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The Modern Age

The Modern Age. 1910-1930. Historical, Social, and Cultural Forces. World War I Began in 1914 Allies v. Central Powers U.S. joined war in 1917 (Lusitania) Allies won November 11, 1918 10 million soldiers died. Historical, Social, and Cultural Forces. Roaring Twenties

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The Modern Age

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  1. The Modern Age 1910-1930

  2. Historical, Social, and Cultural Forces • World War I • Began in 1914 • Allies v. Central Powers • U.S. joined war in 1917 (Lusitania) • Allies won November 11, 1918 • 10 million soldiers died

  3. Historical, Social, and Cultural Forces • Roaring Twenties • U.S. soldiers returning home • Booming economy • Jazz • Late night parties • Flappers • Prohibition • Gangsters (Al Capone)

  4. Historical, Social, and Cultural Forces • Women’s Rights • 19th Amendment passed in 1920 • Better job opportunities and military opportunities • Great Migration • African Americans left the rural South for the North. • Better jobs and living conditions • Harlem, New York was a popular place to relocate.

  5. Historical, Social, and Cultural Forces • Pop Culture • Automobiles (1913) • Radios (1920) • Movies (Talkies- 1927) • Baseball (Babe Ruth) • The Great Depression • Black Tuesday Stock Market Crash • By 1933 a quarter of the population was unemployed

  6. Modern Poetry • Characteristics • Make it new: break away from traditional poetry • Imagist movement: Direct presentation of images • Breaking the rules: Ignored all writing rules

  7. Modern Poetry • Poets • Ezra Pound • T.S. Eliot • William Carlos Williams • Amy Lowell • E.E. Cummings • Carl Sandburg • Robert Frost

  8. The Imagists • Imagist presented a concrete tangible image that appears frozen in time. • Imagist method is similar to photography

  9. Imagist Principles/Manifestos • The image is the essence, the raw material, of poetry. • Poetry should be expressed in brief, clear, concrete language that forms precise images. • Images should convey poems meaning and emotion. • Language should sound like simple speech. • Topics should not be “high-minded” or poetic. No topic is unsuitable.

  10. Modern Fiction • The Modern American Short Story • Modern writers experimented with new ways of capturing the rich complexity of human life and responded to a world that was starting over after World War I.

  11. Modern Fiction • Important Authors • Sherwood Anderson • Ernest Hemingway* • F. Scott Fitzgerald* • Henry James • Katherine Anne Porter*

  12. Modern Fiction • Stream of Consciousness • A reoccurring element in modern American fiction. • William James (brother of author Henry James) an American psychologist coined the phrase in 1890. He believed that people had a constant stream of thoughts that flow through their minds without clear logic order.

  13. Modern Fiction • Stream of Consciousness Story Elements • First person point of view • Lack of conventional sentence structure or grammar • Free associations that flow through a character’s mind and link distinctly separate events. • Interior monologue

  14. Modern Fiction • The Lost Generation • Many writers left the United States during this period and established new lives in Europe. • International perspective contrasted with the regionalism that dominated literature following the Civil War. • Themes of change, indecision, and broken attachments dominate modern fiction.

  15. Modern Fiction • Features of the Modern Short Story • Understatement (de-emphasis on the importance of something or someone) • Irony (contrast between appearance and reality) • Stream of Consciousness • Antiheroes (conflicted characters engulfed by indecision) • Everyday settings • Themes of instability and loss • Plots without clear climax or resolution

  16. Harlem Renaissance • Represented the coming of age of the African American culture. • Influenced by jazz music. The music was largely improvisational/spontaneous. Jazz inspired a an energetic social life and filled the clubs.

  17. Harlem Renaissance • The Neighborhood • Harlem became a main destination during the great migration. It was a haven for African Americans. They were able to escape the restrictions in Harlem.

  18. Important Writers • Zora Neale Hurston • Claude McKay * • Robert Hughes • Langston Hughes* • Georgia Douglas • Countee Cullen *

  19. Claude McKay • Born and educated in rural Jamaica. • Won an award for his poetry in 1912. He used his prize money to come to the US- the land of opportunity. • He was shocked by the racisim and violence he found in the US. • His poem “If We Must Die” is said to be the spark that ignited the Harlem Renissance. • Spent most of his life looking for ways to counter the “ignoble cruelty” of racism.

  20. Claude McKay

  21. Langston Hughes • Born in Joplin Missouri in 1902 • Traveled around the U.S. and lived in six different cities by the time he was 12. • His writing celebrated the dignity of ordinary, working-class African Americans. • His poetry helped many people to look past stereotypical views of African Americans. • He is considered the poet laureate of Harlem.

  22. Langston Hughes

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