The Contemporary Period

1. The Contemporary Period Prosperity and Protest 1946-Present

2. Change • This was a time of great change!!! • Women’s Rights • Civil Rights • Entertainment

3. Historical Background • After WWII, America is most powerful nation • Jubilation after war ended, and there was great prosperity. • Beginning of the Cold War, nuclear age

4. Soviet Union taking over East Europe • United Nations created in 1945 • Cold War began right after WWII • 1950, American soldiers helped South Korean ward off North Korea.

5. 1950s are the “silent Generation” • President Eisenhower praised • October 1957, Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth. • Americans inspired

6. Kennedy assassinated in 1963. • Shortly after came the war in Vietnam • People protesting • People cried for more civil rights, “relevance” in education, and an end to Vietnam war

7. Segregation outlawed in 1954 • Martin Luther King killed in 1968 in Memphis, TN • Rioting

8. Literature of the Period • Change was brought to literature. Let’s look at some of the differences between the Modernism and Postmodernism literature.

9. Modernism • 1.) Viewed the massive casualties of WWI as undercutting pretensions to rationality and civilization. • 2.) Influenced by Freud’s studies of the unconscious and a new interest in the art of primitive people. • 3.) Loss of trust in rationality, balanced by a newfound trust in the artist’s ability to glean meaning from the irrational.

10. 4.) Confidence that the work of the art is a unique and powerful creation with its own individual aura or atmosphere. • 5.) Tendency to view the work of art as a perfected product rather than as an incomplete and ongoing process.

11. 6.) Some confidence in the truth of the Renaissance notion that a great work of art is immortal and ensures immortality for its author. • 7.) Belief that “high” culture and “low” culture are separated by a meaningful dividing line and that a work of fine art is inherently superior to a cartoon.

12. Postmodernism • 1.) Viewed WWI, with the Holocaust and the dropping of the A-Bomb, as undercutting assumptions of life’s meaning. • 2.) Influenced by studies of media and language and by the explosive growth of information technology. • 3.) Some loss of trust in the artist’s ability to access the irrational and return with a sense of renewal and greater meaning.

13. 4.)Less confidence that the work of art is unique, coupled with a sense that culture endlessly duplicated and copies itself. • 5.) Greater interest in the work of art as a process that reflects on its own making as it evolves.

14. 6.) Loss of confidence in the Renaissance notion that a great work of art is immortal and ensures immortality for its author. • 7.) Loss of belief in the meaningful dividing line between “high” culture and “low” culture, so that in Pop Art, the subject matter of fine art can be a cartoon.

15. A Quest for Stability • People wanted to return to a state of stability, to return to the “good ol’ days.” • Nixon promised to end war, but he was overshadowed by the Watergate Affair. • Watergate – burglarizing of the Democratic Party headquarters under the direction of Nixon government officials. Nixon resigned.

16. 1970s, not only the Civil Rights movement, but also the women’s liberation movement. • Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” was published in 1963.

17. Jimmy Carter served one term, but then came the glorious Ronald Reagan. 1980-1988 • George Bush – 1988-1992 • Bill Clinton – 1992-2000 • George Bush – 2000-2008

18. The Changing Scene • Television changed the leisure habits of Americans. • Automobiles made suburbs possible. • Then, even telecommute became possible. • Development of the Internet

19. Authors for a New Era