writers, legislators, or the common people. In the main chapters, literary works are dissected so as to underline the intolerance hidden behind words of righteousness and blind trust, as if such is the norm. Though history is taught, it is not so thoroughly examined. To our misfortune, we naively think that bigoted ideas are not a thing we could become afflicted with. They are antiques from the past – yet they possessed many hundreds of people and they surround us still. Since we’ve experienced very little change, it seems discipline is necessary to truly attempt to be rid of these ideas. |
| 20th century american literature: Psychological Politics of the American Dream Lois Tyson, 1994 While it is reasonable to assume that our national literature would offer a fertile field in which to explore the interaction between the ideological and psychological dimensions of American life, critics generally have kept these two domains separate, and the dominant model has consisted of an archaic notion of the individual in society. |
| 20th century american literature: Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to American Literature 1865 to Present Amy Berke, Robert Bleil, Jordan Cofer, Doug Davis, 2023-12-01 In 'Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to American Literature 1865 to Present,' editors Amy Berke, Robert Bleil, Jordan Cofer, and Doug Davis curate a comprehensive exploration of American literary evolution from the aftermath of the Civil War to contemporary times. This anthology expertly weaves a tapestry of diverse literary styles and themes, encapsulating the dynamic shifts in American culture and identity. Through carefully selected works, the collection illustrates the rich dialogue between historical contexts and literary expression, showcasing seminal pieces that have shaped American literatures landscape. The diversity of periods and perspectives offers readers a panoramic view of the countrys literary heritage, making it a significant compilation for scholars and enthusiasts alike. The contributing authors and editors, each with robust backgrounds in American literature, bring to the table a depth of scholarly expertise and a passion for the subject matter. Their collective work reflects a broad spectrum of American life and thought, aligning with major historical and cultural movements from Realism and Modernism to Postmodernism. This anthology not only marks the evolution of American literary forms and themes but also mirrors the nations complex history and diverse narratives. 'Writing the Nation' is an essential volume for those who wish to delve into the heart of American literature. It offers readers a unique opportunity to experience the multitude of voices, styles, and themes that have shaped the countrys literary tradition. This collection represents an invaluable resource for students, scholars, and anyone interested in the development of American literature and the cultural forces that have influenced it. The anthology invites readers to engage with the vibrant dialogue among its pages, fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of the United States' literary and cultural heritage. |
| 20th century american literature: A Reader's Manifesto B. R. Myers, 2002 Including: A response to critics, and: Ten rules for serious writers, the author continues his fight on behalf of the American reader, arguing against pretension in so-called literary fiction, naming names and exposing the literary status quo. |
| 20th century american literature: The Norton Anthology of American Literature Nina Baym, 2003 Includes outstanding works of American poetry, prose, and fiction from the Colonial era to the present day. |
The Significance of the Automobile in 20th C. American …
Part of the African American Studies Commons, American Literature Commons, American Material Culture Commons, American Popular Culture Commons, and the United States …
The Philosophy of the Animal in 20th Century Literature
Title: The Philosophy of the Animal in 20th Century Literature Institution: Florida Atlantic University Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Andrew Furman Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Year: 2009 The …
A Survey of American Literature from the Beginnings to 2020
An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution. Kurant, Wendy, Becoming America: An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution …
From Reality to Fiction: How Women’s Mental Health was …
From Reality to Fiction: How Women’s Mental Health was Portrayed in 19th Century Literature Sara Mason Dr. Charlotte Rich Department of English Abstract: This thesis is an examination …
Children's Literature, Past and - JSTOR
20th century. Twentieth Century: 1900-1945 The 20th century saw the establishment of a professional field of litera-ture for children and young adults. Professional associations and …
Banned Books: Censorship, Ethics and Twentieth-Century …
subject of depicting sex in literature. Our third case study will be The Master and Margarita, a Soviet-era novel that was heavily censored. We will explore how censorship in the Soviet …
Black to White Passing in Late 19th- / Early 20th-Century …
Black to White Passing in Late 19th- / Early 20th-Century American Literature An honors thesis for the Department of English Alanna D. Tuller Tufts University, 2013 ... American society and law …
20th Century American Literature - archive.taftcollege.edu
English (ENGL) 2750 British Literature 2 (3 Units) CSU:UC . Prerequisite: Successful completion of English 1500 with a grade of “C” or better . ... This course is a study of selected works of …
AML4242: Studies in 20th Century American Literature and …
Teenage Dream: The American Teenager & Literature Summer A 2014 | Section 01G8 MTWRF 3 | Turlington 2333 Instructor: Casey Wilson Email: kubrtm@ufl.edu Office Hours: Tuesday and …
Twentieth-Century Latin American Literary Studies and …
208 STCL, Volume 19, No. 2 (Summer, 1995) evolution appears clearly in the twentieth-anniversary issue (1992) of Latin American Literary Review Educated Guesses: Personal …
The Transformation of Gender and Sexuality in 1920s …
The early twentieth century ushered in a new age of sexual expression and attempted gender balance. Secular thinking became more ... goal of this project is to describe the transformation …
Introduction to Twentieth-Century Literature - Rutgers …
Introduction to Twentieth-Century Literature Author: Andrew Goldstone Created Date: 4/10/2017 3:05:19 PM ...
Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature - New Prairie Press
Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature Volume 44 Issue 1 Article 10 June 2020 Walt Hunter. Forms of a World: Contemporary Poetry and the Making of Globalization. Fordham UP, 2019. …
MELA 5793 20th Century American Literature - uafs.edu
MELA 5793 20th Century American Literature Credit Hours: 3 Lecture Hours: 3 Laboratory hours: 0 Prerequisites: Admission to the M.Ed. program. Effective Catalog: 2019-2020 ... A. …
Postmodern Belief: American Literature and Religion since …
Amy Hungerfords Postmodern Belief : American Literature and Religion since i960 mounts an ambitious and important intervention into the study of postwar American literature and culture. …
'Suddenly and Shockingly Black': The Atavistic Child in Turn …
coursesin 19th-century American literatureandhas publishedarticleson late-19th-andearly-20th-century Americanfiction. JulieCaryNeradis AssistantProfessorat Morgan StateUniversity. She …
'The Hairy Ape' in the Context of Early 20th Century …
Early 20th Century American Modernism Thomas F. Connolly Suffolk University {This paper began as a presentation at the American Literature Association's April 2001 panel on O'Neill …
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American Women's Literature in the Twentieth Centurv: A Survev of Some Feminist rinds Helge Normann Nilsen University of Trondheim One might argue that the history of American …
SPANISH LITERATURE (20TH CENTURY) - Academic …
• The XXth century in the global context of the History of Spanish Literature. • The act of reading, today. · From the end-of-century crisis to the Civil War A. The beginnings of the literary …
JEWISH AMERICAN LITERATURE - Cambridge University …
JEWISH AMERICAN LITERATURE This History off ers an unparalleled examination of all aspects of Jewish American literature. Jewish writing has played a central role in the formation of the …
A Brief History of American Literature - ucg.ac.me
5 Negotiating the American Century: American Literature since 1945 249 Towards a Transnational Nation 249 Formalists and Confessionals 249 Public and Private Histories 263 …
STUDIES IN 20th CENTURY LITERATURE - JSTOR
Special strengths in 19th- and 20th-century American, British, and Irish literary culture, Renaissance literature, feminist literary studies, literary theory James Joyce Quarterly and …
Department of English and American Literature - Brandeis …
6 - 19th-century American literature 7 - 20th-century literature 8 - Miscellaneous literary subjects 9 - Writing courses Requirements for the Undergraduate Major Literature Major Nine semester …
LANG 3002 20th Century American Literature - Western …
LANG 3002 20th Century American Literature 1 LANG 3002 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE Credit Points 10 Legacy Code 102099 Coordinator James Gourley …
Modernism - Saylor Academy
fifteen years of the 20th century a series of writers, thinkers, and artists made the break with traditional means of organizing literature, painting, and music. Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles …
Women Writers and Dissent in 20th and 21st Century …
Women Writers and Dissent in 20th and 21st Century American Literature Curriculum Unit 00.04.02 by Leslie Fellows Objectives My primary goal is to introduce tenth-graders to the …
A HISTORY OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN …
American poetry – 20th century – History and criticism. | Women and literature – United States – History – 20th century. | Women in literature. | Feminist literary criticism – United States – …
Images of Women in 20th-Century American Literature and …
Images of Women in 20th-Century American Literature and Culture. Female emancipation and changing gender roles in The Age of Innocence, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Sex and the City …
DOSTOVESKY AND Oâ•ŽCONNOR: AN EXAMINATION OF …
When!examining!writers!who!are!considered!religious!writers,!a!stereotype! associated!with!these!writers!are!that!they!are!creating!merely!to!espouse!dogma.!
