AMERICAN

LITERATURE

THE BIRTH
OF
MODERLISM
(1915-1949)
AMERICAN LITERATURE

GROUP 2 MEMBER’S
 1. NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG
 2. TÔ XUÂN THÀNH
 3. NGUYỄN THANH VŨ
 4. NGUYỄN NGỌC TỨ
 5. NGUYỄN CAO THẠCH
AMERICAN LITERATURE
CONTENTS
1. HISTORICAL CONTEXT
2. CHACRACTERISTICS 3. FAMOUS AUTHORS
Ms: Hồng Mr: Thành

THE BIRTH OF
MODERLISM (1915-
1949)

4. SOME WORKS BY PROMINENT AUTHORS:

+ The old man and the sea - Ernest Hemingwa Mr Vũ
+ The mysterious stranger - Mark Twain Mr Thạch
+ Invisible man - Ralph Ellison Mr Tứ
AMERICAN LITERATURE

1. HISTORICAL
CONTEXT
Ms: Hồng
HISTORICAL CONTEXT

WORLD WAR I
HISTORICAL CONTEXT

URBANIZATION
HISTORICAL CONTEXT

INDUSTRIALIZATION
HISTORICAL CONTEXT

IMMIGRANT

Oscar Handlin states,

“Once I thought to write
a history of the
immigrants in America.
Then I discovered that
the immigrants
were American history.”
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
TECHNOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
HISTORICAL CONTEXT

TECHNOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
PROHIBITION (1920-1933)
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
NEW ERA FOR WOMEN
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
1930s - THE GREAT DEPRESSION
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
WORLD WAR II
HISTORICAL CONTEXT

What is modernism?
 Literary modernism or modernist literature has its origins in
the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mainly in Europe and
North America
 Modernism is characterized by a self-conscious break with
traditional styles of poetry, verse and prose writing
 Modernist experimented with literary form and expression
adhering to Ezra pound’s maxim to “Make it new”
 The modernist literary movements was driven by a
conscious desire to overturn traditional modes of
representation and express the new sensibilities of their time
AMERICAN LITERATURE

THE BIRTH OF MODERLISM (1915-1949)

2. CHACRACTERISTICS
Ms: Hồng
CHACRACTERISTICS

- The major literary themes of the Modernist Era:

+ confusion, isolation, and disillusionment
+ alienation (the lost generation)
+ addressing numerous contemporary topics
- Self-conscious break with traditional styles of poetry, verse
and prose writing; Innovation in the style, form and language
- “Age of the Short Story:” serial magazines boom; writers are
paid handsomely for short stories
- Valorization of the Individual
CHACRACTERISTICS

- Flawed heroes: honorable yet imperfect, courageous

yet disillusioned
- Interest in the inner workings of the human mind,
(stream of consciousness) sometimes expressed
through new narrative techniques.
- Modernist literature also allowed for the
development of regional trends within American
literature, Including the Harlem Renaissance and
southern modernism.
- The new criticism in America
AMERICAN LITERATURE

THE BIRTH OF MODERLISM (1915-1949)

3. FAMOUS AUTHORS
Mr: Thành
FAMOUS AUTHORS
The Lost Generation
“That is what you are. That’s what you all are…
all of you young people who served in the war. You
are a lost generation.”
- Gertrude Stein
“Who is calling who a lost generation?”
- Ernest Hemingway

Pictured: Gertrude Stein with Ernest

Hemingway’s son, Jack
FAMOUS AUTHORS
The Lost Generation
-The lost generation refers to a group of writers and artists who grew up
during the First World War.

