The Pu’litzer Prize in l-re. (The highest literature award).

In 1864

When Joseph Pulitzer came to the USA (from Hungary, 1864), he was 17 and he was
another unknown immigrant. By the time he was 40, his energetic successful career
in journalism had changed the entire philosophy of metropolitan newspaper opera-
tion. Pulitzer amazed a fortune as owner and publisher of American newspapers and
magazines. He was determined to exert a lasting influence in Am. journalism and let-
ters. And he bequeathed (заповів) a generous amount of his wealth to Columbia Uni-
versity.

Pulitzer bequest made possible the establishment of the school of journalism at Co-
lumbia University. It also provided an annual fund awarded in prizes for superior ac-
complishments in journalism, letters, music, and the remainder in traveling scholar-
ships in journalism and art. The Pulitzer Prize in letters has become the most impor-
tant literary award in the US. It is announced on the first Monday in May. The prize
is given for excellence in fiction, drama, American history, American biography or
autobiography, general non-fiction, and verse.

To be eligible, a book or a play must be:

1) The work of an American author;
2) Published during the year for which it is nominated;
3) Its subject matter should deal preferably with American life.

This award is given on the decision of the trustees of the Columbia university acting
upon the recommendations of the advisory part of the school of journalism confer the
awards.

It was first awarded in 1917. The P. P. Winners: Pearl Buck (1962), John Updike,
John Cheever (1979), William Wolkna (1955).

Modern American literature plays a significant role in education because it gives

much information about the society, the history of the US. Studying American litera-
ture in other countries arouse foreign people to understand the American culture, her-
itage, and the accomplishments (of the prizes.)

The realistic tradition in American literature of the 20th century. (To the) The
realistic modernity.

There is no one pattern or type that covers all the modern American Novel. But in
general American literature is characterized by the revolt against the form and the
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subject matter of the 19 century literature. This revolt set off great changes in the
novel. Plot became less important. Sometimes even to the exclusion because the au-
thor was concentrated on psychology and it led authors to concentration on charac-
ters. Yet along with long, subjective, sometimes, episodic novels, short tightly plotted
novels like Edith Wharton’s continued to appear. Interest in psychology, together
with the uncertainty and complexity of modern life, was also largely responsible for
bringing the realistic and naturalistic novel to a dominant position. This goes for
modern American short stories too.

Thou an immense campaign was begun at the beginning of the century in American
magazines and a cheerful look upon American industrial conditions was popular and
was made synonymous to patriotism and that a result when the writers had to adapt to
the editorial demands. But there was another trend coming into force in American lit-
erature. One of the most famous American critic E. Hudson Long in his introduction
to “The American Tradition in Literature” entitled “The Emergence of Modern
American Literature” says “A comparatively few authors, with more limited audience
became pioneers of the literature now recognized as “modern” in spirit and form.

In the largest sense this realistic modernity in a work of literature results from several
factors”. Among those factors he mentions such as:

1. Strict analytical observation of the subject,

2. The determination to portray it exactly,
3. An increased awareness of psychological phenomena, which enlarges the writer’s
scope in the selection of materials
4. Touching upon the subjects that might once have been rejected as too common-
place or as actually sordid
5. The full recognition (awareness) of the writer’s social function as the critic and
interpreter of life.

The representatives:

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Frank Norris started the 20 century with his “Epic of Wheat” that he didn’t live to
finish (‘The Octopus, 1901 and “The Pit”, 1903) where he paved the way for 20 cen-
tury critical realism showing the Californian farmers’ struggle against railroad ty-
coons speculating at the Stock Exchange. He let the reader see them gambling with
the product of farmers’ hard labor.

Upton Sinclair published the “Jungle”, which exposed labour and sanitary (appalling
working) conditions in the US meat-packing industry. Jack London published the
“Iron Heel”. The main premise of the book is the rise of the social mass movement in
the US, strong enough to have a real chance of winning national elections and getting
the power and implementing a radical social regime. That was the realistic modernity.

Naturalism

Naturalism is a literary movement that emphasizes observation and the scientific

method in the fictional portrayal of reality. Naturalistic novels would offer an experi-
ment where the author could discover and analyze the forces, or scientific laws, that
influenced behavior, and these included emotion, heredity, and environment. Other
characteristics of literary naturalism includes detachment, in which the author main-
tains an impersonal tone and disinterested point of view; determinism, which is de-
fined as the opposite of free will, in which the character’s fate has been decided, even
predetermined, by impersonal forces of nature beyond human control ; and a sense
that the universe itself is indifferent to human life. The paradox of naturalism is that it
helps to contrary or even contrasting views. They are: human behavior is the result of
free will and in the same time yet also the behavior is determined by natural laws.