STUDIES IN 20th CENTURY LITERATURE - JSTOR
Special strengths in 19th- and 20th-century American, British, and Irish literary culture, Renaissance literature, feminist literary studies, literary theory James Joyce Quarterly and …
The Poetry of a Movement: An Analysis of 20th Century …
poets and their literature i ncludi ng cont ext ual research about t he Ci vil Ri ght s Movement as wel l as biographical information about t he poet s and t he poems chosen f or t hi s i nvest i …
Anthologies of African-American Literature from 1845 to …
ANTHOLOGIES OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE FROM 1845 TO 1994 by Keneth Kinnamon Although anthologies of African-American literature have appeared mainly in the …
The New Marxist Criticism - JSTOR
The history of 20th Century American literary criticism has been essentially dialectical: each critical movement has started in rejec tion of the current, prevailing methodologies and in …
Afro-American Literature in the Twentieth Century: The …
Afro-American Literature in the Twentieth Century is a useful study in that it leads literary analysis of this body of writing in a new direction. While the theory is limited as a means of …
Sample Syllabus - University of Connecticut
English 3207: American Literature Since the Mid-Twentieth Century This course will address the formal and thematic evolution of American literature from the mid-twentieth century to the …
An Incurable Malady? Representations of Female Madness in …
In literature, madness has been represented for centuries metaphorically and literally as a feminine ailment, and continues to be gendered into the present-day, both in literary works and …
Trends in Twentieth-Century American Literary Culture: Henry
century, while his career aptly illustrates the changing American literary landscape during that period. The considerable ebb and flow of Roth’s fortunes as a writer can in numerous ways be …
Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature - newprairiepress.org
Part of the American Literature Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, Cultural History Commons, Intellectual History Commons, Modern Literature Commons, and the Slavic …
The Presentation of Modernity by Trains in Twentieth …
of Time and Space in the Nineteenth Century, cultural historian Wolfgang Schivelbusch argues that the railroad was the most dramatic symbol of modernity in the 19th century [2]. This paper …
American Literature Readings in the 21st Century - Springer
Revision as resistance in twentieth-century American drama / Meredith M. Malburne-Wade. pages cm.—(American literature readings in the 21st century) Based on the author’s thesis …
AMERICAN LITERATURE IN TRANSITION, - Cambridge …
American Literature in Transition, 1930 1940 edited by ichiro takayoshi American Literature in Transition, 1940 1950 edited by christopher vials American Literature in Transition, 1950 1960 …
MUSIC AND IDENTITY IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY …
American literature—20th century—History and criticism. 4. Latin American literature—20th century—History and criticism. I. Title. ML79.K38 2014 809’.933578097—dc23 2014008120 A …
AND CULTURE GENDER IN AMERICAN LITERATURE
Nineteenth-Century America Literature (2018) and Wounded Hearts: Masculinity, Law, and Literature in American Culture (2005), and the coeditor of Digital Humanities: Tools and …
Censorship, LGBTQ Literature, and the First Amendment: The …
The 20th Century and Today ... new literature, and in the two years after Obergefell v Hodges, 54 and 79 young adult LGBTQ books were published respectively. Those numbers grew …
THIRTY YEARS OF BLACK AMERICAN LITERATURE AND …
Keywords: Black literature; African American literature; popular Black literature; Black women's writing Since the founding of African American studies at the Univer- ... the most significant …
Breaking Silence: Asian American Poetry In the Late 20th …
Jul 28, 2023 · narrow field of Asian American critical literature, poetry remained disproportionately underrepresented, and thus underestimated in its role in history. Yet Asian American poetry of …
“High Modernism”: The Avant-Garde in the Early 20th …
Chapter 8: Early 20th Century Avant-Garde 3 movements. All of these trajectories were generated in Western Europe. We conclude the chapter with the first great American avant-garde …
the cambridge history of AMERICAN WOMEN’S LITERATURE
AMERICAN WOMEN’S LITERATURE The field of American women’s writing is one characterized by innovation: scholars are discovering new authors and works, as well as new …
“20th Century Literature”—Scope and Sequence: Schedule …
5 Classic American Literature; Poetry Music Review; The Spirit of the Age 6 Classic American Literature; Poetry Choose research topic and begin pre-liminary research; “Deep” Description; …
Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Short Story Collections
Sep 10, 2018 · 20 SEPTEM BER/ OCT 2018 O NE OF THE INDIRECT CASUALTIES of the declining magazine market has been the short story. With the exception of the New Yorker …