-After experiencing the horrors of the First World War, watching the
government ignore their veterans, witnessing the job market change due to an
influx of immigrants, and seeing the previous generation start to push for
Prohibition, they became distrustful of authority and government.
-The writings of the Lost Generation literary figures often pertained to the
writers' experiences in World War I and the years following it. It is said that
the work of these writers was autobiographical based on their use of
mythologized versions of their lives. One of the themes that commonly
appears in the authors' works is decadence and the frivolous lifestyle of the
wealthy.
-The L.G. mostly includes expatriate writers who left the United States for
Europe after WWI: •Ernest Hemingway •F. Scott Fitzgerald •T.S. Eliot •Ezra
Pound. You could also include writers who were heavily influenced by these
writers or WWI: •William Carlos Williams •Wilfred Owen
FAMOUS AUTHORS
The Lost Generation

F. Scott Fitzgerald Ernest Hemingway

FAMOUS AUTHORS
- Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald
(September 24, 1896 – December
21, 1940) was an American novelist,
essayist, screenwriter, and short
story writer.
- “Jazz Age” — a term which he
popularized.
- During his lifetime, he published
four novels, four collections of short
stories, and 164 short stories.

- In the 1920s
- He is widely regarded as one of the
greatest American writers of the 20th
century.
FAMOUS AUTHORS

- Some of his famous artworks:

1. This Side of Paradise (1920) 2. The Beautiful and
Damned (1922)
3. Vegatable (1923) 4. The Great Gasby (1925)
5. Tender is the Night (1934) 6. The Last Tycoon (1941)
7. The Crack-Up (1945)
FAMOUS AUTHORS
- Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899–1961) was an
American novelist, short story writer, and
journalist. He was part of the expatriate
community in Paris during the 1920s and was one
of the veterans of World War I, later known as
"The Lost Generation".
- Pulitzer Prize in 1953 - The Old Man and the
Sea
-- Nobel Prize in
The iceberg Literature
principle - 1954.
is characteristic of
Hemingway's style.
- It has been described as thrifty, concise, and influential in the development
of 20th-century literature. of his works are now considered classics of
American literature.
- Some of his famous artworks:
1. In Our Time (1925) 2. The Sun Also Rises (1926)
3. A Farewell to Arms (1929) 4. To Have and Have Not (1937)
5. For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) [Link] Old Man and the Sea (1952)
FAMOUS AUTHORS
Harlem Renaissance
- The Harlem Renaissance was an
intellectual and cultural revival of African
American music, dance, art, fashion,
literature, theater and politics centered in
Harlem, Manhattan, New York City,
spanning the 1920s and 1930s.

- The Harlem
Renaissance refers to
the period just after
WWI to the Depression
when African
American writers
produced a tremendous
amount of literary
work.
FAMOUS AUTHORS

- Writers of the Harlem Renaissance express disillusionment

with America and its promises. Their disappointment was
fueled by the continued racial strife and outbursts of prejudice
and violence.
FAMOUS AUTHORS
Harlem Renaissance

Zora Neale Hurston – one of

first successful African
American women writers in
the Harlem Renaissance.

Langston Hughes –
writer, poet who
expressed his pride in his
heritage as well as
attacking racism.
FAMOUS AUTHORS

- Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891–

January 28, 1960) was an American
author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She
portrayed racial struggles in the early-
1900s American South and published
research on hoodoo.
- Their Eyes Were Watching God -1937.
- 50 short stories, plays, and essays.
- In her career, she had an interest in African-American and Caribbean
folklore, and how these contributed to the community's identity.
- She also wrote fiction about contemporary issues in the black community
and became a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance.
- Some of his famous artworks:
1. Journey's End (Negro World, 1922), poetry
2. The Gilded Six-Bits (1933), short story
3. Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934), novel
4. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), novel
FAMOUS AUTHORS

- James Mercer Langston Hughes (1901–1967) was an American poet,

social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri.

- One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry,
Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance.

- In addition to poetry, Hughes wrote plays, and short stories. He also

published several non-fiction works.

- Some of his famous artworks:

1. Fine Clothes to the Jew (1927)
2. Not Without Laughter (1930)
3. The Ways of White Folks (1934)
4. The big sea (1940)
FAMOUS AUTHORS

SOUTHERN RENAISSANCE

- Southern Literature refers to

literature about the south of
United State or written by
southern writers who have all
tried to root their works in the
south to achieve universal
applicability.