Through this objective study of human beings, naturalistic writers believed that the
laws behind the forces that govern human lives might be studied and understood.
Naturalistic writers thus used a version of the scientific method to write their novels;
they studied human beings governed by their instincts and passions as well as the
ways in which the characters' lives were governed by forces of heredity and (social)
environment. Although they used the techniques of accumulating detail pioneered by
the realists, the naturalists thus had a specific object in mind when they chose the seg-
ment of reality that they wished to convey.

The most typical representative of this period of the first part of the 20th century was
Theodore Dreaser. Some American critics consider Theodore Dreiser a naturalist,
others consider him a critical realist, but none of them can deny the important role
Dreiser’s creative activity played in the development of Modern American Literature.
He is closer to naturalist.

Theodore Dreiser had a childhood of bitter poverty in an immigrant family. They suf-
fered all the deprivations brought about by lack of education, skill and status. Be-
cause of his unhappy childhood Dreiser was more concerned with society’s effect on
a person than with man apart from his environment. The surface details abound in his
works are out of date ( peoples clothes, their speeches, jobs), but his treatment of the
social forces which produce the murderers and prostitutes is modern. Dreiser was one
of the first important writers to come from the lowest levels of society, rather than
from a long middle-class tradition, and in this he was the precursor of much that is
good in contemporary American writing.

In his novels Dreiser tried to treat human beings scientifically rather than intuitively.
He saw that life was hard and he found, in social Darwinism and in the theory of Zola
and the naturalists, the explanation that man is the product of social forces and pro-
cesses and of an inevitable kind of social evolution. In his works he showed that a
gulf existed between the dream America promised on the one hand , and the reality of
graft, hypocrisy and callousness that was apparent, on the other. Dreiser’s tone is al-
ways serious, never satirical or comic. Critics consider that some of his works are
based on his own experience or on the experience of his immediate family, like Sis-
ter Carrie, others are fictional recreations of actual happenings, like his well-known
novel An American Tragedy.

Dreiser started as a reporter. His work for newspapers and magazines influenced his
artistic style. His novels deal with everyday life, often with its sordid side. The char-
acters who people his novels are unable to assert their will against natural and eco-
nomic forces. They are mixtures of good and bad. But Dreiser seldom passes judg-
ment on them. He describes them and their actions in massive detail. As Dreiser sees
them, human beings are not just tragic but pathetic in their inability to escape their
petty fates. In the end the weight and power of the author’s conviction compel the
reader to share his compassionate vision.
Sister Carrie is based on the life story of one of his sisters. It is a novel about a
girl who starts realizing her own American dream in Chicago. She first becomes a
mistress to men that she perceives as superior. She uses men and they use her. Her
fear of poverty and uncertainty determines her behaviour. She manages to become a
famous actress having given up the man who had sacrificed much to share his life
with her. First the book was considered ‘immoral’ by the publishers and critics. Only
one thousand copies was published and only seven hundred copies were sold. But
later it was recognised by the critics as ‘the best urban book.’
An American Tragedy is a comment on the American success myth promising that
anyone in the USA can make a fortune. On the other hand it’s a comment on the main
principle of American education: success is measured by the intensity and integrity of
man’s struggle, and failure consists only in a lack of efforts. The main character is an
ambitious handsome but poorly educated young man, naive and immature. He was
raised by poor and devotedly religious parents, but he didn’t like the way they lived.
Working at the hotel he saw rich people and wondered why he couldn’t enjoy the lux-
ury they enjoyed. He tried hard to get what they had, to be a success. But he was nei-
ther wise, nor strong and his efforts brought him to jail. His uncle gave him a chance,
gave him a job, but warned him that he couldn’t have any relations with factory girls.
Still, he liked one of the working girls, had a secret love affair with her and the girl
got pregnant. Just when a rich upper class girl seemed to be about to give him a
chance and he hoped to marry her and realise his dream, the pregnant girl became de-
manding and threatened to expose him, and he killed her. He was sentenced to death
and executed. Dreiser studied fifteen similar cases. He visited the criminals awaiting
the execution. In his novel he tried to show the reasons why such things happen in the
society. He blames the society and seems to show compassion for the boy spoiled by
it.