- American southern literature reaches its summit with the

appearance of the two “giants” – Faulkner and Wolfe. There are
southern women writers – Katherine Anne Porter, Eudora Welty,
and Flannery O’Connor.
FAMOUS AUTHORS
SOUTHERN RENAISSANCE

THEMES OF SOUTHERN LITERATURE

1. The Burden of History: slavery, reconstruction, devastating
military defeat.

2. Conservative Culture: family, religion, and community

were more highly valued than one's personal and social
life.

3. Racial Issues Tone Unique feeling of guilt, failure and

poverty.
FAMOUS AUTHORS
William Faulkner
- William Cuthbert Faulkner (1897-1962) was an
American writer and Nobel Prize laureate from
Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner wrote novels, short
stories, screenplays, poetry, essays, and a play.
- 1949 Nobel Prize Winner
- The most influential and critical figure in the
Southern Renaissance
- Faulkner is one of the most celebrated writers in
American literature generally and Southern
literature specifically.
- Author of 19 novels and 4 volumes of short stories
- Some of his famous artworks:
1. Today We Live (1933) 2. Submarine Patrol (1938)
3. Malcolm Cowley's The Portable Faulkner (1946)
4. To Have and Have Not (1944) 5. A Fable (1954)
6. The Reivers (1962)
AMERICAN LITERATURE

THE BIRTH OF MODERLISM (1915-1949)

4. SOME WORKS BY PROMINENT

AUTHORS:

* The old man and the sea - Ernest Hemingwa Mr: Vũ

* The mysterious stranger - Mark Twain Mr: Thạch
* Invisible man - Ralph Ellison Mr: Tứ
The Old Man and the Sea
Hemingway

Born in 1952, after 10 years

he live in Cuba. This is the
short but most significant
novel in Hemingway’s
career, as significant as his
artistic will.

Here the hero is alienated from

human society and is left alone on
the wide sea for three days and
night. It was especially easy to
notice the alienation in this novel.
This was because throughout the
whole novel, Santiago was alone.
The Old Man and the Sea
Hemingway

He fished alone, he lived alone,

and the villagers didn’t pay
much heed to him. He wasn’t
alienated in a bad way, and he
didn’t seem to mind that he was
often alone.
The Old Man and the Sea
Hemingway

His isolation creates in him the feelings of brotherhood with

the creatures of water and air. He loves the flying fish, the
green turtles and the hawksbills and calls them brothers.
The Old Man and the Sea
Hemingway

The image of a lonely old fisherman, bravely chasing the

biggest fish in his life is a symbol of the beauty of dreams and
the arduous journey to make dreams come true. The
transformation of a painting with bare, honest and simple
features into a layer of hidden meaning is the expression of the
principle of “iceberg”. Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Old
Man and the Sea is rich in symbols.
The Old Man and the Sea
Hemingway

The old man as a symbol of someone who has optimistic life.

Manolin (the boy) as a symbol of hope. He, besides has hope,
he is the old man’s future Life.
Harpoon as a symbol of skill, skill is important especially
when they face problem or challenges. After three days of the
old man’s great struggle against the marlin harpoon can
succesfully kill that big fish
The Old Man and the Sea
Hemingway

Joe Di Maggio as a symbol of Perseverance, it is a value of

faith and braveness to follow the truth and endurance in the
pain. Di Maggio inspires him with leadership qualities and
the determination to win, in spite of handicaps. The image of
the baseball hero playing in pain gives The old man renewed
power and stamina to bear his own pain.
The Old Man and the Sea
Hemingway

- The birds help The old man to go the

direction where there is many fish by
flying in one position. By examining the
birds, The old man can catch his big fish
and for him the birds really a great help

- When a tired warbler came to

rest on his line, the Old Man
felt very happy and wished to
spread a sail for his comfort.
He felt pity for the poor bird
and thought that the life of
birds was the hardest of all
creatures.
The Old Man and the Sea
Hemingway

- Marlin as a symbol of struggle, it is men’s determination

towards evil or problem which blocks men from getting
happiness.
- He felt compassionate even to the marlin he had hooked and
called it his brother. He wished that he could feed the marlin as he
had fed himself.

Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for The Old

Man and the Sea in 1954.
The mysterious stranger
Mark Twain

MARK TWAIN

- Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835–1910), known by his pen

name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur,
publisher, and lecturer.
- His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from
critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists,
and European royalty.
The mysterious stranger
Mark Twain

- The Mysterious Stranger is a novel

attempted by the American author Mark
Twain. He worked on it intermittently from
1897 through 1908.

- Twain wrote multiple versions of the

story; each involves a supernatural character
called "Satan" or "No. 44". All the versions
remained unfinished (with the debatable
exception of the last one, No. 44, the
Mysterious Stranger).

- The three stories differ in length: The Chronicle of Young

Satan has about 55,000 words, Schoolhouse Hill 15,300 words and
No. 44, the Mysterious Stranger 65,000 words.
The mysterious stranger
Mark Twain

The first substantial version is entitled The Chronicle of Young Satan

(also referred to as "Eseldorf" version) and relates the adventures of
Satan, the sinless nephew of the biblical Satan, in Eseldorf, an
Austrian village in the year 1702. Twain wrote this version between
November 1897 and September 1900.
The mysterious stranger
Mark Twain

The second substantial text Twain attempted to write is known as

Schoolhouse Hill (or "Hannibal") version. It is set in the US and
involves the familiar characters Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer
and their adventures with Satan, referred to in this version as "No.
44, New Series 864962". Twain began writing it in November 1898.
The mysterious stranger
Mark Twain

The third text, called No. 44, the

Mysterious Stranger: It tells of No.
44's mysterious appearance at the
door of a print shop and his use of
heavenly powers to expose the
futility of mankind's existence.

This version also introduces an idea

Twain was toying with at the end of
his life involving a duality of the
"self", composed of the "Waking
Self" and the "Dream Self".
Invisible man
Ralph Ellison

- Ralph Waldo Ellison (1913–1994)

was an African-American novelist,
literary critic, and scholar best
known for his novel Invisible Man,
which won the National Book
Award in 1953.
- He also wrote Shadow and Act
(1964), a collection of political, social
and critical essays, and Going to the
Territory (1986). For The New York
Times, the best of these essays in
addition to the novel put him "among
the gods of America's literary
Parnassus."
Ralph Waldo Ellison
Invisible man
Ralph Ellison

- Invisible Man is a novel by

Ralph Ellison, published by
Random House in 1952.

- Invisible Man won the

U.S. National Book Award for
Fiction in 1953, making Ellison
the first African American writer
to win the award. In 1998, the
Modern Library ranked Invisible
Man 19th on its list of the 100
best English-language novels of
the 20th century.
Invisible man
Ralph Ellison

- It addresses many of the social and intellectual issues faced by

African Americans in the early twentieth century, including black
nationalism, the relationship between black identity and Marxism, and
the reformist racial policies of Booker T. Washington, as well as issues
of individuality and personal identity.
Invisible man
Ralph Ellison

Invisible Man is the story of a young, college-educated black man

struggling to survive and succeed in a racially divided society that refuses
to see him as a human being. Told in the form of a first-person narrative,
Invisible Man traces the nameless narrator's physical and psychological
journey from blind ignorance to enlightened awareness - or, according to
the author, "from Purpose to Passion to Perception" - through a series of
flashbacks in the forms of dreams and memories. Set in the U.S. during the
pre-Civil Rights era when segregation laws barred black Americans from
enjoying the same basic human rights as their white counterparts.
AMERICAN LITERATURE

THE BIRTH OF MODERLISM (1915-

1949)

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